As senior class president Russell Escalada paid for his homecoming shirt, he reached into his wallet for $10, a small amount for an important piece of his last homecoming. Yet his wallet felt startlingly empty, thanks to the financial demands that seniors face.
“Entering senior year, I knew there were lots of things to buy but not until I totaled everything I spent did I realize how expensive senior year can be. Memories may be forever but they’re definitely not free,” he said.
This is not just a rare occurrence, but a daily feeling for many of the seniors who face the costs of senior year memorabilia, ranging from senior portraits to yearbooks, competing for the little cash that students have to spare.
As their last year begins, students are faced with the expensive costs of dances, event shirts, football game tickets, portraits, class rings, varsity letterman jackets, senior sweats, and yearbooks,which can be financially crippling when coupled with academic fees for testing and college applications.
With a class ring and varsity jacket coming in at hundreds of dollars, portraits and a yearbook costing roughly $100, and shirts and other little details adding up over the course of a year, a student can easily spend $1000 on school sanctioned memorabilia.
In a study done by Visa in 2012, families spent about $1,139 on school related purchases for their students’ senior year, almost a 10 percent increase from the average amount spent in 2011.
Pressure to partake in buying senior year memorabilia is seen in the class ring booths set up at major school events and the advertisements seen around school for things like placing a yearbook ad or picking up a pair of senior sweats.
Students are faced with not just pressure from the school but also the feeling of not wanting to miss out, according to senior class vice president Jacob Gagarin.
He said, “If everyone’s getting something like a class shirt, it’s understandable why people feel compelled to buy it. It’s just important to prioritize what you really need because you’re going to have it for the rest of your life.”
Beside relics of high school, seniors will inevitably want to fill their weekends, which often involve spending money on food and gas. Snacks throughout the week spent at local fast food joints can quickly add up into a dent in a paycheck.
In a survey taken by The Roar, over 42 percent of students’ weekly income went to eating out while 33 percent went to money for activities.
Brian Pagsisihan explains this phenomenon. “I remember looking at my receipts and realizing that my snacks after school and cheap dinners were adding up into lots of money so I didn’t go out for a week.”
As senior year demands stack up both academically and financially, seniors must navigate the pitfalls of buying into senior memorabilia.