Almost every HSMSE student reading this article is either taking or has taken an AP, and likely taken the SAT, or will do in the future. As HSMSE students may be aware, this is done through a private entity known as the College Board. But what problems lie with the College Board and how can we best face them? Four of The Echo’s reporters explored this topic together.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Ocean Hiller: All four of us have gathered today to discuss the College Board. We’re all in different parts of our high school and college application journeys, so I was curious [about] what brought each of us [here] to share our opinions?

Zagreus O’Hare: The reason that I started looking into it [is] partly because I’m interested in how our education system functions as a whole and also because you … never hear anything good about any part of our education system except from the education system [itself]. What I was originally going to do was talk about why College Board seems to be so disliked; what do people hate about [it] specifically? Because you usually just hear, “College Board bad,” and then they just leave it at that. But then there’s obviously a reason to it. There’s obviously a [reason] that people hate College Board as much as they seem to do. 

Ariam Tedla: I’m currently a second-semester junior, so the college process is kind of on everyone’s mind. Unfortunately, [and] I think Isaac can also relate to that since we’re in the same grade, I feel like especially something that College Board does that rubs me the wrong way is that everything now is for college. It’s supposed to be an educational institution that promotes education, but it’s literally in the name: College Board. It just feels like an institution that’s taking advantage of high schoolers and the fact that they need some sort of validation and quote-unquote authenticity, whether that’s in their SAT score, the APs that they take and the scores that they get on them, and just all of these other factors that apparently now define the high school experience when it really isn’t what education should be about.

Isaac Kim: I agree with that. I also like to point out that a lot of the stuff with the SAT and College Board as a whole, so including the APs, [is that] they’re all standardized tests. Standardized tests, despite the fact that they’re institutionalized all throughout America, have actually been proven to harm test-takers and people’s understanding of concepts and subjects, because it forces them to understand, “How do I best solve this test?” instead of understanding, “How do I best understand the ideas and the concepts behind it?” So I feel like [that factor], along with the [racial and social aspect], causes a lot of problems in America.

OH: I’m a senior, and I’ve finished college apps and committed to a college. I feel like [College Board is] a really dirty institution whose eugenicist history isn’t talked about enough … Boiling our intelligence down into numbers and standards is something that’s really damaging to our well-being and our perceptions of ourselves as students. I think college applications are really corrupt and dehumanizing, and the College Board is at the center of a lot of that.

ZO: Actually, on [that note], the original purpose of the SAT was to prove other races or religions [as] fundamentally uneducatable. [While] it doesn’t now, obviously, as much, that’s still [what it’s] rooted in, and College Board apparently has refused to acknowledge that fact.

OH: Yeah, I really agree with you, Zagreus. 2026 actually marks exactly 100 years since the first administration of the SAT. Obviously, times were very different, but I think the way the SAT operates [now] still reflects a lot of inequities in class and race. It’s not something that can just be swept under the rug. 

OH: Regarding tests and AP classes, another thing is that they’re so expensive. At our school, each AP exam costs $99 for the regular fee and then still $37 for [the] reduced fee. College Board still calls itself a non-profit while it holds $2 billion in revenue. So do you think that these costs are fair and that it’s actually a non-profit? 

AT: Yeah, absolutely not.

ZO: It very much does treat non-profit more along the lines of a tax debt instead of a business model. But also, considering that it isn’t just $99 for the APs, it is $99 per AP, which you’ll obviously be taking multiple [of in] a year, and if you ever retake them for whatever reason, then you still have to pay for them again. There’s a lot of other small processes in between that can also tell you even more. 

If, for whatever reason, you don’t get your score, which seems to be a fairly common problem, you can pay them to just tell you your score. [This] means [that] after paying for one of their tests and [taking] it, just to know how well you did, you then have to pay more money on top of that to a non-profit organization that is a necessary part of any person’s education if [you] plan to go past high school, which at this point almost everyone does. 

IK: I also think that the money barrier, even though they give some sort of reduced fee for some people, it’s also still a very clear barrier in the entry to the college world and to wider business success. [Tests like] the New York Regents—sure, they aren’t really the greatest benchmark for education, but they’re still free because they’re trying to assess the level of all New Yorkers. If you’re making this important test that colleges are going to pay a lot of attention to, your best interest should be to spread them to as [many] people as possible in the most [effective way] possible. [But] adding a price tag that’s as outrageous as $99 is for some people it’s just a very clear barrier to those people as well.

AT: It’s not even just the AP exams [but] the SAT also, unless it’s school administered … costs money to take. And I’ve heard some people argue that in the grand scheme of things, sometimes paying for APs can actually be cheaper in the long run because some colleges offer credit for AP classes. In a way it’s like saying if you pay $99 to take an AP class and you do well then you can skip paying however much it costs at a certain college for that semester.

I do think that [College Board] doesn’t consider that financial situations are often very present and they cause short-term problems where a lot of people can’t afford to pay $99 or $37 out of pocket and for however many exams even if it “helps you” in the long run. The effects it will have in the short [term] are not insignificant.

The fact [is] that the SAT … doesn’t really grant you any future cost in college. [It’ll] improve your application, but now some schools are test optional. So you’re having this “nationally recognized exam” that you have to pay for, but it’s not going to help you in college. It’s literally just … a test that’s a bunch of questions that everyone answers, and then you get a score. And then not only do you have to pay for that, you have to pay to report that when it doesn’t end up having any real significance in your future. [Y]ou’re not going to be, like, 27 years old and be like, “I got a 1530 on the SAT.” 

