Having talent and potential is only half of the college equation. The College Board serves as the crucial complement. Without it, your path to college might be impossible.
Across the United States, the College Board operates the gate to each high school student’s bright college futures. Every student who wants to get into a decent university must take the SAT and numerous AP tests, which are all written and distributed by the College Board. In 2023, more than 1.9 million students took the SAT, and in 2022, more than 4 million AP tests were administered in public schools alone.
To force its curriculum into high schools, the College Board uses tactics such as aggressive lobbying and state contracts. The organization has the scary power to dictate curriculums because colleges use SAT and AP scores as a baseline for admission. If anyone tries to deviate from the College Board path, the door to college will shut on them like the Red Sea violently sealing.
This naturally brings up the question: how much money does the College Board make? In 2022, the College Board brought in more than $1 billion in revenue. The organization doesn’t care about students and has the hidden goal of earning excessive revenue for its “nonprofit” company.
First, the College Board charges students at every possible turn. Want to take the SAT? That’ll be $68. Registered late? That’s an additional $34. Canceling the test? Expect a fee of $29.
A counter argument may be that the College Board spends around 90% of its revenue, keeping relatively little for “reinvestment.” But I’m not buying how the College Board spends $900 million in creating and distributing tests each year. Considering its identity as a 501(c)3 nonprofit, the College Board makes it suspiciously hard for people to look into what they do with their earnings.
On top of that, according to “Follow the Money,” the College Board holds $1.7 billion as of 2023 that can be used to “finance any College Board related activity”. So why are they still receiving government grants? Even crazier, the Department of Education can’t oversee their activity because the College Board is privately owned and operated.
Suspiciously, according to Forbes, the College Board holds $162 million in tax havens in the Caribbean and undisclosed amounts in accounts on tropical islands. High-up officials in the College Board “nonprofit” ecosystem also receive insane compensation, with its CEO receiving an annual salary of $1.8 million.
Yes, the College Board does help waive fees for low-income students, but that only amounts to 10% of its revenue. I don’t deny this is a good action carried out by the College Board, but it does not cancel out the shady things the nonprofit participates in.
With the current circumstances, it’s difficult, if not impossible, for students or schools to abandon the College Board because of its deep roots in the college admission system. Unless major reforms are made, we will continue to feed into this system for the foreseeable future.
