A sorority house is a large home that serves as a communal living space for members of a college sorority. Sorority houses are usually identified by large Greek letters or flags on the front of the house. They can range in size from three to twenty bedrooms or more, and the larger chapter houses generally have a large meeting room, a large dining room, a commercial kitchen, and a study room. Sorority houses may also function as venues for social gatherings, meetings, and functions that benefit the community.
There is no one-size-fits-all description of “sorority housing” as every sorority chapter offers different facility options to its members based on many factors, including the size of the chapter and campus culture. Sorority chapters that offer members the opportunity to stay in more traditional chapter facilities (a “sorority house”) or a dorm-like structure might have policies that require members to live in the chapter facility for a certain period of time during their membership. If a sorority does have a chapter facility and a live-in requirement, members would most likely pay room and board to live in the house, just like they would to live on campus in a dormitory. However, these costs also vary for different chapters and different campuses. Some chapters may have room for all of their members in their facilities while others only have room for certain officers. Other campuses might have a designated campus facility for sorority chapters, such as space reserved in a specific dormitory, so sorority members can share living space in that way. On campuses with no official chapter facility, members may live in other on-campus housing or off-campus, depending on campus policies.
