(April 10, 2008) — Last year, senior Argineh Ebrahimi spent two months looking for the perfect prom dress and senior Bella Arutyunyan spent almost $400 on hair, makeup and a dress. The two found out that the money and time they spent was excessive. Senior Alice Topchyan will be attending the prom for the fi rst time this year and plans on spending a lot of time and almost $500 preparing for the event. Topchyan and her senior friends, Suze Uzunyan and Christina Garibyan, have been waiting for prom since junior year. “It’s prom, you have to do it big,” Uzunyan said. The three girls have the week before prom planned out with specifi c days for nails, shopping, makeup and hair. Uzunyan is concerned that she will spend too much money for one day, but Topchyan doesn’t question it since prom is a once-in-a-life-time thing and a great opportunity to get dressed up. Arutyunyan believes that even though prom is fun and an important step towards graduation, it’s not “as big of a deal as people think.” Senior Chris Mangasarian agrees with Arutyunyan. Mangasarian has never been to prom and is looking forward to the event, but he is hoping it won’t cost him too much. “I think prom is way too formal,” Mangasarian said. He will spend two hours getting ready and maybe even take a short nap before the long night. According to Mangasarian, girls should spend a maximum of three and a half hours getting ready instead of seven. “It’s not worth it,” he said. While prom does involve getting dressed up and spending a lot of money with ticket prices starting at $75 each, students seem to be more excited about spending the night with friends than they are about the idea of attending prom. Mangasarian believes it would be more fun to just go in jeans and a T-shirt and sees no point in playing “dressup.” He is looking forward to spending the night with friends and going to Mel’s Diner on Sunset in the morning for breakfast. Even Topchyan, who is looking forward to dressing up, agrees that if her friends weren’t going she wouldn’t go to prom either. “At one point we thought one of us couldn’t go so we were all about not go to prom, but it all worked out after all,” Garibyan said.