VTMom

[PenguinTrax]

As others have stated, some of those dues may be all-inclusive others may not, and that is disclosed during recruitment. Also, a lot depends on how many the house can sleep vs. how many actually live in the house. Some houses at FSU sleep 20, others 60 or more. It makes a BIG difference in the expenses. Less in the house means each person has to pay more.

[Buttonz]

Originally Posted by amanda6035

I cant believe there is that much of a difference in the finances! Isn't it a better idea to have closely competitive prices? At my campus you cant say "Well, you pay more money but you get more stuff" bc it just doesnt work....Wouldnt it be sad for a girl to join one sorority over another JUST BECAUSE of the price? (and lets be honest, it happens...)

I had a NM tell me once that price was the #1 reason why she didn't go SDT. Her GLO charges for shirts, etc while we never did, and we always tried to explain that to the PNM.

[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.

[mppVT08]

I go to VT so feel free to PM me any questions you may have. In the fall, panhellenic has Go Greek interests events that PNM's can go to to leave about going greek and sometimes a single sorority hosts it and sometimes its 2 or 3. Outside of those, the greek women aren't allowed to talk to pnm's about their particular sorority (from my understanding and what was told to us by our vp-r) but just going greek. Also, with these events, they get a "passport" and if they attend an event hosted by all 13 phc sororities, they get a discount on the registration fee for recruitment so thats a nice incentive.

Originally Posted by AChiOhSnap

During recruitment, your daughter should be asking the sororities (if this information is not automatically presented by the Treasurer/VP Finance) about the dues. This is not a rude question and the sororities are prepared to answer it. There is no "general" amount of money per semester, but suffice it to say, it seems like your daughter should be prepared to pay several hundred dollars ($500-900) the first semester and a few hundred dollars every semester thereafter. Your daughter can also ask whether or not the fees are all inclusive, or if there are extra costs she should be aware of.

Unless there is some specific clause on the VATech campus that precludes freshmen from going, sororities will often have open houses or something of that ilk in the fall. Sororities host tons of philanthropic events, this would be a good way for your daughter to support a good cause and meet the soroity women before recruitment. Panhellenic will also sometimes sponsor philanthropic/social events with all the sororities, these are another good option. And of course, your daughter can try to meet sorority women in her classes, athletic teams, campus events, etc. This is the best "research" your daughter can do to familiarize herself with women in the various chapters.

Your daughter can research the sororities by going to the various national websites. On the national websites she'll get information like the sororities' various mission statements, philanthropies, etc. All of this information could be potentially useful.

You're doing everything right already. Your daughter will be getting more of this information in time, some of this stuff she won't know until she's actually on campus. You probably don't need to figure all of this stuff out in advance. The best thing you can do is to just be there for your daughter... you can best help her by listening and counseling her through what can be a crazy, sad, exciting, stressful process. Have fun!

[vtsigk]

Hi! I am in Sigma Kappa at Virginia Tech and am also the Contiuning Membership Chairman (informal recruitment chair) I would love to answer any of your questions- e-mail me at aspark05@vt.edu and I'd be happy to get back with you! Best of luck with your daughter! (She'll LOVE Tech)

[Drolefille]

Originally Posted by vtsigk

Hi! I am in Sigma Kappa at Virginia Tech and am also the Contiuning Membership Chairman (informal recruitment chair) I would love to answer any of your questions- e-mail me at aspark05@vt.edu and I'd be happy to get back with you! Best of luck with your daughter! (She'll LOVE Tech)

Hey, welcome! Come introduce yourself in the Sigma Kappa forum

LISK!

[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.

[LOVEinZTA]

Originally Posted by alum

There may be a Grey's Anatomy viewing at the Kappa House one night and then an OC night at the Alpha Phi House. I think this promotes a more natural environment and conversations are less stilted.

IF ONLY THEY HADN'T CANCELLED OC!!!! But really, that's neither here nor there, haha.

Originally Posted by PenguinTrax

that's nothing..check out the finances for the chapters at FSU:

http://greeklife.fsu.edu/PH/finances.html

I was going to say, my active out of house dues are around 1300/semester with new members being closer to 2000. Another thing that I've found is that if there's a couple of chapters whose dues appear to be much lower then the rest on a website, they may not have updated their information for a few years and as such, while all the groups have raised their dues, it may not show for a couple.

On another note, I was looking through the chapter sites at VATech - the houses alone look like they are their own campus!

[AGDHokie83]

VTMom - I am a VT alum and just kind of skimmed all the responses on here, but I just wanted to volunteer myself if you have any questions - I went throught recruitment twice before finding where I belonged (and I am a founding sister of my chapter because of it) My email address is jlaird@vt.edu. Best of luck to your daughter, she'll love it, I miss it already!!!

[NikkiB]

Originally Posted by PenguinTrax

that's nothing..check out the finances for the chapters at FSU:

http://greeklife.fsu.edu/PH/finances.html

hahahaha I was reading these posts and thinking "I WANNA GO THERE!" thanks for being with me on that one.

[PenguinTrax]

Hey Nikki - welcome to GC!

[susan314]

Originally Posted by Drolefille

We had fines for missing required events, and they weren't a way to supplement our dues. They were a deterrent for girls who thought "you know, it'd be more fun to go to this party tonight and stay out late and just be 'sick' for initiation tomorrow" or who thought that required meant "only required if I my boyfriend's not in town."

We certainly didn't fine girls JUST so that we could make some money. And extra community service hours were almost if not always an alternative to paying, as long as it was arranged appropriately.

And this is not to say the members receiving fines were "bad members" they were just college students. Sometimes it takes an incentive to get your priorities back in order. (There were of course acceptable excuses and a such, it wasn't just "You missed chapter OMG FINE!")


ETA: FINES are different from all inclusive dues. Our dues were all inclusive. We also fined. That's two different issues.

What she said - fines and dues are 2 completely different things. A member is not going to be assessed a fine if she's meeting all of her obligations as a member. I know that its AGD policy to allow a certain number of excuse notes, submitted in advance, per mandatory event. (I'd imagine that most other NPC groups have similar allowances.)

So, if a member truly has a legitimate conflict with a mandatory event (i.e. - "My grandparents 50th wedding anniversary party conflicts with the date of initiation, and if I don't come home for that party my parents would be livid and stop helping me pay my dues."), there are ways to appropriately notify the chapter and not be fined. Also, for weeknight events, if a member has a night class of course she'd never be fined for attending class! You get the idea. And, of course, if a legitimate emergency arose, an exception to the fine would generally be made also.

Fines are absolutely not a "way to make money" and are completely separate from dues. (Whether or not a chapter has "ala carte" dues or "all-inclusive" dues.) I would venture a guess that most chapters would prefer to never have to assess a fine and instead would rather have all members complying with whatever the attendance policy is!

I agree with FSUZeta that asking about fines during recruitment might not be the most appropriate thing to do - it might make you sound less committed, and that you're already trying to figure out how to "get out of doing stuff."