[GeminiSix]

I was watching Legally Blonde last night and I started googling to find out about sororities and fraternities in Universities in the US.

Wikipedia had a very detailed page, but I am still curious as to how they are funded? It looks to me like a group lives together in a large house and are fed there. Do they have to pay a fee to be part of a sorority? If not, who pays the costs of running the house/electricity/maintenance/food/cleaning etc?

Seems like a good deal to me if there are no costs involved!

Can any of our US members shed any light on this?

[*-*]

Apparently they have a monthly house bill? So not free from what I can work out.

[Lucretia Borgia]

I had always assumed they were incredibly expensive and funded privately...ie the student (or more likely the student's parents) pay, and they are really only in the domain of the very wealthy...

Interested to hear from someone in "in the know" though!

[WinterIsComing]

Sounds a bit like all the St Brat's colleges we have within our universities - also the domain of the wealthy and well connected.

[mumtoactivetoddl...]

Winteriscoming I think that is probably true about some of the colleges but at least at UNSW in the college I was in there were plenty of people who were not well connected and were not wealthy. Actually I can only think of one person who was well connected and they were from overseas. I can't speak for Sydney uni though.

[Blossom73]

I was in a women's fraternity (aka sorority) in uni in Canada. We had to pay membership dues to the fraternity, and if you lived in the house you paid room and board as well.

Not everyone who joins a fraternity or sorority is wealthy or well-connected, trust me.

[Mamabug]

What is the difference between a college and a residential dormitory? I lived on campus at uni and it was just what you did so you had somewhere to live, not because we were wealthy or connected - it was based on grades more than anything.

Or does being in a city v rural campus make a difference?

I always thought a fraternity was just a souped up version of a campus residence.

[la di dah]

They're private clubs, but I know plenty of people in them who aren't wealthy or well connected. Admittedly most of the people are know are in historically black or Jewish frats/sororities but while they're a bit "join the one your [parent/auntie/cousin] did," they're definitely not the domain of the wealthy. Rather working class backgrounds in some cases actually.

Yeah, they're for people who can go to college, but I know a lot of nurses/schoolteachers in them.

EDIT: you can live on campus but not be in one, and you can be in one and not live on campus.

This post has been edited by la di dah: 01/02/2013, 01:21 PM

[Lucretia Borgia]

Thanks LDD and other posters! I was completely off on my assumption then! I guess i was basing it on movies like Legally Blonde, where they did all appear to be from quite wealthy backgrounds.....but I guess there was Animal House ....they certainly didn't have silver spoons in their mouths!

[la di dah]

I think it varies a lot, like uni kids in general. I don't mean that to sound snotty. There ARE some wealthy ones (or wealthy chapters of more middling ones) but it's not like frat = wealthy automatically.

Legally Blond was a bit, uh, not literal. I did like the chihuahua though.