Being a Senior is one of the most meaningful experiences a TCS student will ever live. Every day will be enjoyed as if it was the last one, friendships will strengthen more than ever, and in a way it’s your last chance to immortalize your legacy at the school. Unfortunately, as the saying goes, with every rose comes its thorns, and in the case of seniors it is the cost of these experiences.

It is no secret that Senior year is the most expensive year of them all; however, what comes as a surprise to parents and new seniors, is how expensive “the senior experience” is, even after coming from a pandemic and its strong economic repercussions. 

“It’s been pretty expensive. It’s been only half a year and we have had to pay a lot of things,” Senior Pablo Ospina said. 

Nevertheless, seniors aren’t only expressing negatively against the costs, but also seem to be understanding that great experiences are often expensive. 

“It’s been very expensive, and there are a lot of costs that we have never had to pay before, but I think it has been worth it, especially because it’s our last year,” Senior Nicolás Yepes said.   

Trips

Trips are one of the main reasons why being a senior is so highly anticipated by students. These trips are the moments where seniors enjoy the most, and at the same time those moments that we will remember forever. 

Seniors travel to are Cartagena on Thanksgiving and to San Andres in February. Unfortunately, these trips have approximate costs of $3,500,000 COP each.  These memories have to be bought and fees aren’t precisely welcoming, vanishing many seniors’ dreams of attending.

“I know students who had to choose between Cartagena and San Andres,” Samuel Niño, TCS Senior, said. 

Nevertheless, there are many who are trying to finance both trips, and although it’s expensive, to their eyes this is a once in a lifetime experience.  

“Trips are very expensive,” Yepes said, “However, my parents understand it is the last year, and it has to be something special.” 

Students and parents may have different opinions or points of view in regard to how worth-it is to finance a trip like these. Nonetheless, even if they lived it or had to base it out of pictures, everyone seems to agree on one thing: the trips are meaningful.  

“Seniors are paying for experiences, and last chances to share with other Seniors, so they are definitely getting what they are paying for,” Ospina said. 

Events

Despite being the most anticipated, trips are not the only events in the Senior year. As of the date of this article, Seniors have attended the following events: Last First day, Last-First Day party, Halloween, Halloween Party, Senior Skip day, Pin Ceremony, and other occasional Friday night parties.  

These events tend to have a cover fee, averaging in a range of $65,000 pesos. This cover pays for things such as DJs, Restrooms, Food, Drinks, and other non-PG expenses that will be left to the reader’s discretion. However, just as it happened with the trips, there are those who express unconformity regarding the costs/experience relation. 

“There is no need to have so much money spent on one single night.” Maria José Garcés, TCS Senior, said. 

Even though there are people who go against the costs, there is another side to the coin, those who believe that prices are fair. 

“The prices are good/fair because we knew what we were paying for, what we were going to get, and who we were going to be with,” Ospina said. 

Clothing

The final component of the Senior experience is clothing. It has always been a tradition for seniors to dress in a specific way for certain occasions. These traditions include: Halloween, daily school clothing, and sophisticated dressing for prom. 

Making the same clothes and costumes for 125 people is not an easy task, much less cheap, and therefore, prices can end up being expensive. The sweater costs ranged around $180,000-310,000 COP, depending on the quantity of items that are bought. The costume, on the other hand, had a still fee of $180,000 COP. Nevertheless, it seems that 2022 senior’s believe clothing is an essential part of the experience, and have even labeled it as a “necessary cost.”

“The prices tend to be very elevated, however, at the end of the day it’s a necessary cost since you cannot be a senior and not have a hoodie or a costume,” Niño said.

Conclusion

Being a Senior does indeed require a lot of money. Just halfway through 12th grade, a senior who has attended every single event, and bought all of the clothes has spent an approximate amount of $7,600,000 COP. Evidently, such an elevated price tends to polarize the opinions on how worth it is to pay for every cost, and consequently, there will always be those who believe everything could be better. Nevertheless, if there is something many seniors appear to agree on, it is that we are getting what we are paying for.

“We are getting what we are paying for. If we tried to make costs cheaper like many people in the year used to want to, then we would be receiving less.” Yepes said.