Imagine finding a bill for $200 in your mailbox because your daughter was late to a couple of sorority events. Imagine, too, that those who snitched were her new best friends. This is one of the unwelcome surprises of sorority membership. 
 
 Depending on the generosity of the vice president of standards, a fine can be reversed with proof of a qualifying reason, such as a funeral, doctor’s appointment or medical emergency, so long as a doctor’s note is forthcoming. A paper due or a test the next day? No excuse. (Fraternities, by the way, rarely impose even nominal fines to enforce punctuality.) 
 
 Now imagine attending mandatory weekend retreats, throwing yourself into charitable work, making gifts for your sisters and, at tradition-thick schools like the University of Alabama and University of Missouri, investing 30 to 40 hours pomping — threading tissue paper through chicken wire to create elaborate homecoming decorations or parade floats that outdo rivals’. 
 
 During fall or winter rush, sororities court starry-eyed freshmen. They showcase their joyful conviviality with skits and serenades. They stress the benefits of joining, and brag about attracting the prettiest, smartest or most athletic. At many traditional sororities, however, not much energy is spent explaining what is expected, leaving many pledges unaware of the considerable time commitment and costs. 
 
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 Do the math: Official charges include Panhellenic dues, chapter fees, administrative fees, nonresident house/parlor fees, a onetime pledging and initiation fee and contribution toward a house bond. Members must also buy a pin (consider the diamond-encrusted one) and a letter jersey. Without housing, basic costs for the first semester (the most expensive) average $1,570 at University of Georgia sororities, $1,130 at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and $1,580 at Syracuse University. 
 
 But such fees are only a portion of the real cost. Add in fines, philanthropy and the incidentals that are essential to participate in sorority life and the total spirals upward, especially when a closetful of designer party dresses is part of the mix. 
 
 “You think it is just a school club,” said Jessica Rodgers, a Georgia State junior and Alpha Xi Delta pledge in 2012. “I wasn’t expecting such a burden every month.” The first year, she said, she paid about $1,100 in basic fees and $100 to $200 a month over that on sorority-related incidentals. “For someone who pays for all their own expenses, it’s alarming,” she said. “I was 17 and not thinking about billing and the huge time commitment of joining. It was like signing up for a loan — they said the debt could go to a collections agency if you failed to pay.” 
 
 Georgia State, American University and Syracuse are among campuses that publish a range of fees covering all their chapters, but information on specific sororities can often be hard to come by before the midst of rush. 
 
 Syracuse’s Alpha Phi chapter distributes a sheet with financials on the second day of recruitment and then promptly collects it, according to Cameron Boardman, Alpha Phi’s 2014 president. She wishes she could email financial information earlier so students could “have an open and frank conversation with their parents about it,” but she says she does not have approval from the campus Panhellenic Council to do so. 
 
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 At the same time, she voices concern that members might be scared off by the cost (which she doesn’t want made public) without understanding the benefits and realizing that other Syracuse sororities that seem cheaper impose hefty fines. 
 
 Expenses can mushroom with incidentals. 
 
 For example, sisters spend a significant amount of time and money on one another. It’s a loving relationship, to be sure. Once Bigs choose one or more new members to mentor (Littles), they take them out regularly. They secretly decorate their Littles’ rooms, and bake and craft gifts to shower on them. Essential tools are a glue gun and Puffy Paint to adorn anything imaginable — boxes for sorority pins, tumblers, door hangers, T-shirts — with the sorority’s letters or mascot. Mod Podge mavens make decoupages with Lilly Pulitzer and Vera Bradley patterns, trimmed with official colors like straw, salmon pink, vieux green and Carolina blue. 
 
 With the pressure on, students troll Facebook and Pinterest for the hottest trends in sorority artwork. 
 
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 Ms. Rodgers received a personalized picture frame, painted wooden Greek letters and a giant initial for her wall from her Big, who she estimates spent $200 to $300 on her. Her second year, the sorority standardized gifts to put an end to competitive spending. 
 
 Hannah Hembree, a recent University of Oklahoma graduate and an Alpha Chi Omega, says her spending exceeded $1,000 for gift baskets, coordinated pajamas and treating Littles to meals, movies, bowling, ice cream and coffee. 
 
