Question for American members

[Milsap]

Recently I've watched the films Mean Girls (starring Lindsay Lohan) and The Perks of Being A Wallflower (with the equally hot Emma Watson, but that has nothing to do with it) and myself and my fiancee have been wondering:

We don't have proms in the same way you do. Well, we have them, but it's just a gathering of people. What I'd like to know is- Is the prom queen as big of a deal as it is portrayed in films? Is it really a life or death situation with people? We see it as a way for the 'beautiful' and 'popular' people to get a popularity vote for something that really holds no weight. What good is it going to look on a CV (resume)

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

[Kpyna]

It's really not a huge deal to be Prom King or Prom Queen. Naturally, it's a huge honor because you're pretty much being bestowed as most popular / most well liked at the school, but its not HUGE.

Prom IS a huge deal though. When I told people I wasn't going because they wouldn't let my boyfriend go, they told me to just dump him and find another prom date because it's a once in a lifetime opportunity. So, having a prom date for 1 night is apparently more valuable than a relationship that's over a year.

It's extremely elaborate though. Salons are BOOKED for the month before prom, and pretty busy for the weeks before that. Every girl ever getting her hair and fake nails done, people spend over 200 dollars on dresses, it's such an expensive process. Boys rent tuxes and get haircuts and that's their big deal there. Tickets for my school this year are 60 dollars apiece.

Also, spray tans, spray tans everywhere.

For an idea of how much money I'm saving by not going, I managed to book a round trip flight to NC to see my boyfriend for a weekend, and visit a huge zoo, and a big amusement park. Well, I might overspend by like 20 bucks, but it's that insane for one night of your life.

So, as a tl;dr, I would say Prom King/Queen is a big deal like portrayed in the movies, but Prom in general really is.

[Lord Raven]

I'd say everything varies high school by high school.  Prom at my school didn't mean much - it took place in Raven's stadium and that was just about the only cool thing about it.  Basically, juniors and seniors in high school would go and have the dance, it would be really formal and etc, and nobody would really care who Prom King/Queen were.  Then again, I went to a school that wasn't anywhere close to the stereotypical American high school, and it is quite annoying to hear questions like this as a result based on what other people see on TV.

[Utack and Swampy]

It's as big a deal as your social circle makes it. Eh? Me? I didn't go to prom, so it wasn't a big deal to me 

Prom is basically one of those 'memory-making' events they have you do in school, the same as Homecoming or School Basketball games. But like anything in life, it only holds value if you assign value to it. I put more value on going to regular school dances as a single with less strict dress code and dancing the night away than on going to an extravagant (expensive) evening with formalized dress code and required date.

Before anyone freaks out that I didn't go to prom, let it be known that I also had a lot of social events with the Marching Band, which reduced the pressure to go to prom.

[Lord Raven]

I didn't go to prom so I could avoid the drama.  My plan was a success...