Each year, millions of high school students sign up to take Advanced Placement (AP), Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) and Preliminary Scholastic Assessment Test (PSAT) exams to attain a competitive edge over students across the country pursuing college admissions. The College Board, an educational exam company focused on college admissions, runs each of these exams and serves as the sole proprietor for high school exams. The company holds a near-complete monopoly over high school exams with extremely scarce competition. For approximately 120 years, the College Board has remained at the top of the exam market and partnered with high schools in America to ensure that students find no other options except for taking AP-level exams if they wish to attend a college or university.
College Board remains classified under non-profit status while company officials bring in hefty salaries and benefit immensely from the exam costs they receive. The company does, in fact, profit off of students and intentionally charges significantly more than necessary for pupils to take their exams.
Contrastingly, people may claim that College Board represents a normal non-profit, working to help aid students and simply taking money for employee salaries, and that its actions do not stray from the norm or break any ethical boundaries. After all, even if the company falsely claims to be a non-profit, it still does not outright break any laws or regulations. However, College Board nonetheless remains unethical and even shares a similar business model to a hedge fund by spending its money on assets and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) salaries, rather than upholding its mission statement. Additionally, the College Board has actually found itself in legal trouble, as numerous plaintiffs have filed lawsuits against the company for breaking monopoly laws and upholding unethical business practices.
Additionally, AP exams remain extremely costly for students, with the majority of exams costing $99 each and several exams costing up to $146 each. Although the company does provide certain financial aid options, the costs of the exams can prove a significant financial burden on students, especially on those taking up to six or seven exams per year.
AP exams instill students with higher levels of stress and can cause students to feel overwhelmed or anxious. Students typically worry about how the exam results will affect their future and their ability to get into college, so they take multiple exams in order to maintain a competitive advantage. College Board benefits from student anxieties because, as students take a higher number of exams, the company boasts wider profit margins and receives an ever-increasing amount of money.
“AP exams are definitely a stressor because they fall so close to finals and AP exam season is definitely the busiest several weeks of the year. Although I am personally not overly impacted by the price of exams, there is no doubt that they are too expensive and can have significant financial impacts on students taking the exams. 100 dollars for a test, especially as we merge into online testing, is unreasonable and really doesn’t make sense,” magnet junior Saffie Laposata said.
With its full control over the SAT, College Board has ensured that students may not pursue a college education without taking their exams, especially since the majority of colleges require applicants to include an SAT score upon submission. Students may need to take the SAT multiple times to achieve the score they hope to acquire, meaning that the College Board profits multiple times for every individual student pursuing a college education. Students can avoid taking the SAT by instead taking the American College Testing (ACT) exam, which ACT Inc. runs, rather than the College Board. However, this exam charges students $69 per exam, which can prove quite costly for low-income families.
The College Board fails to stand up for students, but instead stands in their way by strategically placing itself as a barrier between students and higher education. Instead of aiding students through their educational journey, the College Board actively works against and charges students for monetary gain.
“I think AP exams are good in some ways, but I think they can definitely add pressure to students taking them and can be a significant source of stress. AP Exams can get expensive fast, especially because many kids take three, four or five exams in a year. I think the cost could be reduced somewhat and there should be more financial aid options,” magnet junior Savannah Rader said.