 After a 2009 assessment at the College of William & Mary found that sisters were spending $500 per Little and deemed it excessive, the campus Panhellenic Council capped such expenditures at $250, though it relinquished enforcement to the individual sororities. 
 
 Syracuse’s Alpha Phi suggests a $100 cap on spending on Littles. “It is the culture of the school to really spoil them,” Ms. Boardman said. “You can’t stop girls who want to spend $500.” Alpha Phi has two basket days, when Littles discover treats from secret Bigs, and a reveal day, when they find out the identity of their Big. 
 
 To help with all this crafting, a cottage industry has sprung up, offering a dizzying array of custom items. Designergreek.com sells canvas totes with appliquéd sorority letters for $23.95; Etsy.com showcases a bejeweled paddle for $65. Avoid trips to Michael’s with Diygreek.com’s “supply sacks” for $24.99 containing paint, glue, scrapbook paper, wire, charms, ribbons, ceramic beads and stencils with a sorority’s symbols and colors. 
 
 Recruitment is particularly onerous. Some hopefuls attend an event a day during Rush Week or dedicate two full weekends to activities. Following rush, Gamma Phi Beta pledges must participate in an eight-week program with meetings at least three times a week, according to Krista Spanninger Davis, international president of the sorority, which has more than 130 chapters. Among the activities are lectures about sorority history and tradition. Yes, there’s a test at the end (open book). 
 
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 Nicole Davies, a former peer adviser at American University’s career center who rushed Alpha Chi Omega, observes that many students’ grades suffers as they pledge, with almost a full week of all-nighters. She had to work two jobs to pay her expenses — she had been “clueless” about the hundreds of dollars in extras — and found it too stressful. She dropped out of her sorority. 
 
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 Ms. Rodgers, too, left hers. As she was struggling to get everything done on her overcommitted schedule, she would miss class or pull an all-nighter, and she started to resent being made to feel guilty when she would try to get out of an event. When she left she had to return all letter items, including shirts, bags and a $130 pin, without reimbursement. 
 
 For her 2004 exposé, “Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities,” Alexandra Robbins interviewed hundreds of sorority members. “It is a massive time commitment, but they also want the girls to pare down their non-Greek activities,” she said recently. She estimates that the demands “take more time than an extra class.” 
 
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 Even though the word “optional” is attached to social mixers and dances, many sisters fear being treated with disapproval or left out of emerging social circles if they aren’t present. Leah Jordan, a senior at Georgia State, says she does not know anyone at Alpha Omicron Pi, her former sorority, who skips those events. “That’s why you join.” 
 
 Ms. Jordan says she reached her breaking point at the beginning of sophomore year. She says it’s not usual for people to drop out and she got some grief for leaving, but she had no choice. She had skipped classes and watched her grades slip while prepping for sorority events and attending meetings, socials and fund-raisers like “Strike Out Arthritis,” at a bowling alley, for juvenile arthritis. 
 
 With an assist from mandatory weekly study hall, members must maintain a minimum grade-point average or are placed on academic probation by the chapter. 
 
 Laura Wright, an associate professor at Western Carolina University and a Chi Omega at Appalachian State, remembers once trying to hide at the back of a meeting to study and being called out for not behaving “in a sisterly way.” She said: “I felt there was a strange line and I was not sure how to stay on the right side of it.” 
 
 Miss enough of those weekly meetings or seminal events and risk not only possible fines but exclusion from formal, the semester highlight. Meetings, which run one to two hours, often take place on Sunday nights, leaving members scrambling right before assignments come due, especially if they follow an overnight weekend retreat. 
 
 What to do? 
 
 Sorority veterans recommend students do research before joining, to get different perspectives. Ms. Davis of Gamma Phi Beta encourages pledge candidates to visit sororities’ social media pages and websites, and to ask the meatier questions. “You need to collect all the info you can to make the best decision that works for you,” she says. She acknowledges, however, that freshmen clamoring for a bid can lack the confidence to ask about attendance policies and finances. 
 
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 Gamma Phi Beta chapters are supposed to help with time management skills, she said. She proposes sorority members skip a required Sunday night chapter meeting if work necessitates and expresses the hope that members understand that “academic and family values should come first.” 
 
