costs of sororities at university of alabama

[Zillini]

Margretlee, the first link you quoted from the UA Greek Life webpage was for all Greek Life, meaning both Fraternities and Sororities. So there can be some difference.

As for the second,

Originally Posted by margretlee

OK, here is the link showing the prices I quoted earlier:
http://greeklife.ua.edu/docs/Sorority%20Life%20at%20the%20Capstone%202009.ppt

...

I had not seen that PowerPoint before. It seems completely out of line with my personal information as a sorority Advisor here at Bama. I'm going to investigate.

[kddani]

It's great that you want to pay her dues and are in a position to do so. But it's not like she can shop around and "buy" a middle of the road (cost-wise) sorority. Recruitment doesn't work like that.

If you have a budget in mind, tell her what it is, and make anything above and beyond that her responsibility- she will be an adult. It is a bonus that you are helping her financially. She can easily get a job to help pay for extras such as t-shirts, photos, date parties, etc.

[MaggieXi]

I think that the train has already left the station. Recruitment has got to play out before she can accept a bid. Whether that bid is with the highest prices sorority or the lowest price sorority is not really within her control. Even if you have the information now on how much each sorority will cost per semester, will she be expected to rank the more expensive sororities lower even if they are a better fit for her and could eventually lead her to accept a bid to one that she does not like?

[Munchkin03]

I didn't see this mentioned in this thread, so I apologize if it was there and I just missed it. Many sororities DO NOT allow first-semester members (or anyone who hasn't initiated) to do a payment plan for one-time fees. This is nationally mandated. I'm sure there are some who do allow payment plans for new members, but please do not assume that is the case.

[LatinaAlumna]

Originally Posted by kddani

If you have a budget in mind, tell her what it is, and make anything above and beyond that her responsibility- she will be an adult. It is a bonus that you are helping her financially. She can easily get a job to help pay for extras such as t-shirts, photos, date parties, etc.

Best advice of the thread!

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by Munchkin03

I didn't see this mentioned in this thread, so I apologize if it was there and I just missed it. Many sororities DO NOT allow first-semester members (or anyone who hasn't initiated) to do a payment plan for one-time fees. This is nationally mandated. I'm sure there are some who do allow payment plans for new members, but please do not assume that is the case.

True.

My sorority couldn't put new members on payment plans either.

Really, the cost of being in a sorority varies depending on alot of stuff: whether you live in the house, whether the chapter assesses fines, whether the costs of social events are included, whether she would like to buy extras like party pics, etc.

You can't very well "shop" for the best priced sorority like it's a car or something. If Alabama chapters don't provide complete financial info, you really don't know how much you will actually be expected to pay until you receive and accept a bid.

[cbm]

Margaretlee - I have ties w/ Bama and I'm really looking forward to hearing which sorority your daughter chooses! Report back if you can. = )

[Munchkin03]

Originally Posted by KSUViolet06

You can't very well "shop" for the best priced sorority like it's a car or something. If Alabama chapters don't provide complete financial info, you really don't know how much you will actually be expected to pay until you receive and accept a bid.

My NPC Green Book knowledge is spotty at best, but don't chapters have to do a pretty complete financial disclosure at a certain round? The prices shouldn't be a surprise to anyone, especially once they've gotten to Bid Day!

[cbm]

Originally Posted by Munchkin03

My NPC Green Book knowledge is spotty at best, but don't chapters have to do a pretty complete financial disclosure at a certain round? The prices shouldn't be a surprise to anyone, especially once they've gotten to Bid Day!

They did not at my campus. Money was never discussed (this was ~10 years ago). The most information we had on the $ aspect was the information in the booklets sent to PNMs and info from the website, both of which just provided a range.

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by Munchkin03

My NPC Green Book knowledge is spotty at best, but don't chapters have to do a pretty complete financial disclosure at a certain round? The prices shouldn't be a surprise to anyone, especially once they've gotten to Bid Day!

Yes, but how it's done varies.

My school followed the rule to the letter and required us to hand out detailed pamphlets with ALL info (dues, housing costs, meal plans, whether we assessed and how much, pretty much everything). The PNMs got to keep them. So there was nothing you didn't know about the cost of every chapter after 2nd round.

At other schools, they may just provide a ballpark figure on a poster during one of the rounds.

I don't believe the rule specifies how the info must be provided, or how detailed it has to be.

I'd imagine that at some schools, tradition may just trump the rule and they may just not do it (because money is simply just not disussed). Or they just put a small amount of info in the recruitment booklet or on the Panhellenic website.

[VandalSquirrel]

Originally Posted by kddani

It's great that you want to pay her dues and are in a position to do so. But it's not like she can shop around and "buy" a middle of the road (cost-wise) sorority. Recruitment doesn't work like that.

If you have a budget in mind, tell her what it is, and make anything above and beyond that her responsibility- she will be an adult. It is a bonus that you are helping her financially. She can easily get a job to help pay for extras such as t-shirts, photos, date parties, etc.

