As seniors complete their thesis marathons and turn their thoughts to graduation, many have begun to worry that they won't be able to get their family and friends into all of the graduation events in early June.
The University gives each senior enough tickets to invite two guests to Baccalaureate, four to the Class Day ceremony, five to the Senior Prom and five to Commencement.
The scarce supply has created demand for graduation weekend tickets on the Point portal's TigerTrade marketplace.
Rhonda Fitzgerald '07, who lives in New Jersey and has nine close family members she'd like to invite to graduation, said in an email that "getting the amount of tickets I needed has been kind of grueling."
Fitzgerald said she has struggled with the high prices some of her classmates are charging for their extra tickets, recalling one senior who was selling Commencement tickets for $250 each. To raise money to meet such high prices, Fitzgerald went on TigerTrade to try to sell some of her tickets to other graduation events.
Fitzgerald eventually got two Commencement tickets by posting a note on facebook.com pleading for her friends' extras.
Tara Hariharan '07 also posted on TigerTrade, offering Baccalaureate, Class Day and Prom tickets for $20, $20 and $10 per ticket, respectively. So far, Hariharan has sold both of her Baccalaureate tickets and two of her Class Day tickets.
"I'm just selling because my family only intends to attend Commencement, and I reckoned I could do my classmates a favor while making some pocket money on the side," she said.
Hariharan also said she has noticed the high prices — ranging from $70 to $100 per ticket — charged by some other seniors who are selling tickets to graduation events on TigerTrade. Mira Guo '07, for example, was asking a minimum of $100 per ticket for each of two Baccalaureate, four Class Day and five Senior Prom tickets.
Some students are still desperate to get extra tickets and are willing to do so at any cost. Caitlin Higgins '07 wrote in a post on TigerTrade that she "will pay whatever" for extra Commencement tickets.
But Steve Batis '07, who posted on TigerTrade looking for extra Class Day and Commencement tickets for his grandparents and uncle, said he did not intend to spend any money on the extra tickets. "I was hoping that someone would give me some out of the goodness of their heart if they weren't using them," Batis said in an email.
Fitzgerald said she is disappointed to see ticket prices climbing so high.
"All of the seniors are going to be alumni soon, and maybe I'm a sappy Princetonian," she said, "but I feel like we should get used to helping each other out, even if it's just by finding someone to give our extra tickets to."
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