VTMom

[AlphaFrog]

I think they'd have to be EXTREMELY careful about the way they said it, and as we know, not everyone has that kind of tact in the heat of rush.

[amanda6035]

Yeah - it's just....one of those things. A camus as small as mine, it's hard enough to convince girls to come out to recruitment, the last thing you want to do is scare them away with finances....

Our president even suggested re-raising our dues - but there's no way we can feasibly do that and still give the appearance of being competitive. The PNMs on my campus look so closely at those kinds of details. I guess that's what happens when you're a school full of nerdy engineers

*tangent* Why is it that greek life gets such a bad rep for money? i mean, you have to pay dues to be in professional organizations and to play on the soccer team and crap like that - so why is money in greek life any different? The whole "I dont want to by my friends" syndrome....

Sorry VTMom, didnt mean to derail your topic.... Good luck to your daughter!

[AnchorAlumna]

The amount of fees depends on if there is a house involved, and how big that house is. At the University of Alabama, all new members eat all meals at their house, so my daughter's first semester bill 5 years ago came to around $2,200. That included pledging & initiation fees, parlor fee, an $80-a-semester fee for security guard that stayed at the house sunset to sunrise, meals and, of course, dues. It did not include the price of the badge or T shirts and photos for all the events. And it did not matter if you lived in an apartment across town, a dorm across campus or a room in the house - everybody pays for ALL meals.

[AOE2AlphaPhi]

At my school, my sorority has the most expensive new member dues, but they're all inclusive, while a lot of the other ones have smaller pricetags but have to buy recruitment wear and formal tickets in addition, and so wind up paying up about the same.

[KSUViolet06]

Dues are expensive, but that's just part of being in a sorority. My school had a financial day of recruitment where the sororities passed out pamphlets detailing the expenses of that particular chapter.

I was always suprised that we APPEARED more expensive on paper because other chapters conveniently "omitted" info from their pamphlets-like the fact that they charge varying fines for missing events. We also appeared more expensive because we are an "all inclusive" sorority, meaning that things like socials/favors/t-shirts are included in our dues. Those are the things that affect the "sticker price" of a sorority that PNMs don't always know about..

[VTMom]

Daughter will not be attending VaTech

[guardedbystars]

Originally Posted by VTMom

Thanks all. The information you directed me to on the Va. Tech website was very useful. I don't know how I had missed it. I am new to all of this (wasn't in a sorority in college) and do not know anything about panhellenic, sororities, etc. My daughter and a friends found this site and I started reading some of the recruitment stories. I'm not sure I want her to go through the heartache of potential rejection, but she seems determined.

Yeah, it's hard and it will definitely be a BUSY BUSY couple of weeks for her, but she'll never know unless she tries! There are also a lot of sororities that she can check out [you mentioned something about 21?]. And honestly, if it wasn't meant to be, it wasn't meant to be.

Best of luck and update us!!

Originally Posted by FSUZeta

amanda,

i think that you could tell pnms that your dues cover x,y and z. as long as you all don't say anything about what the other sorority's dues cover or that the others don't cover x, y or z, then you should be alright.

Yeah, we tell the PNMs up front about their financial obligations. We do not want to keep ANYONE in the dark especially if it might mean they would have to drop because of financial difficulties. It's not cheap to join a sorority.