“Hey, Mom, I found out the other day that we have already spent about $2,000 in preparation for a college that I do not attend.”

“Wait—what?”

“Yeah; I added up all the expenses: AP tests, sending AP scores, SAT scores, PSAT fees, sending SAT scores, College in the High School credits, and application fees. What’s crazy is that I haven’t taken as many AP classes or National tests as my friends. So, they probably have paid more towards college than I have.”

“Well, all of those expenses are supposed to be a good investment, right?”

See, that’s the problem with the system. College is an amazing investment but as the tuition prices get higher, people need to be aware of how much the total investment costs: both leading up and attending.

The most important issue is the expense for the application fees, the SAT and ACT fees, and sending those tests scores. It is essential that a student pays each of these because most colleges require these tests scores and won’t recognize students without them.

So, why do we have to pay $59 per SAT, and then $14 more every time we send these scores to a school?

With this style of payment, it feels as if the College Board is economically exploiting the students. College Board is essentially giving a down payment with interest which is wrong since its targets are at such a young age. There are people who take the SAT and ACT for nearly a year to get the best overall or super score that they possibly can. People should not be restricted on the amount of retakes they can have because of their finances.

Then there are application fees which add around $50-$85 to the admission process at the end. The main problem with the fees is that funding the colleges already have could lower these prices, but do not. The funding comes from donations sent by the alumni, sports fans, and, depending on the school, the state. I’m not going to propose that taxes should be raised to make college free, but there can be better organization of how the donations are split so it can incorporate tuition and application fees.

Colleges are already known for making students pay tens of thousands of dollars per year, so why should students have to pay so much just to get admitted? Because college is deemed necessary by society to be successful in life, students should have safe, inexpensive admission to decrease future debt.