colonization at an SEC school

[mourinho]

I am transferring to an SEC school in the fall as a junior (barely.) I had basically given up hope of becoming greek because of my classification, but when I went on a campus tour a few months ago, I found out that a new sorority would be colonizing in the fall. I talked to some greek friends at the school I'm transferring from, and they encouraged me to sign up for the new colony's recruitment.

After looking into the sorority a bit, I found out that their philanthropy is a cause that I feel very strongly about because it has affected many people dear to me. After learning this, I was even more excited about the prospect of recruitment.

However, I am now undecided about recruitment because the one time I brought it up to my mom, she flat out told me that I would have to fund the membership fees and everything myself. That is totally understandable, being that my mom pays my rent, tuition and other bills. I have money saved up that was to be used for post-college expenses when I'm on the hunt for a job, but I'm worried* about tapping into that.

I'm not sure how much the fees and everything would be, since it's a colony. I'm not even sure if they have a house. I'm guessing they do have one, though, because there are a couple of vacant houses on fraternity row (I wouldn't be living in the house either way because I just signed a 12 month lease.) They supposedly had a meeting during the spring semester to discuss all of that, but of course I wasn't on campus. I have enough money saved right now to afford living unemployed for a year after college (worst case scenario.) I'm estimating I have 3 years left of college because I'm changing my major, so depending on how much the fees are, that could be a sizable chunk of my savings gone...not to mention mixers, football games etc.

Am I freaking out over nothing? Is the greek experience worth tapping into my savings? I will not be working in the fall so that I can get acclimated to a new campus and city, but I plan on getting a part time job at the start of the year.

And what are the chances of an upperclassman transfer student being recruited? I was involved at the school I'm transferring from and I have an excellent GPA.