Sorority Fees

If your daughter went through recruitment, I have a question about fees. You obviously pay the registration fee to rush and then the new member fee for the sorority if you choose to except your bid. For the first semester freshman year while you are going through pledging, do you also pay the out of house member fees or does that start second semester once you are a full member? Trying to look at a budget if my daughter attends and decides to rush.

Yes, there are house fees, dues, and some other things. You can use the averages found on the uapanhellenic dot com website. Remember that part of the money pays for food (all meals Monday breakfast through Friday lunch). A few fees are just for the first pledging semester - pledging fee, initiation fee and usually a house corporation fee, possibly an amount for a simple plain badge. Each group does that a little differently. And then there are T shirts and “Zaps,” which are candid photos by a company called Zap that they can buy after events. She does NOT have to have a T shirt for every event! Those can mount up. Some houses do a sinking fund account and charge that stuff against it, others are pay as you go.

Thank you @Southlander. So if I am understanding correctly, You pay the $150 to rush, $950 to pledge and the out of house fees of $4500(most expensive sorority) for the first semester?

Hate to say it, but I’m not really sure. Maybe somebody here with a kid in school can say. You could also try the Facebook pages. The $150 is the registration fee, but that will go up on July 1. There also a charge for early move in. The $4500 seems a bit much, even including the meals. Once you pledge, your food is automatically dropped to the Greek 55. Last year you could opt out of that for a fee, but we found out last week that you can’t do that this year.

Thank you @Southlander! Just trying to Plan for my daughter.

@jeepgirl–This was a little frustrating last year, as the fees seemed to be a little bit of a black box. The rush fee is $150. Then each sorority has a new pledge fee and a semester fee. They vary–most expensive is about $4500 a semester (only 2 of these), the average is about $3000 per semester routinely. Food costs are included in that fee, for Mon-Thurs (Br/Lu/Dinner) and Fri (Br/Lunch). Our total was about $6400 last year, excluding extras like a sorority pin, t-shirts, sweatshirts, and the above referenced photos. Our daughter was required to pay for all extras–so it was her money spent on t-shirts or other extras.

@swim4school Thank you! I can deal with $6500, it is the ones that are over $10K with the first time fees that are killing.