@homerdog, maybe part of it is the “even…a hotel in the suburbs” part? My D17/19’s proms were held in a nice smallish venue where they get a good rate because the owner has (had?) kids at the school, but my high school’s proms were in the school gym, and that’s the norm for a lot of schools still.
$165 per ticket, public school. All in, the tab for all of the senior activities was close to $700 per kid. As with your school, there are donations to a fund that underwrites so all can participate in all activities, but we are a much smaller school - only about 200 seniors. The committee does an incredible job, and it’s very special for the kids, but … it’s a bit out of hand at this point (IMO).
My son’s prom ticket was $40. Prom is not held at the school. Parents organized a dinner for a large group at a nice venue for $70 (kind of pricey but the food was reportedly good and the setting was lovely). Many kids here rent a bus ($40) and go to the monuments to take photos. There is also a free after-prom party at the school til 3:30am staffed by parent volunteers.
Our school does Prom in Jr year. It is good in theory, but real life gets in the way sometimes with ACT?SAT tests, sports games, theatre productions all going on around the same time. It makes for a stressful week for some kids and parents. The good news is that the kids get it over with Jr year, and so as Seniors most don’t go to prom ( unless you are dating a junior which doesn’t seem to happen much). In Senior year they just host a senior bash and it’s just night where the kids go to a function hall of some sort and eat and be merry. No tux or fancy dresses. The kids just wear what they have, just dressy enough to not look like slobs. They just had this event for the seniors, and I guess it was pretty fun according to my son. Certainly less expensive than prom, and less chaotic and pressure filled.
Son19 has almost nothing going on at school other than reviews for AP tests. No homework or quizzes. He’s not worried about AP tests either, because he doesn’t think he is going to use a good score to place out of math or science as a freshman anyways.
@homerdog Prom this year is at the Westin in Virginia Beach (50 or 55, can’t remember since S19 paid for it himself). It helps that prom is held a little before heavy tourist season starts, otherwise it would be a lot more expensive. I would expect that Chicago and other big cities would be pricey, since your “season” is year round 
!
@RightCoaster s19 has AP French today but Bowdoin is one of the few schools on his college list that does not have a foreign Lang requirement so now that score won’t matter unless he decides to take French there. If he does, he still needs to earn an A in the first French class he takes there and then they retroactively give him credit for his AP if he gets a 5. I highly doubt he will take French in college but I did tell to please try on this test today just in case!
Our kid is always apologizing for asking for money for senior things. Prom was $55. He wanted to ask someone, but was shy of asking us for the extra money until it was too late. I’m mad at myself for whatever I said to imply that we didn’t have the money for him to have a prom date. We did. They didn’t raise enough money to have an after-prom party, so we’re semi-hosting a small after prom gathering at a local bar that’s open to having high school students in if they order something and play the pinball machines. The place closes at 2 AM and most of the kids don’t have transportation, so guess who’d shuttling people home?
Ah, it should be fun.
AP English is today for us, then kiddo is coming home for a free afternoon. It should be nice - he’s been going hard for weeks between studying for APs and the senior play.
Senior prom here is $45. Pretty reasonable, I think.
I’m not really sure what S19 is up to these days. There was talk at dinner last night of having to do well on a Spanish test today so that he maintained a high enough grade to not have to take the final. He’s not taking the AP Spanish test - or any of the AP exams for that matter. I’m not sure that was a great decision. I guess he figured they wouldn’t count for credit in college, but it would seem he would at least want to take Spanish and maybe BC Calc for placement purposes. Anyway, I guess he’s basically done with school at this point. But graduation isn’t until mid-June, so maybe they will watch movies for the rest of the year? Lol.
Our prom is free if you/parents worked at least 10 concession shifts during sophomore year. The prom fundraising has also covered cap & gown and yearbook for the seniors. DD got her cap decorated last night. I see she is supposed to wear it to Baccalaureate in a week so she’ll have to be careful to get it through two events!
Big big weekend ahead for us. Soccer game, DD’17’s boyfriend staying the weekend, family dinner at in-laws, grad party or two for others, church, DD’s grad reception, and advanced choir concert. Making a mac & cheese bar and cookies for up to 200 for the reception. I’m just a little bit anxious.
The only reason my son is taking the AP tests is because the teachers politely ask all kids to take them, and that if they take the AP test then the kids can waive out of the final year end exam. The AP test basically serves as the Final.
