Junior year, the dreaded 11th grade where every student works hard in class, studies harder at home and busts their butt to prepare for standardized tests that will determine their future. Junior year is often collectively deemed the hardest year of high school by both alumni and current students alike. With that being said, what do juniors have to look forward to besides summer — which will probably be used to get in any internships, classes or volunteer hours that will boost their college resume — towards the end of this monumental year? 

After a stress-filled eight months of school, juniors can be rewarded with their custom designed class ring, that is if they can afford it. But for the price, they are not worth it. Yes, an individual can argue that class rings are a rite of passage or an important memory to have and to be able to look back on but ultimately they are too expensive. 

Typically in junior year students are between 16 and 17 years old, meaning they are old enough to drive a car by themselves. Instead of spending $200 to $1,000 or more on a ring, students who do not have their own car should attempt to bargain with their parents. If their parents are willing to spend that much money on a ring, then chances are they would also be willing to use it towards a car or even a family vacation instead. 

An annoying quality about rings is how easy they are to lose — they fall off of fingers, can be left places, or are lost in the middle of a move once an individual is older and moves houses. The cliche in movies is that the wife loses her wedding band while doing dishes and it falls down the drain — junior rings can be just as costly as wedding rings yet they don’t hold the same sentimental value. A junior ring is not a ring that represents being bound to one person for the rest of your life through marriage, its representative of your high school experience so they should not  be the same cost.  

Junior rings are not worth the money, the time it takes to wait for them or the possibility of completely losing it. Yes, you can customize them and yes they can be representative of your journey through high school, but they should not be equivalent to the cost of a wedding ring, or be nearly as expensive as they are.