On Friday, April 17, juniors and seniors received an official email outlining the pricing for Westridge’s 2026 House of Dolls-themed Prom at Castle Green. The email also included the night’s itinerary and a behavioral contract. Instead of offering cheaper tickets for seniors as was done in years prior, early bird pricing will be available to all students who purchase tickets before April 29. 

Senior Lauren C. initially felt frustrated about the pricing—that no specific discount was offered to seniors—but after reading the contract, she feels “satisfied with the 90 buck price, as long as I don’t have to pay as much as [last year].” 

Over the last two years, juniors have typically paid more for prom tickets, while seniors enjoyed a discounted price, a system known as split pricing. In 2025, for the Westridge Prom, a Night in New York, seniors paid $90 per ticket, while juniors paid $120. 

A main reason for the feeling of frustration is how seniors consider the split-pricing part of senior privilege. “Senior year, everybody gets the same privileges. You get the senior tables, you get senior breakfast, you get open-toe shoes, and [split pricing] is one of the senior privileges that I feel is just as important,” one unnamed senior said. 

Elected 2026 Prom Chairs Nadine M. ’27 and Ivory P. ’27 explained that the decision to no longer use a split price format was not their own. In fact, it was something the pair advocated for. “Seniors would like [split pricing], and I feel like that’s part of their senior privileges, but it’s not really in our hands,” said Ivory. 

Faculty Advisor for the Prom Committee and Dean of Student Activities and Auxiliary Programs, Ms. Farrell Heydorff, explained the rationale for the decision to step away from split-pricing. “It is for fairness reasons, and it just didn’t really make sense. No one knew where [split pricing] originated from; no one ever really approved it,” said Ms. Heydorff.

Ms. Heydorff reached out to former Director of the Upper School, Mr. Gary Baldwin, who corroborated this, as he also did not know where the split pricing tradition originated from. “It was like this tradition that was never even a tradition,” Ms. Heydorff said. 

Emerson F. ’26 corroborated this idea of “fairness,” saying, “I feel like it is very nice that they’re allowing everyone to get the discount.”

And in regards to the $125 price for tickets bought after April 29, a five-dollar increase from last year’s $120 junior tickets, one senior remarked, “I’m happy that it’s more expensive for everyone at least.”

Junior Julia K. is pleased with the early-bird price but confused about the budget. “I’m not very sure how [early-bird prices] work with the budget, because how do they know how many people are gonna sign up before the 29th and pay $90 versus $120? That just doesn’t really make sense from a financial point of view.” 

Prom pricing has been on the minds of students as speculation around price hikes grew. To junior Sarah X., both the $90 and $125 prices came as a surprise. “I think [90 dollars] is a good price. I was expecting 135 or 150 [dollars].”

One senior felt that an over-hundred-dollar prom ticket could be avoided altogether, with “a fundraiser that would just bring in more profits.” 

The issue of fundraising, or lack thereof, has been a point of criticism. “There wasn’t much fundraising, which made me scared whether or not the tickets were going to be super expensive,” said another unnamed senior. 

Typically, prom fundraising begins with money raised from Westridge’s Winter Formals, the new 9th and 10th-grade dances, and biannual Middle School dances. “Not a lot of people went to the Winter Formal this year, so that was not as great as we thought it was gonna be,” Prom Co-chair Ivory said.

Despite this setback, Nadine and Ivory continued fundraising, hosting five days of “Soak-a-Senior,” a Westridge tradition where students and faculty could pay $15 to dump water on a random senior or $20 to dump water on a senior of their choice.   

Junior Noelle S. participated in the fundraisers twice this year, excited to soak her senior friends while also supporting her first

Prom. “I just wish they did [the fundraising] earlier.
[The semester] feels kind of stressful right now,” Noelle said.

The first round of Soak-a-Senior fundraising was actually scheduled for the beginning of March, but the prom committee faced setbacks. The fundraiser was postponed a week later to accommodate the seniors participating in Westridge Theatre’s production of Freaky Friday. Then they faced another setback. 

“I was out sick the whole week during Soak-a-Senior, so Nadine had to basically do everything. So, it would’ve been nice to have a third person. We ended up just asking Ms. Heydorff to help out,” said Ivory. The Westridge Prom Committee is typically composed of three to four students, but with only two, there wasn’t a third prom chair to step in.

Senior Micaela R. also expressed frustration that the initial postponement wasn’t communicated clearly to the seniors who were planning to participate. “They planned for Soak-a-Senior, but we didn’t get any updates on it, then they canceled it and pushed it back a week. We were just confused about the lack of communication,” Micaela​​ said. 

One former prom chair for the 2025 Westridge Prom expressed worry about the amount of fundraising compared to last year. “Last year, fundraising was already tough because it was a rush job, so I thought maybe this year they weren’t going to do Soak-a-Senior again. And [last year], in itself, had three weeks of Soak-a-Senior. And this year they’re only doing five days.”

But Ms. Heydorff explained that while the Soak-a-Senior events are important, they don’t necessarily lower ticket prices; instead, it’s the grade-wide dances that bring in the largest share of the prom budget. “For every $1,000 made in Soak-a-Senior, only five dollars are taken off of ticket prices.” On the other hand, each of the middle school dances raises up to $3,000, and the 9th and 10th grade dances raise up to $4,000. Ms. Heydorff explained how if each of these amounts were met, “the ticket prices could be down to $85.” 

Nadine encouraged students to persuade their 9th and 10th grade friends to attend those dances to help offset the costs of prom tickets. 

Additionally, ticket prices are also based on the costs of the prom venue and food. Last year’s venue cost $24,000, including food, and this year’s venue is $14,000 for the location.

The prom budget is also not immune to the impact of inflation. “While I haven’t seen much of a price increase, it’s true that a once $5,000–7,000 budget is now equivalent to a $10,000 to $12,000 budget,” said Ms. Heydorff.

Despite the fundraising woes, putting a cost on a priceless rite of passage is still worth it for seniors who look forward to their last prom and for juniors, to their first. “It’s such a great way to connect to the school through these community events,” said Emerson F. ’26. 

“I’m very excited to see everyone’s dresses and take pictures with everyone, and for the food. I heard there’s going to be ice cream,” said senior Vivian S. 

And while juniors and seniors count down the days until May 9, Prom Chairs Nadine and Ivory have moved on to the next stage: finalizing decorations. Ivory said, “Come to Prom, it’s really going to be so fun.”