The Cost of Pledging for a Fraternity

Pledging for a fraternity can be a huge financial cost and a huge burden to any college student’s bank account. In the beginning of pledging you are told that you have to pay dues. Dues for a social fraternity are around $300 to $400 and the cost of dues for a professional fraternity are around $100 to $200. What they don’t tell you is the other costs that will rack up heavily against you. Here are some of the huge costs that really add up.

The biggest cost will definitely be gas money. Depending on the size of your pledge class you will usually use two or three cars to drive you to various places. The gas money will really add up because some places are really far to drive to and in the course of a single day you might do through half a tank of gas. While the cost is split between everyone, gas will be a huge expense. If someone drives an SUV the cost will skyrocket even more because it uses so much gas for each mile more than a normal car would.

Another huge cost is the fraternity paddles. The really big fraternity paddle that is sold in hardware stores will cost you around $60-$70. The size of this paddle is about 4 feet in length. If you can’t find a fraternity paddle in stores and have to buy it online, the cost of shipping alone will be around $60. Then there are the pledge master and assistant pledge master paddles that you have to buy. These will cost around $30-$40 each so a total of $60 to $80 you will spend on the two of these. The cost of these three paddles you will split among all the members of your pledge class. Still, the costs will continue to climb. The final paddle you will have to make is the paddle for your mentor. This will be around $20-$30. However the are even more costs. You will probably have to buy wood letters from a hardware store to put on your paddle. Each letter will be slightly less than a dollar but you will have to buy many letters and enough so that you have wood letter to put on the Mentor paddles, the pledgemaster paddles and the fraternity paddle. You will also need to buy paint, paint brushes, superglue or wood glue, glitter, and little designs like stars or hearts that go on the paddle.

Another huge cost will be food. Instead of eating the cheaper food on a college campus, the traveling involved will make you buy food in restaurants and the cost of taxes, tips and food will make you withdraw a lot of money out of your bank account.

Then there is the cost of clothing. You will have to buy certain clothing fabrics and colors and that will add up the cost totals.
Then there are also the costs of going to a party or a formal or other fraternity related ceremonies.

In total, you should expect to pay for at least $200-$300 more than what the initial dues are