<p>Very cool! Congrats to both!!</p>
<p>Last night I attended my sorority alumnae association meeting. One of the members said her husband and son are now brothers to eachother. :)</p>
<p>
I’m late to this thread, but wanted to comment on this aspect. We spend about $4500 a year for our son’s meal plan. So it sounds like the net cost of this fraternity is somewhere between $1500 and $2000. That still sounds a little high for fraternity dues to me, but maybe things are different in Texas.</p>
<p>In any case, I agree with the posters who describe the many benefits of GLOs.</p>
<p>at our son’s frat, room and board and fees for the house are less expensive than what the university offers. Parking is cheaper too.</p>
<p>sjmom, yes the $6000 is expensive, but the money is not only used to throw gala like parties!!! ;)</p>
<p>I was at my son’s fraternity’s parent’s weekend last weekend, and I talked at length to the house manager (who lives there and is a paid employee, but also like a surrogate dad to the members) and he described the expenses just to keep up the house. I wish I could post a picture, but it is HUGE, and on a HUGE plot of land. It was originally built decades ago (I think in the 30’s), so has a ton of maintenance type costs. They just recently had a 3 million dollar renovation and have established a trust to mainitain the property. He also told me that their property taxes have increased over 300% since the city of Austin rezoned the property west of campus. Many of the greek organizations are involved in legal action to try to redesignate the greek house properties because they are currently zoned as if a multi story condominium project are going to be built on them, and that cannot happen, the property is owned by national, tax exempt, organizations! </p>
<p>The area that the fraternity and sorority houses are in has gotten astronomically expensive, as has anywhere close to the campus. For example, my freshman son lives in a private dorm that is costing us $10,000 this school year (this does include a meager meal plan). He will be living in a 6 bedroom duplex with a bunch of guys next year and we are paying $800 for his room a month, not including food or utilities, so that dump is worth $4,800.00 per month to the owner. Dang, I wish I’d bought one of those hovels back in the 80’s when they were CHEAP! </p>
<p>But, the tuition at UT costs around $8,500 a year, so even with adding the expense of housing, food, and fraternity, I’m still getting off pretty light with paying around $25,000. </p>
<p>The other school he was interested in attending (Notre Dame) would have run me around $45,000. 
Whew, I got out of that one!</p>
<p>ag54, I was saying that once you deduct the food plan, the net cost at that one fraternity is around $1500. Didn’t that $6000 include the meal plan for the year? </p>
<p>Motherdear and I were in the same sorority, and I support the many benefits of Greek life.</p>
<p>Yes, the meal plan is included per se, but he doesn’t live in the house and only eats there at lunch when he can and on required nights. He usually eats at the dorm or goes out to a fast food joint (I should own stock in the hot wings place next to his dorm :)) </p>
<p>He won’t live in the house until his senior year (if he can get in, it’s mostly officers), so really won’t take full advantage of the meals. It is unfortunately not truly convenient to eat all the meals at the house when you live somewhere else. </p>
<p>I guess I could tell him next year that it’s eat there or starve! haha!</p>
<p>Greeklife is awesome! He is having a great time and it has enhanced his college experience, so it is worth every penny! </p>
<p>Meeting the guys and parents last weekend was a treat. They seemed really nice and we feel really good about his choice of fraternity. His roommates for next year are great and he feels a true sense of brotherhood with the chapter.</p>