Gilroy
– Yearbook: $65. Tickets to the senior dinner and dance: $90.
Senior class ring: $334. Finally graduating and receiving the first
bill for college: Priceless.
What with yearbooks, class rings, college applications, social
events and
– new this year – transcripts, seniors at Gilroy High School are
emptying their pockets.
Gilroy – Yearbook: $65. Tickets to the senior dinner and dance: $90. Senior class ring: $334. Finally graduating and receiving the first bill for college: Priceless.
What with yearbooks, class rings, college applications, social events and – new this year – transcripts, seniors at Gilroy High School are emptying their pockets.
The only cost GHS requires of seniors is for their cap, gown and transcripts for college applications. But if seniors want to leave high school with memories and memorabilia, they should be prepared to pay.
Among the heaviest costs are senior rings, which can cost up to $1,159.95 for a white or yellow 14K gold ring with diamonds. The least expensive option is a white Lustrium for $139.95, while most other rings cost anywhere from the upper-$200s to low $400s.
Senior pictures, another potentially burdensome cost, are done through NW Photography in Morgan Hill. The studio has a range of packages available, the most expensive is a $500 ensemble that includes three 8-by-10 pictures, a few 16-by-20 frames and 72 wallet-sized pictures. The most basic package for $58.95 buys an 8-by-10 and two 5-by-7 photographs.
All students are required to have their yearbook pictures taken, but students are not required to buy the photos. The studio takes pictures free of charge for two days at the high school and charges a $10 sitting fee at the studio if students are unable to attend either picture day.
New this year is a charge for seniors to obtain copies of their official and unofficial transcripts. Official copies, stamped and sealed, cost $2 each with 24-hour notice, while unofficial copies cost $1. Same-day processing doubles the price for both official and unofficial transcripts.
Whether students need official or unofficial transcripts depends on the requirements of the colleges they’re applying to. If students are applying for scholarships, most colleges require two copies of a transcript: one for the admissions office and one for the department that processes scholarships.
For several years, the district has charged previous students for transcripts, $5 for an official copy and $2 for an unofficial one, said Linda Martinez, the high school’s registrar. But the district this year decided to start charging current students due to the high volume of seniors who would request transcripts – sometimes as many as 40 at a time, Martinez said – then never return to pick them up, costing the high school time and supplies.
Additionally, many students used to wait until the day the college application deadline rolled around to request their transcripts, forcing Martinez to spend the entire day assembling transcripts.
Making students pay seems to be working. This year, Martinez said, only three students have rushed into the student services office in a panic requesting same-day processing, and seniors are much better about retrieving their requested documents.
“The students are more in control. They know they have to plan ahead,” Martinez said. “They’re learning responsibility, and it’s an eye-opener. They’re learning that a deadline is a deadline.”
All of the money collected from the transcripts will go toward a scholarship fund, also new this year, that will be awarded to one or more seniors at the annual senior awards dinner in May. So far, the balance of the fund is about $475.
A measly $2 for a transcript might not seem like much, but it can add up when dumped onto all of the other senior bills, said GHS senior Uros Stojakovic.
“We don’t make a lot of money, even if we have jobs,” he said. “Some of us have to pay our own bills, and it just seems like a lot. But it’s worth it, I guess.”
Aside from the costs of pursuing higher learning, seniors also want to have a little bit of fun during their last year of high school. Tickets to the annual senior dinner and dance, winter ball, prom, trip to Disneyland and Grad Nite add up to at least $300, and that’s without the must-have accessories such as a dress, tuxedo, shoes, a corsage, limousine and dinner.
Senior Michelle Zelina said she paid for her tickets to the winter ball and all that came with it, such as her $150 dress. Zelina said she expects also to pay for tickets to prom, which are $45 each, but her parents and grandparents have agreed to shoulder the cost of senior pictures, as well as her cap, gown and graduation announcements.
Zelina, who works a part-time job, already slapped down $50 to apply to California State University at Fullerton, and she plans on applying to five or six more schools.
“It sucks. Even if you don’t get in, you’re still paying the money,” she said.
Even so, Zelina said all the costs of being a senior are worth it, at least for the time being.
“You get to spend time with your friends and do fun stuff, but at times it can be really hard and stressful trying to pay for it all,” she said. “So I guess it’s worth it – at the time, anyway.”
Senior expenses
• Cap and gown: $32 plus shipping and handling and tax
• Prom: $45
• Yearbook: $65
• Most expensive senior photo package: $500
• Most expensive class ring: $1,159.95
