In 1900, College Board was made to organize the college admissions process, which at the time, was very disorganized due to the lack of standardized testing and curricula. In 1945, around fifteen percent of colleges used SAT scores. Today, ninety-five percent of colleges take SAT or ACT scores, either requiring them or going testing optional (the other five percent don’t use them at all in admissions). Since the number of schools that look at not just SAT, but AP test scores are now nearly one-hundred percent, College Board runs a monopoly on the testing business.

The cost of an AP class is a significantly lower price than the cost of the same courses in college. The average cost of an AP test is $95, while the average cost of a college credit (including public, private, and community) college is $594. Some AP classes even count as multiple college credits. People who take enough AP tests and get passing scores often have enough credits to enter many colleges as a sophomore or higher. 

College Board keeps information organized, as students can keep their SAT score, AP class information, and college searches all on one website. For many students, the resources it provides, including a scholarship search, videos explaining the concepts for each AP class unit, and help for  students looking for colleges, make the cost well worth it. College Board even partnered with Khan Academy to make a free resource for those who want to study for the SAT, but might not have the funds or time for a rigorous testing class.

College Board gives schools more opportunities to host advanced classes and includes a wide variety of advanced classes from heavily taken classes like AP Psychology to less offered classes like AP Japanese Language and Culture.

These classes create an environment for students who focus heavily on their education, close to one they might experience in college.

Not to mention, the Twitter memes after the PSAT are spectacular.

The largest complaints about College Board are its monopoly on the testing industry and its label as a “nonprofit”. Although the College Board seems more like a business due to its profit of around $150 million, it is considered a nonprofit. In extremely simple terms, a nonprofit means that none of the profit made should benefit one person. This obviously contradicts the $872,061 salary of the president or the $355,271 average salary of College Board’s 23 executives.

The profit doesn’t go back to students at all, and it does not make any fees lower. Some fees even prey on people who fear the test, like the $17 “see answer” cost and the $20 to send colleges the test.

Since College Board is a monopoly, it has no incentive to lower its prices. The absurd prices for sending scores to colleges (despite it being digital and extremely easy to send) make no sense.

The high costs of the tests make it hard for underprivileged kids to sign up, especially because the costs of taking several AP and SAT tests reach into the hundreds of dollars—funds that have to be paid off at once, which can present a financial burden to families of students who might not have several hundred dollars to spend at a given time. The kids who can afford tutors and books for the specific test do better than those who can’t afford private tutors. Adding the price of gas and hotels needed to reach tests that cannot be driven to comfortably in the morning, the price is excessively high. There is also a lot of poor communication with College Board canceling tests last minute without warning and losing tests with no way to make up for lost credit.

The lucky kids who have access to the money and the means to get to the test, as well as tutors and practice books, obviously do better on the SAT. SAT scores have become a measure of opportunities, not intelligence.

Although there are many positive benefits that College Board provides, there are major issues with its system, branching from the fact that it’s called a nonprofit. The money simply isn’t going where it needs to be, and it can’t label itself as a nonprofit while its executives make so much. We don’t need to hold them accountable as educators, but as a nonprofit. If College Board truly wants to be a nonprofit, they need to focus on making their services more accessible and less-profit based.