APs, SATs, PSATs, and late fees—while you stress and lose yourself by taking them, the monopoly owning them, CollegeBoard, gets to profit immensely from your stress and desperation. While it may seem contradictory as CollegeBoard prides themselves on being a non-profit organization to help students prepare for college, their practices of dominating the education industry then squeezes as much stress and despair as possible to fund their corporate empire. All to sell you the illusion of being academically successful. The CollegeBoard—a “non-profit” educational organization that owns the previously mentioned Advanced Placement courses, SATs, the Accuplacer, PSATs, etc—is a dishonest monopoly that uses their dominance in the industry along with deceptive marketing to pressure students into taking their products to, ironically, make a profit.
The organization didn’t start out as the powerful empire it’s known as today. Rather, it started quietly connected with elite universities. The CollegeBoard started with the College Entrance Examination Association and their goal to limit confusion and chaos in college admissions through standardizing the college admission process and curricula across the US. They proposed their idea to elite universities like Columbia, Princeton, and other “middle states” in 1900. As time went on, they grew massive influence and expanded their services to offer SAT and Advanced Placement courses. That may sound fine until you realize how much money they squeeze out from students through testing fees. According to business magazine Forbes, The CollegeBoard generates $200-$300 million from the SATs fees alone and almost $500 million from $99 AP tests alone, a total of $800 million in testing revenue. It seems like the organization’s mission shifted when they realized the amount of revenue they get from students. Besides the ridiculous testing costs for high school students, most without a job, the CollegeBoard seems to be raking in nearly a billion dollars in revenue from milking as much money as they can from students who take many APs and the SAT just so they feel somewhat successful, ironically mimicking corporate actions and revenue for a “nonprofit.”
Aside from their corporate actions and revenue previously mentioned, they engage in shady business practices to make sure they’re at the top with enough money to fund top executives. Operting like a corporation rather than a nonprofit. According to the think tank organization, New America, the CollegeBoard’s 990 tax forms show that the organization has doubled their federal and state lobbying funds since the new CEO took over, with their aggression causing Colorado to switch from ACT to SAT requirement for 11th graders. By doing this, not only do they kill competition such as the ACT, they send a message that they’ll go for any other alternative just to maintain their sole role in the industry—or in other words—their monopoly. For an organization that prides itself on being “not-for-profit” and “putting students first”, the organization seems to want to give their top executives a million-dollar salary. According to non-profit newsroom ProPublica, CEO David Coleman received a $2 million compensation package, significantly more than the average compensation for other non-profit organization executives. The CollegeBoard, especially under the new management of David Coleman, can’t help but want to increase their dominance and power in the education industry, even if it causes a lack of transparency. They favor corporate-like profit and aggressive lobbying to make sure they are the only choice you can have.
But this feeling of being trapped and forced to only rely on the CollegeBoard isn’t just in Colorado or the West, it’s right here in Eleanor Roosevelt. In a survey conducted on behalf of the Raider Review, 67.6% of students surveyed feel that the CollegeBoard in recent years has prioritized profit over learning. Especially with the prices of the SAT and AP exams. 70.6% of students surveyed also wish there were more alternatives to standardized testing and advanced courses beyond just CollegeBoard. What this highlights is that students internally are also noticing the power CollegeBoard has over them. They’ve noticed CollegeBoard’s shift towards profit instead of prioritizing their original mission of education and order within the chaos of college admissions.
While it’s nearly impossible to dismantle the CollegeBoard overnight—especially with their money and lobbying power to protect their monopoly—that doesn’t mean that we students should give up or stay silent. The first step is simple: talk about it. This takes away their weaponized secrecy, and pressure builds. Add civic pressure by pressuring schools and lawmakers through complaints, conversations with school board executives, and contacting local to state lawmakers to reconsider our dependency on the CollegeBoard. The CollegeBoard may be a monopoly, but no monopoly survives once the public decides we won’t support or indulge, and that decision is in our hands.