 Sororities are governed according to their own guidelines, and colleges do not intervene to limit their demands on students. But Ms. Robbins believes it is the colleges’ role to take action. She says they could do a much better job reporting what sorority life is like by requiring that each chapter supply recruits with a realistic list of time commitments and average yearly costs. 
 
 Universities are hesitant to crack down, Ms. Robbins suggests, because Greek alumni have strong bonds to the university and make sizable contributions. 
 
 Sororities can provide young women with a lively social life, engagement in community and the satisfaction of supporting worthy causes, but they’re clearly not for everyone. “If you’re going to join a sorority,” Ms. Rodgers said, “you must dedicate your life to it.” ||||| Bills and barriers: Greek life, beyond the sticker price 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Last year, having a social life was more stress-inducing than carefree for Brittany. 
 
 For Brittany — a full financial aid student and College junior— paying sorority dues was more than a matter of asking her parents for money or digging into her own paycheck to make up the difference. While many of her peers didn’t think twice about going to BYOs and buying Fling tanks, Brittany had to keep careful tabs on all of her expenses. 
 
 “It definitely wasn’t something I could do on the side,” she said of Greek life. Brittany deactivated from the sorority in the middle of last semester after realizing that her lifestyle on an installed payment plan was not sustainable. “Greek life started to feel like a burden,” she said, “but a burden you pay for.” 
 
 But Greek leaders say that just like tuition isn’t $60,000 for everyone, the sticker price on sorority and fraternity membership isn’t necessarily the price that everyone pays. Forms of aid are available in Greek chapters across campus, ranging from partially or fully waiving national dues, to delaying payments until after a first paycheck. 
 
 Still, for students like Brittany, these options may not be enough. 
 
 In 2013, the Panhellenic Council gave scholarships to 12 sorority members, who received an average of $295 — about a quarter of the roughly $1,100 in dues that sororities charged initiated members that year on average. Penn charges an additional yearly $86 program fee, which provides funds for Greek governing organizations, supports staff salaries at the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life and pays for supplies for mailings. Members who do not live in a chapter house must pay another fee for the house’s upkeep. 
 
 The Interfraternity Council does not have a scholarship fund, and information on the costs of fraternity dues is not centralized. 
 
 And the informal costs of Greek life can quickly add up — from purchasing apparel, spending on BYOs and date nights to splurging on Big-Little Week. 
 
 Brittany did not apply for the Panhel scholarship or explore any potential forms of financial assistance within her own sorority chapter while in Greek life. She felt that the financial strain was not an issue that could be resolved semester by semester. She realized that a Greek experience at Penn just wasn’t financially possible. 
 
 Pressure to spend: 
 
 Dues cover all of the official costs of Greek life, but other expenses can build up, along with the pressure to spend. 
 
 Vice President of Finance at Alpha Chi Omega Sam Hernan, an Engineering senior, estimated the cost of attending a date night in her sorority — for which the tickets themselves are covered by dues — could be close to $100, including a new dress, a BYO beforehand and cab fare. 
 
 Hernan hypothesized that asking for help to pay for the optional costs of Greek life might be more difficult than asking for help with dues. As a result, Greeks with less money to spare may end up going to fewer social events and being left out of those aspects of Greek life. 
 
 Since she didn’t have money to spare, Brittany found herself trying to squeeze the fun out of every dime. 
 
 “People at Penn put a lot of pressure on having a big social scene,” Brittany said. “The more money you spend, the more fun you’re going to have.” 
 
 “You can’t do it casually if the money is a big deal for you,” she said of being in a sorority. 
 
 Brittany, like others interviewed for this article, asked that her real name not be used, to protect her privacy and to avoid negative feelings from former sorority sisters. 
 
 Kris, a College junior and former member of the Alpha Delta Pi sorority, agreed that no matter how flexible Greek life finances can be, members who do not have financial leeway might not feel fully at ease in the Greek environment. 
 
 “The whole Greek system is structured around the assumption that members have a lot of money,” Kris said. 
 
 “There are definitely ways that everybody can be a part of the system,” she said. “But whether that person will be comfortable being in that culture is not certain. But you could say that about Penn, too.” 
 
