“Prom”—the night young girls dreamed about in elementary school. A night to wear your best dress, have your best hair, and feel, well—your best. 

But as years have passed and early television shows paved their ways for the internet to take the spotlight of prom night, expectations on the “perfect prom” have shifted. 

Upon asking several female students how much they ended up paying, in total, for everything that was considered “for prom,” the total averaged out to roughly 400 dollars, with 600 at the highest and 80 at the lowest. 

However, upon asking several students the question, “Do you feel as if Prom has become less about the dance, but more about everything surrounding it?”—many respondents affirmed this and added that the idea of prom has become merely an “excuse to dress nice and get dinner.” 

With this in mind, it leads to the question—is Prom actually worth it?

Considering Prom has been a tradition for so many years, but the dance has been given a different outlook on the night as a whole, students still do believe that the idea of “prom night” is very important. Nevertheless, other students believe that there could be improvements made towards the structure of the dance itself.

For example, some students raised concerns about the music choices, and suggested that the students at the dance could have more influence on them. Other students added that at the beginning of the dance, “the lights were on”, which inevitably changed the overall mood of the room. 

However, as dances have grown a stigma over the years of being “boring” or simply “unexciting”, it leads to the final question—would making any improvements actually reduce these stigmas? Or is this something that would have no significant result?

I believe that the answer to this question is to be determined by the student body, and that the voices of these students should still be representative when it comes to planning events in the future. If stigmas can be considered, they can also be minimized if those who execute these ideas are able to accept and accommodate to what the student voice is presenting. 

However, with the overall price of Prom, some argued that the expense is a part of the “experience”,  while others objected, claiming that spending too much money for one night was “unnecessary” and it takes the fun out of the night itself. Some students complained that the ticket prices for prom were also far too high, especially with the expenses of everything on the side. However, there appears to be a misconception claiming that prom has to be expensive to be “fun”—which is far from true. If strategically planned, prom expenses can remain justified, while not overstepping any dramatic budgets.