OH: I really agree with your points, and I think money is so entrenched in the college applications process in a way that isn’t that apparent when you first start. Application fees can range between $60 to $90 per school … a lot of people in my grade applied to over 15 schools, and then when you add all that up, it just becomes insane. 

OH: Ariam mentioned that there’s sort of been this movement among colleges to be test-optional or even test-blind when it comes to the SAT or ACT. Do you guys think that that should spread to more colleges, and what are the costs or benefits? 

ZO: As someone who is probably going to take the ACT over [the] SAT, I haven’t actually done too much looking into how the ACT and SAT are different. But considering the fact that I did get drastically different scores between them on practice tests—on the ACT, I ended up doing way better on practice [tests]. There’s definitely something that goes on within how the tests are made that you don’t notice, but I can tell that they change something significant with that … the SAT feels much more fast-paced. To me, I thought the ACT felt a lot more methodical compared to the SAT. But the SAT is a lot of questions where if you just know how to do them quickly, you can do them in like 20 to 30 seconds. But the ACT, you do still have to think quite a decent amount about each question … the ACT also gives more time than the SAT. 

AT: A lot of people who I’ve talked to have taken both the SAT and the ACT. I think that the ACT structure is a lot more flexible because, one, you have a composite score, which is kind of your average, but then you also have your individual scores. I know friends who have gotten 36 on the ACT, but it’s not [that] they got 36 on every single category. They got 36 on math, and then a 34 on English. 

I’m not saying that’s exactly how the scores are calculated, but college admissions nowadays have very short reviews and have to look at numbers very quickly. An admissions officer who’s looking at applications can see “oh, they got a 36 on their ACT, they must be smart” even though … the test [might] work better for them because [of how] their mind works. 

Also, it doesn’t require perfection to get a 36 or a very good score on the ACT. Something I think is so interesting about the SAT is that it’s, in my opinion, a lot less forgiving when you make a mistake. [This is because] first off, the SAT, with the exception of three questions per module max, is worth something. And it’s not in the sense where you know how much each question is worth. So if you get a question wrong that a lot of people got wrong, then you might end up being excused from it. But if you don’t, and then you get a different question wrong that maybe not a lot of people got, it could end up being heavily penalized. 

And then when you’re reporting your score for the SAT, because every question is worth at least a little bit, it ends up being subject to a lot more comparison because you can say, “I got a 1570,” [or] “I got a 1540.” And you can literally tell it’s the difference between like three questions, which in the grand scheme of things is not that much, but then people put so much weight on it, especially since the College Board doesn’t offer that many resources for studying for the SAT. I think it’s so interesting that they’ve developed a system where high school students [compete] for a score within their own peer circle, even when it’s just a matter of one or two questions. 

OH: I wanted to offer one last question. So, I think all of us have clearly expressed a lot of frustration with the College Board and standardized testing as it exists now. Are there any reforms that you guys envision in a realistic world or an ideal one? 

IK: I think we need to … replace [College Board] with some sort of [Department of Education] thing. I feel like because, while College Board is certainly functional—as [in] literally giving the tests out—it’s clear that they’re using finances to profit off of it … [such as] the [2] billion dollars they have. And I don’t think that’s very acceptable in an [educational] institution. If we swap all those resources to the government instead, it will be via tax dollars and you won’t be billed for each individual AP. And I feel like that will make everything more accessible and more available to all students in America. 

ZO: I also would agree with that. Binding [College Board] to the, just as an example, the DOE, to try and make things more uniform and equal, would also work out very well, considering that the whole concept behind public schools is that people can get a free education here, which they then serve as a really good thing. Education should be free. But then it seems very disingenuous to … boast the claim of, “hey, you can get an education fee here, but then you don’t.” That just isn’t true in any sense of the word. You do spend a lot of money in the education process later, and earlier on it is generally not a cost, but once you get to college admissions and go through College Board, then since they can’t effectively charge whatever they want … they do and as long as people keep buying them and going through them, then no, your education is not free; no matter what they tell you, that’s just not accurate.

AT: I agree with you partially on that. I do think that there’s definitely flaws with the College Board system and I definitely hate the fact that they charge so much for their services. However, I think transferring everything to the government, especially in the current political state of our country, where things are very polarized and it’s often really hard to bring reform about in almost any department or to pass any kind of law, [will likely not be possible]. I feel like, one, the process of transferring everything would just be very messy and could often lead to probably the worst problem; or two, it’s going to end up being this very national exam. I’m not saying it’s bad, but for example, in China they have the Gaokao exam … there’s a lot of significance on it, and it often leads to [some level of success at the] cost of their health and their mental state. While I disagree with a lot of the stuff that College Board does, I do think the fact that they’re a private institution gives them a lot more freedom. I just wish that freedom was exercised in the interest of the students and not in the interest of making money and hiding behind the term non-profit. If there was a way to remove that cloud of fakeness from College Board that they’re [non]-profit and that they provide education for free and if there’s more transparency in the system, I think it wouldn’t be necessary to kind of risk a whole entire rearrangement.

OH: I think that’s a really beautiful point to end off on. Thank you, everyone!