By Nicholas Hoffman
Archivist & Copy Editor

The College Board, albeit a “nonprofit” helpful tool for college searching, is a looming monopoly to the today’s students. The only source for many tests and controlling what is sent to which college, the company is a heavy financial burden to students.

“It’s a [game of] monopoly only they [can] win,” said senior Rob Clark.
Especially for a top level student, costs begin to pile up rapidly throughout a student’s high school career. From $89 per AP exam, starting in sophomore year at Neshaminy, the costs only increase.
Entering junior year, students see a sharp increase in costs, with the SAT tests costing $52.50 and subject tests costing at least $42, coupled with an extra fee of $28 for any late registration. Score reports add up as well, $11.25 for each college after the allowed four, as well as $15 for AP score reports. That is not to mention that sending SAT scores to the allotted four is only free, before students receive their test scores—thus students cannot send an SAT score for free unless they do not know what that score is.

These fees, mainly unavoidable to students applying to college due to College Board’s interconnection with many colleges, pile up rather rapidly. “The college board controls everything when it comes to the college app process,” Rob Clark said.

This problem arises from College Board’s current combination with the college process. The AP exams are impossible to take without paying them, the subject tests are not offered by any other company, and the SATs are, although avoidable for some colleges, required by a large amount of colleges today.

Is this monopoly the worst scenario? There is a possibility of a worse future for students if the method of the College Board is to change. A process of many services, a few for AP tests, a few for SAT-style tests, and a few for subject tests, could very well be worse. A student applying to 5 or more colleges may have to take 10 tests, and pay for 5 or more score reports. If costs were expectedly less, the overall price may still go up due to the uncoordinated mess of it all.

Although this future may be a possibility, the College Board’s method of monopoly is still less than ideal. For the average student, the costs are too extreme for tests that are necessary. Either more tests need to make the costs competitive, or costs need to lower overall for the tests to become a fair, natural part of college.