Four thousand two hundred and twenty-nine dollars. That was the cost of joining the University of Alabama’s Delta Delta Delta Panhellenic sorority, affectionately known as “Tridelt” to its members, for the 2025 fall semester. The spring semester will run you another $4,005, and if you’d like to live in the 44,294-square-foot sorority house that sleeps seventy-eight, add another $2,886 in the fall and $2,490 in the spring.

This is, as Alabama sororities go, on the affordable side. The most expensive sorority, Zeta Tau Alpha (or simply “Zeta” for those in the know), estimates that a full school year of dues and in-house living totals $19,898, or nearly double the average in-state tuition at an American public university. The cost includes room and board, which is fitting, because Greek life tends to be all-consuming. You will learn to eat, sleep, and breathe it.

I was a ’Bama Tridelt from 2013 to 2017, a few years before the “Bama Rush” phenomenon barnstormed TikTok like a wealthy, white, womanly NFL draft of indistinguishable twangy freshmen. In my day, the dues were closer to $6,000 per year if you lived out of the house. I remember this clearly because, after learning the cost, my parents told me in no uncertain terms that the only reason I could join a sorority was that my scholarship paid for tuition.