Fraternity rush may have ended last week, but several chapter houses will continue to pay for their grand-scale events for the rest of the semester.
Some chapter heads have blown up to a third of their semester budget on making sure they lure in prospective brothers during this year's rush.
Alpha Epsilon Pi, for example, is one of the frats that doles out the big bucks - $20,000, according to AEPi president and Engineering junior Gabe Kopin - to host these parties.
And while that sum is a third of AEPI's budget, Kopin said it's well worth it.
"You're entertaining a lot of freshmen, and yourselves," Kopin said.
During rush, AEPi held a closed rush event - for selected rushes and current brothers - at a '76ers game and another at Marrakesh Restaurant, a downtown eatery that the frat rented out.
Lambda Chi Alpha, however, falls at the opposite end of the spectrum. Rush chairman Brian O'Connell, a College sophomore, said his frat only spent about $3,000 during rush.
Their events, less lavish than a trip to a basketball game, included dinner and several house parties.
Other frats' spending fell somewhere in the middle.
"On rush itself, we spend about $7,000," said College sophomore Noah Weiss, rush chairman for Sigma Nu, which hosted a laser-tag game during one closed rush event.
"Rush is about a great time, and, unfortunately, great times cost a lot of money," Weiss said.
Still, even those who spend a lot of money on rush say that they attract brothers who are not necessarily interested in the featured lavish rush events.
"For the most part, I don't think that the draw to come to the events has anything to do with the event itself," Kopin said. "It has more to do with meeting the guys in our fraternity and finding out who they are."
And spending a lot of money on rush is pretty common, according to Wharton junior Austin Pena, incoming president of the InterFraternity Council.
"It's a way to invest because you're getting the future of your house," Pena said.
Frat representatives - who themselves determine how much money to spend on rush - said that, in general, they combine membership dues and alumni donations to pay for two weeks of rush events.
The Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs is not involved in the financial aspect of rush.
"They don't look at our financial budget for rush - they just look into the kids registered for rush," O'Connell said. "They don't really look into how much the stuff costs."
OFSA does, however, determine each frat's rent dues at an annual meeting before Spring Break, OFSA director Scott Reikofski said.
And, in this area, the frats remain on a relatively level playing field.
"We try to keep [rent dues] pretty consistent, so that one fraternity doesn't have an advantage over another in recruiting," Reikofski said.
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