It's helpful to look at old subscription prices when trying to set new subscription prices. The current price for admission to a single Tuesday dance is $2 for students and $5 for non-students. (Until the summer of 2007 it was $3.50 for non-students. At that point, it increased to $4 (to include early rounds), where it stayed until summer 2014. For that full time period, it has been $2 for students.)
Starting in Fall 2015, we started using a sliding-scale subscription model. We also changed subscriptions to include Saturday dances. With the sliding-scale subscription price, the higher end of the price was typically set so that it represented a very small (or even negative) discount on paying single prices for all dances, so in essence, people paying the higher price were giving a donation to the club. Nevertheless, people seemed happy to do that, and the sliding-scale model appeared to be a success. However, some people didn't realize that the high end wasn't a discount and were a little frustrated by that, so it's best to be clear about at least the number of Tuesday and Saturday dances covered by the subscription period ("covers 19 Tuesday and one Saturday dance") when advertising the subscription range.
Class members get their first class free, so to be sure there's a financial incentive for class members to buy a subscription, the subscription period starts the second week of class and finishes the last week of class. This exactly determines the dates of all of the subscription periods. The dates for class are determined by the PE calendar which is related to the academic calendar.
We don't dance when MIT is closed, and prices need to reflect that. MIT is closed:
Students rates should also reflect a discount for weeks when they are likely to be out of town or not dancing, for example:
Starting in fall 2011, MIT students (grad and undergrad) get in for free. That way PE students finishing the class wouldn't have to suddenly pay money, and MIT club members wouldn't be tempted to sign up for the PE class but attend infrequently, just to get in free when they do pay. And the hope was also to further encourage student participation.
Non-MIT college students, children younger than college age, and non-students in financial need who ask for it, all get the student rate.