So son will finish the majority of his classes next week with the AP tests, as he only has a wood tech and into to engineering course left and and those don’t have final tests either, they are project based. Son is so happy and relieved.
He is feeling good, fast and strong and is really more focused on obtaining some goals he has set for himself in his last season of high school track vs having to stress about final exams. 3-4 week of track left depending on how far he or team advances. I’m looking forward to those events though.
We just the mail and son19 was invited to the awards night this year. in 2 weeks I guess there is a separate Senior awards night, and he was invited and sad he would receive an award but they don’t name it. It will probably be exemplary performance in Wood Tech LOL!! He does seem to like that class. Seriously, he could win alls sort of awards I guess, I really don’t know what type of senior awards are handed out. That will be fun for him I think.
“The only reason my son is taking the AP tests is because the teachers politely ask all kids to take them, and that if they take the AP test then the kids can waive out of the final year end exam. The AP test basically serves as the Final.”
@RightCoaster - yeah. See, this makes sense to me. But at our school, there don’t seem to be final exams in the AP classes as long as you have a high enough grade in the class. It’s weird to me, but I grew up in NY State, and our final exams were Regents exams. There was no getting out of those. (Well, except for the time I got out of taking the Chemistry Regents because the answer key was posted on the front page of the NYTimes that morning for an exposé on cheating. Man, was I lucky! That was the one Regents I never felt ready for.)
D19 has most of her finals in the last week of school, other than the AP courses where they usually write the finals before AP exams. They literally have finals till the last day ! Then graduation that afternoon and grad night straight after that. There are various awards nights and celebrations the week and weekend before finals.
It’s interesting how different schools handle things. At D19’s school, seniors don’t take finals. The last day of classes for seniors is next Wednesday, May 15th, and I’m pretty sure that’s a senior skip day! Classes for other grades go thru end of May, then finals first week of June. Graduation is June 13th. No caps & gowns, students all wear white. There’s a reception and ceremony the night before, where students all wear black. Between now and graduation, there are award ceremonies, prom and a senior dinner. Junior-Senior Prom is $55 per person, held in a local hotel. There are a variety of after parties at private homes. (We hosted an after party last year. Never again! Haha. Though in retrospect, it wasn’t bad.)
I’m honestly not looking forward to all the year-end festivities. D19 has had a horrible year at this school. She has a good attitude and is just ready to move on. But H & I are still really mad at the school for all the things that went wrong this year. I will have a heavy heart, and just hoping H can keep his comments to himself.
D19’s graduation is not until June 25th. Now seems so early to have to be done with the whole curriculum in AP classes. This is the first year D19 and her friends are taking mostly AP’s, so I’m not sure what they do from now until 6/25!
@3SailAway - I’m sure the teachers will come up with some things to do. I think last year, S19 had a project to do in Physics after the AP test was over. His AP Lang teacher came up with all kinds of writing assignments. She actually piled on the work after the test. But I haven’t heard much about what’s in store for the seniors this year.
@Trixy34 that would actually be fine with me! As long as they have to be in school, I hope they’ll be actively learning.
Not every senior takes AP classes at our school, so those kids have a more traditional plan for the next few weeks. But graduation is the first weekend in June, so they must have finals in regular classes the last week of May.
Son19’s. 4th term has kind of been pretty easy. I think he took one or two tests in each AP class just to have a grade, but other than that it has just been AP review. I think he takes all of his tests next week? I don’t know what he will do in school the last 2 weeks of May. He may not even have class the last week of May, just some senior events. He’ll just sleep in and go to practice in the afternoon. He’ll enjoy that.
Anyone who takes an AP class is required to take the test at our school because the school pays for the exam. They also have to take a final exam. They cannot exempt exams.
My son is taking 4 AP classes. He is taking 3 AP exams and decided not to take one of them. Students that do not take the AP exam have some other assignment (the one he is not taking is AP Lit, so I think he has to do a timed writing instead). Our school system did away with final exams effective 2017-18 school year. Yep, that’s right…it defies logic. Before that, if you took an AP exam, that was your final.
Prom is $60 per ticket here. Traditionally held at a hotel in Downtown Boston. But the new Principal wouldn’t allow it and it is being held at a suburban wedding factory…think “My Cousin Vinny”. All night graduation party is a lock in event (arrive by 11…may not leave until 5 unless signed out by a parent). $40.