<p>Interesting article. Several assumptions that you can blow holes in, plus a few factual inaccuracies (you get a few free SAT reports), however I know people who spent $15,000+ getting their kids into college. </p>
<p>The</a> Real Cost of Applying to College: The Price of Admission - Bloomberg</p>
<p>Dinners to court alumni at reach schools?! So ridiculous like most of the items listed.</p>
<p>Probably for most students it just means applying to the community college and getting admitted there.</p>
<p>And for many others, it means paying one or a few application fees to apply to one or a few state universities, and possibly costs associated with SAT or ACT if needed at those universities.</p>
<p>And even many of those applying to super selective schools don’t do all or even most of the stuff described in the article.</p>
<p>I agree that most of the stuff they itemize is nonsense that few people bother with. But visiting campuses is important and that’s where the costs can really add up.</p>
<p>They obviously left out the donating a wing of a building for 1 million dollars at a competitive reach school.</p>
<p>“Typical high school student in suburban New Jersey” my eye! I grew up in NY/NJ. Try “we polled an exclusive NJ enclave to see how the rich get into school”.</p>
<p>How could taking “prominent alumni” out to dinner possibly affect an admissions decision?!?</p>
<p>Most of these expenses are just ridiculous. I live in suburban New York. The college applications will cost money, yes, and the college visits (but not as much as the article suggests, because I can’t take time off for 4-day tours -staying overnight to visit Dartmouth), maybe some on-campus interviews, the SAT fee, one SAT book and maybe the on-line course, financial aid filing fee. </p>
<p>ECs -$75 for track team, $200 contribution to NYLF (the other $1800 or so was covered by scholarship, family and other donations). </p>
<p>Research - $0. Internet. </p>
<p>I don’t know any “typical” family that spends that much for the application process.</p>
<p>Am I the only one who thought the article was a parody?</p>
<p>Actually, if you did everything, I could imagine you pay about that much (and I could even add some other things that weren’t mentioned). But who does everything? For example, who takes multiple trips to visit colleges and ends up spending $3,210 for each visit? Who’d even spend a total of 12 days and nights visiting? Realistically you’d tag a visit onto some other vacation or trip.</p>
<p>The biggest chunk of change came from doing a summer academic program (~$10K) plus a volunteer summer program at some refugee camp (~$5K). </p>
<p>AP tutors, test feees, prep classes. So why didn’t they include food and rent to get through those four years of high school or the gas our car gobbled as we drove our kids to their ECs. Enough already!</p>
<p>Is it too late to send the flowers to the teachers who wrote letters three years ago?</p>