By KATHERINE HARTMAN
Dallastown Area High School
My relationship with the College Board began two years ago, in 10th grade, on a beautiful fall afternoon. My mother decided that I should take the SATs, “just to see� how I’d do, and I, in my naiveté, consented.
So my mom and I sat down at the computer and registered for the SAT, paying the $41.50 fee online with her credit card. It seemed to be an expensive method of wasting almost four hours of my life (I could buy a pair of shoes or almost 19 boxes of Pop Tarts for that much money, and not have to wake up at 6:30 on a Saturday morning), but I figured that the cost (and the loss of four precious hours of my life) wasn’t too terrible, as I would only have to pay that fee (and sit through four hours of testing) a few times.
Two years, three SAT Reasoning Tests, two SAT Subject Tests, one AP test and many more than four testing hours later, however, I have become quite disillusioned, at least as far as the College Board is concerned.
As I go through the college application process (and submit unreasonable fees for colleges to simply read about my academic career), I am learning that the College Board is much more than the harmless, bunny rabbit-like testing agency that I had believed it to be. Indeed, the College Board is a beast of an organization, adding fees left and right, turning parents’ pockets inside out until there is nothing left to take.
The agency charges $41.50 for its reasoning test or an $18 registration fee accompanied by an $8 fee for each individual subject test ($19 for a language-with-listening subject test). It then feels the need to sneak in fun extra modes of extortion, such as standby ($36.50), late registration ($21.50), and change of date, test type, and test center ($20.50) fees.
And that’s just to take the test.
Students can elect to send up to four score reports to colleges of their choices for free before taking the test. However, if a student would actually like to see his/her scores before sending them to colleges, he/she must pay a $9.50 fee for each score report. Multiply that by six college applications (a fairly accurate number for most students), and all of a sudden a student has spent $57 on score reports alone. As the average student takes the SAT a bare minimum of two times ($83 if the registrations are not late or changed), the average SAT-taking student is forced to surrender at least $140 to the College Board during his or her high school career.
The College Board is not just responsible for the infamous SATs, however. It also administers the AP (Advanced Placement), CLEP (College-Level Examination Program), and PSAT/NMSQT (Preliminary SAT/ National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test) assessments. It also houses the CSS/Financial Aid PROFILE, which, of course, has its own fee attached.
While students can take the ACT, American College Test, instead of the SAT, it does not offer the range of tests or nationwide popularity that the College Board does. So, being the main national pre-college testing agency, the College Board has grown into a sort of unmonitored monopoly. There is no one to whom the College Board reports or by whom the College Board is accused of exorbitance.
How does the College Board get away with its pricey practices? It is quite simple, really: Unless a student decides to take the ACT, it is nearly impossible for a college-bound student to avoid taking the SAT at least once during high school. Add in AP and CLEP exams, which are ways for students to gain college credit for courses completed during high school, and students really are left with no choice but to become victims of the College Board.
One thing is sure: something needs to be done about this out-of-control organization. College application and tuition fees are high enough without ludicrous fees brought to students courtesy of the College Board.
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