 Hernan, the AXO vice president of finance, guessed that most girls in her sorority do not feel the strain of dues and other expenses — although she believes AXO represents students of diverse financial backgrounds. 
 
 The costs of BYOs and apparel printed with organization logos are not unique to Greek life. The full cost of attending Penn doesn’t show up on a bursar bill. However, it is unclear whether students involved in Greek life tend to have greater means of supporting a robust social life than the typical Penn student. 
 
 Last school year, 31 percent of all undergraduate men and 28 percent of all undergraduate women joined fraternities or sororities, and 47 percent of undergraduate students received need-based financial aid. The Provost’s Office declined to provide information on the financial background of students in Greek life compared to non-Greeks, and no standard University reports include those statistics. Scott Reikofski, the director of the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life, said the office doesn’t collect financial data on individual members. 
 
 There is also no University-wide financial assistance program for Greek life. 
 
 “Participation in Greek life is optional, and as such, there is no specific pool or money for financial assistance with dues,” Reikofski said in an email. He noted that scholarships and payment plans are available through individual chapters and Panhel. 
 
 Some students in Greek life say it is possible to save money by being in a fraternity. When College senior Jimmy Germi, the president of the Interfraternity Council, lived off-campus last year, he paid about $4,000 more after utilities than he does living in his fraternity house this year. In addition, the meal plan his fraternity offers costs about half that of the University’s, and provides five lunches and four dinners per week. 
 
 Still, there are additional costs outside of dues and housing to consider. Hernan said that this year, some girls in her sorority spent over $1,000 in gifts for Big-Little Week, averaging roughly $500-$600, by her estimate. 
 
 Other current and former Greeks interviewed estimated more modest figures of $50-$200 as an average spending point for Big-Little Week. 
 
 But there are ways to minimize the cost of these purchases. Brittany bought extra merchandise throughout the semester to give to her future little. Others bought inexpensive gifts like candy and organized showy stunts like getting fraternity brothers to sing for their littles. Many girls get hand-me-down apparel and gifts from their lineage to give to its newest member. 
 
 Social media can generate competition during Big-Little Week that might translate into monetary expenses. “There’s pressure to keep up or out-do [other Bigs],” Hernan said. 
 
 College junior Seema Patel countered that pressure does not always necessitate action. 
 
 “Absolutely, social pressures probably do exist, but I don’t think that always translates into a girl’s spending behavior,” said Patel, director of finance of her sorority — which she asked not to be named. “More likely, other girls have the same issues and concerns as you do.” 
 
 A perceived barrier: 
 
 Many in the Greek community maintain that cost is only a perceived barrier to entering Greek life. 
 
 “Once you get involved in the Greek community, you see that there’s a lot of flexibility,” Germi said. 
 
 In AXO, for example, Hernan explained that “special status” membership is available to sisters who need financial assistance. This means that the chapter’s executive board can waive part or all of a member’s dues after assessing her financial need — no formal documentation is required. 
 
 Patel noted a similar form of assistance available through her sorority. If a member were planning to deactivate for financial reasons, the sorority could offer associate status in the chapter, meaning that the member would pay the same amount as an abroad member — about 20 percent of the usual amount — and pay for individual events she attends. 
 
 Although Hernan said her chapter is only supposed to grant a certain number of special status cases each semester, according to the national organization’s bylaws, AXO has been able to fulfill every request it has received since Hernan joined the board last semester. 
 
 “We can take the hit finance-wise,” Hernan said. The first area to take a cut would be social expenses, which has the largest budget. “If you’re thinking of $1,000 less we spend, that’s not that big of a deal.” 
 
 But for an emerging sorority on campus, Alpha Delta Pi, which colonized at Penn last spring, small fines and fees might be more important. 
 
 The sorority charges $10 for missing chapter meetings and anywhere from $10 to $100 for missing events without a valid excuse. This came as a surprise to Kris after she missed an event this semester. While she got her own $50 fee waived because she missed the event for work, ADPi leaders asked her to keep it quiet, saying the sorority uses the fines as a way to incentivize members to attend events. 
 
 ADPi President Taryn Seifert, a Nursing senior, said in an email that the sorority’s “fee structure and use of member-approved fines are typical for Greek organizations and are in line with other sororities on campus. Each member signs a document annually that acknowledges these fees.” 
 
