From March 2010:

With prom season officially here, what does this mean for high school students and their parents living through a recession?

Juniors will soon have to worry about the cost of senior year, and the costs of college are already affecting numerous seniors. Which is the priority: one prom night or the future?

Prom is exciting for most upperclassmen because it is the event that they have waited two high school years to finally attend. For juniors in high school, it is just another time to hang out with their friends, look nice, and enjoy the company of their class and the senior class. For seniors, however, prom is all of those things and more, because it is their last one. Junior year is almost like practice for the highly anticipated senior prom. 

Chamblee’s prom is on April 24, 2010, less than a month before the high school graduation. By this time, the majority of seniors will know which college (or other activity) they will be enrolling in next fall. That means that the stress of applying to schools, SATs/ACTs, and grade point averages that occupied their minds in junior year will have vanished. 

For seniors, prom may be in fact one of the final fun outings with the friends that they have known throughout high school. It may be their last chance to bond as a senior class with graduation closer than ever. It is their time to enjoy themselves and dress to impress; but how impressive can they be when the economy is bad, and there are more important things to pay for, like college? Depending on the plans, prom can be an extremely costly event. 

“I’ll definitely be spending more than $300 this year going to two proms,” said Zinan Zhang, a Chamblee High School senior.

Prom can be really expensive, for girls and guys alike. In order to attend prom, each and every person must have a ticket, and the tickets alone can range from $50 to $100. In the past, juniors who paid for prom were guaranteed a free ticket for their senior year. This year, however, due to many abuses (giving away tickets and selling them for personal profit), that policy no longer applies. 

“The cost this year is $65 for everyone and $75 at the door,” said junior class sponsor Zareen Hagen. “Seniors are not getting tickets for free this year, because the privilege has been abused many times in the past.”

Although the tickets can be a lot of money out of pocket, it is usually the least of the students’ worries. Girls can spend hundreds of dollars on their dresses alone, not to mention their shoes, hair, nails, and accessories, which can add up to a couple hundred more. Boys can spend the same amount purchasing prom tickets for two, treating their prom date to dinner, and suits, which are not cheap, even if they make the choice to rent one.

Seniors everywhere are doing what they believe will give them the perfect prom, but the economic state makes it hard, and these things have to be done on a budget. It seems as if it was much easier as a junior. 

I’m not going to spend more than $30 on my prom dress this year,” said junior Charlotte Haywood. “I don’t have the money to spend that much on one night.”

Juniors take prom much more casually than seniors since they have another year to perfect it. They take on prom almost as another homecoming; most do not even bring dates. They budget themselves and still have a fun night with their classmates.

“Because I did so much for my junior prom, I feel like I have to top it this year,” said senior Jonathan Bernard.