Quote:
Originally Posted by clemsongirl
But the women who can't afford to join in the first place can't self-regulate, because they're not inside the system. Sure, if a chapter tried to charge each member $50k a year there would be a mutiny, but as long as there's a big population who can afford it the system doesn't take into account the population who can't.
Clemson dues were about $500 a semester, not including t-shirts and other optional swag, and I'm grateful my parents were willing to pay for it for me but other women were easily able to pay their dues through working part-time as RAs or off campus. When you talk about thousands of dollars that becomes a lot less attainable. I truly do not know what all that money goes towards for Alabama sororities because while chapters at Clemson are not as big, the economy of scale for hosting a formal event doesn't curve that sharply that quickly with a chapter twice the size.
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On the bright side, I guess these prices will keep the riffraff out.
Oh, wait. That would have been me because even adjusting for inflation, there is no way I could have worked to pay for my sorority membership at these kinds of prices (which is what I did).
These kinds of costs will definitely make sorority membership unattainable for many wonderful women who come from average income families.
It's a bit of an apples and oranges comparison, but it makes me wonder if Alabama ends up going the way of Indiana in terms of becoming less attractive. At the height of the frustration with IU recruitment a few years ago when so many PNMs were ending up without bids, parents (including IU alums) were encouraging their daughters to go somewhere other than IU so they had a realistic chance of getting a bid. There was a huge, now-deleted discussion about it on the NPC website.
At what point does Alabama become less attractive to girls from families of more modest means who still want a Greek experience? There are many other places where they can have an excellent Greek experience at a lower price.