 Hernan and Patel said that their sororities do not fine members who fail to attend chapter meetings or events, although Hernan has heard of this being a policy in other sororities, particularly around rush. 
 
 Kris, who deactivated shortly before Fall Break, said that there was a strong push to get dues in on time because of the constant need to create marketing tools and events to publicize the new sorority. She is currently communicating with the chapter officers in hopes that they will refund her dues for the semester — $672 — as they have for other people who have deactivated. 
 
 Lily, an Engineering junior and another former ADPi member, said that sorority leaders read out the names of members who are behind on payments in chapter meetings. 
 
 More established Greek chapters at Penn, on the other hand, have the option to turn to alumni when the chapter can’t cover all of the financial need members have. For example, Sigma Phi Epsilon can use internal funds to subsidize up to about 50-75 percent of the cost of a brother’s dues. But last year, a SigEp alumnus agreed to cover the full cost for a member who couldn’t afford it, Engineering junior and SigEp president Tadas Antanavicius said. 
 
 More often, he added, the board will allow for payments to be pushed back until a brother receives a paycheck for a summer internship — the second most common way to pay dues in his fraternity. The first most common source of money to pay dues is parents and the third is student loans. Some members take out loans even if they are financially stable, in order to have extra cash during the semester. The sense of job security innate to Penn undergraduates helps students justify taking out loans to pay for Greek life, Antanavicius said. 
 
 While an alumni network is often seen as a draw for Greek life, it may not be what justifies the cost at Penn. 
 
 “Greek life at Penn isn’t necessarily about being in this deep sisterhood like it is in the South,” Hernan said, but is more about the experiences while on campus. Antanavicius agreed, saying that if brothers are thinking of dues purely “as an investment in the network, they’re probably not enjoying the brotherhood.” 
 
 Financial assistance in Greek life is not exclusively a formal affair. Germi, the IFC president, recalled a recent incident in his own fraternity, Phi Delta Theta, where brothers pitched in some extra cash to subsidize another brother’s vacation in return for him planning the trip. 
 
 Last year in Alpha Delta Phi, a small co-ed fraternity of fewer than a dozen members, dues were raised by $50 to cover two students who could not afford to pay the $150 chapter fee, plus the one-time $300 fee to the national organization. “Most didn’t protest because dues were so low to start with,” said Engineering senior Max Morant, the fraternity’s co-president. ADPhi can afford to keep dues this low because it is currently an affiliate of the national organization, rather than a full chapter, and does not have a house. 
 
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 While it is clear that financial assistance is present within Greek life, Germi worries that this is not clear to those outside of the Greek community. “I think a lot of people aren’t actually aware of dues prior to rush, which I actually think is a flaw of the system,” Germi said. 
 
 Even at the sticker price, however, Antanavicius argues that being a part of Greek life is invaluable. 
 
 “It’s making my college experience,” he said. “That’s something I’d be willing to pay a lot of money for.” 
 
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– You've made the cut—now cut a check. The New York Times today dives into just how much it costs to be in a sorority. The upshot: a lot, and it's a total that frequently isn't conveyed to women swept up in the excitement of rush. The first semester as a sister is usually the most expensive, and sorority girls at the University of Georgia, for example, will find themselves paying $1,570 in Panhellenic dues and a slew of fees (chapter, administrative, nonresident house, initiation). One Georgia State junior says she paid as much as $200 a month on top of her fees in sorority-related expenses, with the Times finding that "Bigs" often spend hundreds on gifts for new members, called "Littles." "I was 17 and not thinking about billing," she tells the Times. "It was like signing up for a loan—they said the debt could go to a collections agency if you failed to pay." The time commitment is a hefty one, too, and sororities can actually issue fines if you miss an event, even if it was to do schoolwork (sometimes-legitimate excuses: a funeral or a doctor's appointment, assuming you have a note). In the case of UPenn's Alpha Delta Pi, missing a chapter meeting means a $10 fine; missing an event costs up to $100. One former member says she got a $50 fine waived after explaining she had to work, but she tells the Daily Pennsylvanian that sorority leaders requested she stay mum on that, saying the fines were used as a way to keep attendance high.