The financial obligations vary widely by school. At my D’s LAC the annual costs of dues/house expenses/socials are on average about $1500. The meal plan and room charges are in line with the school’s so that is not really a consideration. Additionally, if a student’s university meal plan is covered by financial aid that can be used for the sorority meal plan. Living in the sorority house is optional so it is not a financial problem that FA cannot be applied to sorority housing.
Of course, there are other expenses like Little Sis gifts, but compared to what I’m reading here it is not bad at all! Which may be one reason the majority of students participate in Greek life.
The cost does vary from campus to campus. If you Google sorority houses at some of the big southern universities (Alabama, Tennessee, Texas, Auburn etc.) you’ll see the giant mega mansions that the sororities have (also fraternities). Some have even appeared in Southern Living Magazine and Architectural Digest. Maintaining those homes costs crazy money.
My daughter’s house at UNC-CH was modest in comparison but still nicely appointed. I want to say hers was maybe $1400/semester but that included lunch & dinner M-F (they had a chef). She lived in the house her junior year and that was by far our cheapest room board of the 4 years at UNC (and parking was free which, if you have a kid at UNC, is like a Golden Ticket!) If tuition, r&b is already $50k++ then price may be more of a consideration than if you’re paying a reasonable in-state rate. It’s not like they hide the costs either, so eyes wide open for those who opt to go through recruitment. I agree though that $4k+/semester would be a hard pill to swallow. No shortage of girls going through recruitment at Alabama though!
Not sure I fully agree. My niece, a somewhat awkward, but goodhearted northerner rushed at Florida State last academic year. She has no pedigree, no fancy zip code, no fancy clothes, no coach. I knew it would not end well. She put her heart and soul into it and did not get a bid. To say she was disappointed would be a gross understatement. Painful to watch. For perspective, I was in a fraternity at a large SUNY and loved it. To my knowledge, anyone that pledged got in. Nothing elitist about it, just good guys who liked to hang out. There seems to be a big difference between northern Greek systems and southern. The exclusionary nature of some setups is probably not the best idea for many, and maybe not for society as a whole, in my mind.
Last year was a little different because of covid. I know many schools did rush online or in a limited way.
At most schools with the NPC (26 sororities), they use a system where if the PNM accepts the maximum number of invitations throughout formal rush, they are very likely to get a bid (something like 95% who follow the plan do get bids). I don’t know how they did it last year. I know that my chapter usually has about 130 girls in a pledge class, and last year had 99 (which we thought was fantastic because it was all done online).
If schools like Alabama have 40% of students from OOS, they have to be taking some ‘Northern’ girls since 90% of those who went to the first party actually pledged this year (2501 started, 2307 pledged)
That is my understanding as well, if we are looking at Greek life at a national level. It is also important to note that while the “big Southern football schools” tend to make the news with what most consider outrageous practices (some good, some bad), the majority of Southern schools with Greek life are not like that at all. I was in a sorority at a “big Southern football school” and I’ve volunteered as an alum at two small state schools so I’ve seen the difference first hand. It is not a perfect system and is more exclusionary at some schools than others, but much of that is supply/demand with membership limits set by the university, nationals or logistics due to house size. If significant numbers of girls are left out of Greek life, hopefully the universities and nationals will work with the local chapters to increase quotas. Admittedly I don’t know a lot about those details as the schools I worked with as an adult did not have those issues.
The outrageous schools portrayed in movies and making the news have become the stereotype, but I’ve seen no evidence that it is the norm for most Greek life. As parents, we try to support our kids in finding the right fit in a college; we also need to help them with that when making a decision about Greek life. I mentioned earlier, if my D had ended up attending our state flagship she most likely would not have rushed. Even knowing her mom had a very positive experience and made lifelong friends, it wouldn’t be the right fit for her. At her LAC, she thinks it will be…but I’ll have to update y’all after winter rush to answer that with certainty. I hope I have prepared her to ignore tiers and reputations and just find girls she is comfortable with. And if it doesn’t work out as she hopes, we’ll deal with that disappointment and move on (easy to say now, I know).
I have some questions about Greek life at some non-Ivy schools, and hopefully it’s appropriate to add them here. If not, let me know and I will start a new thread.
At southern schools (but not big SEC/football schools) that have a large percentage of Greeks, does Greek life still feel like “southern” Greek life or more like the Greek life found in other parts of the country?
At southern schools where large percentages of people go Greek, is there usually a mix of some of the stereotypical frats along with some of the more laidback or academic ones? Or is this really dependent on each campus?
Can anyone explain to me the background of why some campuses have a significantly lower percentage of men joining fraternities compared to the percentage of women joining sororities (like 20 or 30% difference)?
And if a small college/university does have roughly half its population go Greek, how does the non-Greeks feel? Are they likely to feel left out and feel like transferring? Or how does that work out?
As examples, below are some institutions with their percentages in fraternities/sororities: