I joined a sorority my 3rd of 5 years of college. So I was active 3 years (I went to a school where only 21% graduate in 4 years, so yeah...).
I went into uni thinking sororities and fraternities were awful. Then it so happened that I started dating a guy in a fraternity and after learning about it thought it wasn't so bad. Second year I had pretty solid friends but was still hanging out with the same guys even though I was no longer dating the one fellow. My roommate was dating a guy in another fraternity. Everyone got along. It was great.
Third year, I figured why not see what the sororities were about. After going through rush and realizing the ladies I saw the most around campus and at events and in clubs and so forth were all greek, I realized I was pretty wrong about the entire image.
Joined Chi Omega and it was the best decision I made in college in regards to my non academic life.
Of course every university is different, every fraternity is different. My school was very heavy on philanthropy and diversity. My cousin's experience at ASU was more party party party. I stayed at a XO house in Nebraska and it was all about being active on campus.
Every group has its own personality. Perhaps some you really are paying for friends. My experience though is if there is housing available, you pay less than you would in the dorms and the costs pretty much equal out. If housing isn't available your dues are often less and $50 a month is a small amount to pay considering the amount of food at all events and tshirts and activities and room fees. Just having a network to share books and notes made the $50 worth it. Once I joined the sorority I don't think I purchased another book unless it was for my major (which only had 27 people in it).
