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With the college admissions process in full swing, high-school seniors are scrambling to submit applications to prestigious institutions. Due to high-school education varying, many colleges believe a national set of measures is needed to assess the abilities of students. To accomplish this, students and college admissions officers rely on a third party, the College Board.
The nonprofit organization offers Advanced Placement (AP) subject tests and the SAT, both designed to evaluate aptitude. The College Board has an effective monopoly over the testing industry and has the authority to charge for exams at exorbitant rates. To get an idea, the cost for an SAT is $60 per test and AP exams are $96 each, which doesn’t include other miscellaneous fees.
This strains the gap between low-income students and economically privileged students. Wealthier students have the advantage of affording SAT preparation or retaking the test to achieve better scores. Low-income students are not gifted this privilege and may consequently be viewed as less qualified applicants (there are some fee waivers and reductions available to some students). Furthermore, the preparation of the AP curriculum depends on the quality of the high school, which fluctuates wildly.
Recently, colleges have been straying from standardized tests as many are test-optional due to COVID-19. The removal of standardized testing allows admission officers to holistically evaluate students through means other than test scores. This temporary movement demonstrates that applications can be comprehensively considered without the iron grip of the College Board. It’s time we re-examine the effectiveness of the College Board.
Jane Wu
Ellsworth