Originally Posted by LatinaAlumna

Best advice of the thread!

I was VERY fortunate that my parents and grandparents covered everything that my scholarships and grants didn't, but I still had a job through most of college because it was nice to have money I didn't have to explain or justify to anyone, and it put me well ahead of my peers for obtaining employment and other positions later. Beyond the financial aspects it also helped with time management and letters of recommendation for graduate school and work.

I'm suggesting a part-part time job, for say 10 hours a a week so she can contribute if the economy is still blah, and be an example to younger siblings. I babysat as a teenager and worked at a summer camp before college, so you can start your younger ones now, and if the money isn't needed later, BONUS.

[OleMissGlitter]

Would it be awful to ask her to get a small part-time job on campus to help with costs? I know at Ole Miss many sorority girls have small part-time jobs to help pay for t-shirts and things like that. It's not unheard of and I don't think she would be shunned or looked down upon if she had a small job. Just an idea.

ETA:

Originally Posted by cbm

They did not at my campus. Money was never discussed (this was ~10 years ago). The most information we had on the $ aspect was the information in the booklets sent to PNMs and info from the website, both of which just provided a range.

Money was never discussed at Ole Miss either. To my knowledge it is only discussed at Orientation during the summer. The averages on the PHC Website are rather low I think too.

[Nanners52674]

I'm with the members on the train leaving the station and really in agreement on a lot of members just not knowing dues.

Sure I have the break down spread sheet somewhere in my binder but I don't know it, honestly this thread reminded me I have to pay my dues for the semester and I don't even know the total amount.

[Barbie's_Rush]

I can definitely feel for the financial strain you are feeling during these tough times, but I'm not sure what the point of knowing the costs would be at this point either. Would you be advising your daughter to rank her chapters based on their costs? What happens if only the higher cost chapters invite her back and she is in love with one or more of them? Would you require her to drop out of recruitment? What an undue emotion burden to put on a woman already stressed by one of the toughest recruitments in the country.

The time to have discussed how everything would be paid for was before signing up for recruitment. I don't think having your daughter get a small job to help pay for her sorority expenses would be unreasonable, but I think her knowing that might be a possibility beforehand would have helped her weigh whether or not belonging to a sorority would be worth the extra work.

By the way, there are also other expenses to consider that wouldn't be listed on any rate sheet, no matter how inclusive. Thinks like formal dresses, non-sponsored events and trips with her sisters (ie: road trips to games, spring break), gifts for sisters, fines, donations etc. etc. can also add up. So there's really much more to consider than just the costs that have been revealed/not revealed.

Even during the best of times being Greek, especially at a school like Bama, is a luxury. You may simply need to have a frank talk with your children about the current realities of life in your family and re-evaluate whether or not anyone should be taking on the extra expense of being Greek at this point.

[margretlee]

Wow, I must say that I am disappointed by some of the comments here. I joined the forum seeking insight and information, and feel that I am getting chastisement instead for "letting the train leave the station" without looking into this first. If the posters making these comments would look carefully at what I have posted, we DID look carefully at the costs prior to registering for recruitment. The issue is that the rush packet lists over $6K per semester as the high, whereas the websites we were looking at when she decided to go to Bama and go through rush there listed the highs per semester at more than half less than that amount.

Suggesting that we re-evaluate the expense of allowing her to go Greek is not even an option. As I said we DO have money to pay for it WITHOUT a payment plan. We are not trying to just "shop" for a deal. However, I personally think it is very irresponsible to teach a kid (or in this case a young adult) to enter into contractual obligations prior to even knowing what those obligations are - perhaps that is part of why our country is in such a mess today, due to the fact that too many people have the notion that it doesn't matter what something costs, as long as you want it badly enough. Would any of the posters here really enter into a contract on a house or a car without knowing if you have the funds to cover it?

I realize that some people have fixed incomes, are independently wealthy, etc., but think that they should respect hard working upper-middle class people that are trying to provide the best for their families without entering into massive amounts of debt in order to do so. I also am amazed that some here do not seem to fathom that we did indeed investigate the costs, but that the economic crisis facing our nation has had an effect on our income. I have long thought that everyone should have to work on straight commission for awhile, then they would appreciate the consistencies of a salaried position much more.

All that being put out into the open, I do really appreciate some of the people that have endeavored to offer insight, such as Zillini. It is not my fault, nor that of my daughter, that the information we originally had MAY HAVE BEEN erroneous. I don't know, maybe the costs went up since we first looked into this. I was just shocked that it appeared to be such a difference. For those that keep saying the highs and lows aren't that big of a difference, I still contend that more than double the cost is a big difference.

Thanks to those that offered support, encouragement, and help! To those that think she should not go Greek because we wanted to know the potential costs, well, I do not know what to say, except that I am glad you have plenty of money so that you do not ever have to ask questions such as these. I hope that your situation remains the same, and that you never have to be concerned about issues like this. I have hope and confidence that our economy will improve, and our situation will as well. (By the way, it's not like we are in dire straights or anything, gee . . .)