Prom is finally here, it’s all around, and it’s all you can hear about. The endless conversations about the big night have led me to think, why the hype? As a junior who did not get to attend prom, I felt a bit sour leading up to that big weekend. Then came the week of, and everything bitter washed away.
Watching my female peers stress about finding the dress, shoes, nails, date, reservations, pictures, and more made me wonder: how much does prom really cost? Asking around, I received various answers, most of which made me cringe.
The average American prom experience costs teen girls around 950 dollars to 1,100 dollars in 2026, yeouch! This includes a new dress, salon appointments, and standard tickets.
While scrolling through websites in search of a reasonably priced prom dress, I found myself unimpressed. Dresses priced at 200 dollars started to sound appealing as I jumped from page to page. Moving on to shoes made my calculator and stomach hurt, so I phoned a friend.
Junior Samantha Jennerjohn attended her first prom this year with a group of senior friends. Of course, she wanted to look her best.
“Getting my nails done took an hour and a half, and nothing could have prepared me for the 95 dollar bill I was met with. Getting ready for prom took me two hours,” Jennerjohn said.
After that disheartening conversation, I moved to the night of. Planning out reservations, pictures, rides, and after parties, all of which must be executed flawlessly. If you’re privileged and someone in your group has a touch of control freak, this won’t be an issue. If your group lacks this personality, you might just be out of luck.
Dinner reservations must be made days, if not weeks, in advance, given that every sushi or Italian restaurant within a five-mile radius of your school is booked four months in advance. They also must line up between the time pictures are done and when the dance starts.
Leaving gaps in the schedule can cause time for awkward, hangry conversations, and not enough time will leave your group in shambles.
If your group survives this level of planning, consider yourself lucky, because now it’s time for the dance. Fortunately, prom isn’t in your school’s gymnasium or cafeteria, but don’t expect fewer sweaty bodies or superior song choices.
Chatting with unior Lyla Olson, I discovered this was her second prom, and despite having a blast, she had one complaint.
“Most of the songs were good, but the DJ played each one all the way through. Eventually, it got kind of boring, and it was hard to keep dancing,” Olson said.
Having attended a few school dances of my own, I know the last few steps are inevitable. Once you’ve exhausted all your dance moves and it’s nearing midnight, your group is definitely hungry again. Everyone waddles into your local Taco Bell, barefoot, and the night starts to feel never-ending. Your date’s pockets are aching as much as your feet.
Now that you’ve found your way back to the designated sleeping house, the games you planned on playing make it one round, and everyone begins to nod off. Makeup wipes no longer exist, and your teeth are definitely unbrushed and rotting.
The next morning, you wake and roll over to open Instagram just to find threads and threads of the same night. While taking a closer look at my peers’ photos, I discovered the same locations, dresses, poses, and bouquets. The same expression on each teen’s face. It hit me, everyone is striving for the same perfect evening and ends up replicating the same cookie-cutter prom night.
Some may claim their expectations were met, while others will not hesitate to express their disappointment. However, after collecting evidence and walking through the preparation, prom is really just an average dance with insane standards.
It’s time to see prom for what it actually is and stop letting teens end up disappointed when their expectations don’t match reality. Prom is overrated.
