<p>Okay, so I'm a senior this year, Class of 2014 yay whoo hoo. But we all know that while this may be an "exciting" year of high school, it can be very stressful AND expensive. College application fees are a big number for a lot of students. However, there are also graduation costs, too. For example, at my school you have to PAY for your diploma--$50--which I find ludicrous considering the average household income in the county is $35,000 and most households have multiple children, not to mention the county population is small. There are also cap and gowns, senior activities, blah blah blah.</p>
<p>Okay so things vary from school to school. What kind of senior-specific expenses do YOU have this year and how much are they? Does anyone pay $50 or more just to get a piece of paper in hand like I do? Are most other schools around the country (or in other countries) worse?
(I'm in the U.S. by the way.)</p>
<p>I wonder if some of that is the cost for the ceremony.
Yes, we have to buy our cap and gown and then “donate” it back (they resell it).
But you don’t have to do senior activities at my school.</p>
<p>Hmm donating it back. That’s weird. As far as I know, we keep ours. We buy them through some company that our school likes… I think it’s Balfour. We get class rings and invitations through them. The rings for girls aren’t worth the price and neither are the invitations…</p>
<p>The only thing we pay for is Prom and our yearbook - both of which are not mandatory. In reality, the only thing seniors have to pay for during their senior year is their senior portraits - assuming they want to be in the yearbook, but even then, its still not a requirement. The only thing on the horizon for me in terms of finances and expenses is college application fees, SAT score sending fees, and AP score sending fees.</p>
<p>See, I knew other schools didn’t mandate this kind of stuff. We have to pay for our senior portraits, too, but to be in the yearbook you only pay a $26 sitting fee to the studio. The studio’s fees are ridiculous if you want to buy actual sets of the photos you get and the quality is NOT worth the price, either.</p>
<p>Have you looked into colleges that waive application fees if you apply by certain deadlines, getting waivers from your counselor or seeing if you qualify, etc? I did and got that kind of stuff mostly paid for. MOSTLY. Ap exam sending isn’t covered as far as I know and I have to send some extra SAT/ACT scores since my list of colleges has shifted and expanded.</p>
<p>At my school, they FORCE you to take the senior portrait, and $30 is the cheapest without buying copies. If you don’t take the senior portrait, they stalk you until you take it. I don’t think we have to pay for the diploma.</p>
<p>At my school we have senior dues which are $90 if you pay by December and 100$ if you wait until after December. Ridiculous considering it’s a public school!! It pays for cap and gown and a senior party after graduation.</p>
<p>migraine: I THINK so. Don’t quote me on it. They’ll probably do like quidditchcat’s school and stalk you until you pay for it though.</p>
<p>quidditchcat: That’s pretty lame. Absurd, really. I’d end up telling them something I’d probably regret, though, if they did that to me. </p>
<p>Our yearbook staff does senior pages. You can buy half page, full page, or double page. I’m not getting it. I have better things to do with my time and my money, but the vast majority of seniors at my school get at least a half page (most get full one page, a select few get double pages because they pull money out of thin air) every year. </p>
<p>There is a senior cookout, a senior trip to a Braves game (I’m in GA), and there was a trip to Wild Adventures which I did not attend due to the fact that I was only 3 months out from an ACL Reconstruction and didn’t want to risk it.</p>
<p>We had cap and gown, but I used my brother’s from a few year before to save a few bucks. I only got a new tassel. Also didn’t get the official invitations - way overpriced.
For senior pictures, most people got theirs done professionally elsewhere and that was in the yearbook. If you didn’t want to pay for that, though, they would just use the official school portrait from the first day of school that everyone has to take for their ID card. It would just look like all the underclassmen’s pictures. You had to pay $20 if you wanted your baby picture in the yearbook. Most people did it, but no pressure.
There was also an official graduation party, but it was like $5 and completely optional.</p>
<p>I think it’s crazy if you have to pay for your diploma or you’re forced to pay $30+ for your picture in the yearbook. Senior year is financially stressful enough.</p>
<p>I go to a private school so my parents are already paying for tuition (yearbook included)
$120 senior fee for cap/gown, diploma and senior family night in the gym (ew)
and between $10-70 for each of the 5 senior activities we have planned for this year
and I also need senior pictures taken so another $100-200 for that.</p>