The costs to apply to college add up very quickly, especially when students procrastinate on their testing. For example, if students applied for the September ACT with Writing last week, the fee was $49.50, but this week, applicants must pay an additional $21 for being late. These same late fees apply for the SAT as well.
Now that College Board has become so profitable in the last decade, it’s no wonder that eyebrows are raising on the burden these costs put on college-bound families:
Founded by Harvard and 11 other universities in 1900 to create a standardized test to admit students based on merit rather than family connections, the College Board … [president] turned the nonprofit company into a thriving business, more than doubling revenue to $660 million by boosting fees, expanding the Advanced Placement program and the sale of names of teenage test-takers to colleges.
A former West Virginia governor, he persuaded 11 states to cover fees for a preliminary SAT in the 10th grade. Now, Caperton is planning to retire amid concern that the College Board’s improved revenue has come at the expense of students and their families, who pay hundreds of dollars in fees even before they apply to college, parents, admissions officials and high school counselors said.
“The College Board is more interested in marketing and selling things than it is in its primary responsibility, promoting equity and educational opportunity,” said Ted O’Neill, who stepped down as admissions dean of the University of Chicago in 2009 and served on several College Board committees.
via Not For Profit College Board Getting Rich as Fees Hit Students – Bloomberg.
I find selling the names of college-bound teenagers to be the most problematic source of revenue for the College Board. (Granted, I probably never would have learned about Stanford during my admissions process, if it wasn’t for a mailing.) The mailings feed the college application frenzy and stress even more. When students receive so many glossy brochures from colleges, it often leads to applying to more colleges where there’s no serious intent of going which eventually crowds out students who are indeed interested. The standardized test score alone does not make a match.
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