Monday, April 20, 2009

Week 13: College Board is Evil!

As AP season approaches, I am preparing for the imminent death that is AP Testing. If you don't know, College Board creates a new AP test every year, for every new subject. And they charge you $86 per test. Oh, and they also write SAT tests every year, and administer them about 6 times per year, for about $40 a pop. Thus, it is nearly impossible to avoid paying College Board money. A college-bound student must take either the ACT or the SAT and many schools require SAT Subject Tests, also a product of College Board. And then, companies such as the Princeton Review and Barrons, write books that supposedly help students pass the SAT or AP tests, and those cost about $20-$40 a piece. All in all, the cost of just getting into college can climb into the thousands of dollars, even before tuition and application fees are assessed. According to their website, College Board is a non-profit organization. However, this article shows that College Board's annual net profits are about $62 million dollars. This begs the question, where does that money go? Do CEOs receive benefits that are written off as "salaries"? Do new, lavish buildings get credited as "overhead"? I wonder.... Hopefully, College Board will attempt a grasp at morality and try to make getting into college more affordable!

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