I think we’ve deviated away from the purpose of this post which is to criticize the College Board’s incompetence and greed.
@GMTplus7 I agree they should not be free but it should be $5. That is what my High School charges for transcripts and my High School sends them right away. I think that is reasonable. If they are going to charge $11.25 then then they need to send them right away. It is only fair. Does the ACT do this crap too? If they don’t I’m going to tell my sister to take the ACT when she gets into High School.
@uesmomof2 Exactly, the College Board doesn’t actually care about the students. As shown in the article they were willing to ignore an inconvenience at the expense of the students. Who are they to do that? Yet, no one knows of this story because they lobby with the politicians who protect them. It is sickening. I can’t wait for the education system to say “We’ve had enough!” and encourage kids to take the ACT instead. If I had the money I would sue the **** out of them and enjoy it.
Lmao, its cool that four of you saw fit to criticize my amount of college apps while simultaneously saying nothing new regarding the main topic. Most of those apps were free and 8 of those schools already had my scores on file. Most of the apps were simple click and sends, maybe a cut and pasted statement. Absolutely nothing was ridiculous, I’m not applying to twenty two schools with hard and long application processes. But good on you for making snap and irrational judgements based on incredibly limited information. Something you won’t do to the CB apparently.
Yea, you guys have to consider that a lot of us get free application offers. I would be surprised if anyone applied to more then 15 schools and paid for all of those applications.
The ACT works the same way with free scores only if you send before you know the score. For reports though, each sitting costs whatever ($11ish?) so if a school requires all scores and you have multiple sittings, that can get expensive.
@OHMomof2 Alright, I guess it isn’t unique to College board. Thanks for the info. How long does the ACT take to send scores?
@OHMomof2 ACT is 12 normal, however, they have a comparatively reasonable 16 for rushed scores
I really don’t know how long they take, they don’t send a notification when they arrive at colleges, and colleges don’t always update their portal list of received docs very quickly. Same with Sat as I recall.
@OHMomof2 SAT notifies you when your scores are sent. @ADonkeyFly WOW! I like that $16 rushed. Much better than the $31 the SAT charges.
@intparent: What one centralized processed form are you talking about? CSS is not, by any stretch of the imagination, an exhaustive list of private college and universities. For CSS, of the 12 schools to which my D’16 applied only 5 use/accept the CSS. After reviewing the financial aid history for those participating schools and our own personal financial situation I only submitted to 3 of those schools. One of them only because they use the CSS Profile to help determine ANY/ALL merit awards. I will be the first to admit that I am new to this whole college app process and I may not know much. But isn’t the FAFSA a standardized centralized form? Why do I need to fill out both? Don’t they both provide the same info? Wouldn’t just the FAFSA be sufficient? OH yeah, that one is free!
@mommdc Why do you keep talking about fee waivers like they are handed out like candy? The whole world does not qualify for a fee waiver. Practice tests are not always accurate. (D’16 took a prep course did sufficiently well on the practice test, took her first test and had less than stellar results but recovered for the second sitting but still not as well as she had on the practice tests) Would you tell someone to submit a professionally prepared resume for a job without reviewing it first? I mean they submitted all the correct info I am sure resume preparers prepared the resume perfectly, right? On your job, do you submit work to a superior or customer without checking it first? Why do you think it is good advice to tell a student to blindly submit a score?
I am not arguing that a student shouldn’t plan ahead and to make sure that they aren’t relying on a last minute score to make an ED/EA deadline. Nor do I disagree that 22 college applications is way beyond (way beyond, lol). It would suggest that poster may not have done his/her due diligence to ensure the college/universities to which they were applying were a good fit academically/financially/socially. It implies that he/she is applying just because he/she can. But, I do not know their personal situation either.
Just because my D’16 was able to have her tests taken and scores submitted early doesn’t mean that works for everyone. She also has all of her Apps completed and submitted, EA and RD with LORs, transcripts and scores and all submitted and she is certain that she is truly interested in attending all 12 (yes, also a “ridiculous” number of applications) Bully for us!
You may recall…back in the day…when you (ok maybe just me because I am so old) took the SAT it was reported to your HS and that info was then transmitted to the colleges to which you were applying via your “horror” HS transcript. The colleges were happy with that report. No need to pay CB. I am guessing that somewhere along the line someone at SAT recognized that they could fund their non profit by asking students to pay for their score reports. CB convinced college and universities that they really NEEDED the “official” score report not just the score reported on the HS transcript and thus a money making avenue was paved.
Again, I ask…Why, if the score report was free to send when I register, why does it cost to send same score report if I wait more than a week after taking the test to decide where I want to send it? Why not give “x” number of free reports to be used at the students discretion? Even if they limit it to just 1 or 2 reports? I am just guessing here… because someone at CB saw an opportunity to earn some bucks.
And can someone please address why ACT/SAT thought it was a good idea to change reporting standards now in the middle of students trying to report scores? In what business model was that a good plan? Someone said it earlier it would be like a tax firm changing its computer system on April 1.
If anyone thinks CB/ACT are operating solely for the benefit of the student and are not deeply concerned with turning a healthy profit, I have some really nice land in Florida that you might be interested in purchasing.
Re: 22 schools
Someone applying to 23 CSU campuses would send one application and one set of SAT or ACT scores. S/he would still pay 23 application fees unless some are covered by fee waivers.
My kids didn’t take the SAT 3 times. Twice, and neither took a prep class (self studied). If your parents can’t afford for you to test, then you should also have thought twice about applying to 22 schools, since it does have an expense involved for sending scores and the CSS Profile. Too bad if you are surprised by it, but it is documented on the CB website, and not that different than the other testing services.
Also… if you apply to grad school, wait til you see how much it costs just to sit for the GRE – $195 to take the standard GRE. And if you also need a GRE subject test, that is another $150. If you want to take the LSAT, that is $165. And the GMAT is $250. That is just to take the tests. And those are not administered by College Board.
The FAFSA is used to determine your eligibility for federal grants and loans. Some state schools and schools that do not meet need anyway just use the FAFSA to collect your info, but the reason is because they probably aren’t going to meet need anyway. The profile is intended to take a deeper dive and give info the schools can use to figure out what assets and income are available in addition to the FAFSA info (for example, ex spouses and their new spouses income and assets). Yes, some schools have their own forms as well in addition to those two. But a large percentage of the top 100 colleges and LACs use the profile. They are able to customize a bit so you are asked a few additional questions for a specific school if that school wants something extra. I certainly don’t love filling out any of them – but if you want a school to give you a price break because you can’t afford to pay full price, it makes sense for them to ask for a lot of info to prove that out.
removed by poster as argumentative
I think there is a reason the “4 before” is free. On that test, the grading and sending is automated upfront. So no need to process a request.
I don’t know what the right $ is tho. Nor how many colleges is too many. (Perhaps casting a wide net for aid or merit). Where we live, 12-15 is pretty common.
I do agree they dropped the ball this year. Both with that earlier test, leading to this…no one expected that. I suppose it is a valuable lesson in getting it all done well before. Hard lesson tho.
My S took one of each test. He sent ACT to 9 schools on Oct 1. All made it.
Good luck all.
(PS: there is no cause of action for a lawsuit, unfortunately. And even if there was, you’d just get your fee back:(
@HRSMom Oh man just as I was about to post something. Yes I am casting a very wide net because due to extenuating circumstances my family has zero dollars to give me to go to college, and because my mom earns her money through commision she will make too much money for me to receive nearly enough Federal and State Aid. So Im applying to schools that are way below my statline, and those might even reject me due to my 3.2W gpa with a few F’s I got earlier in my career. So no, 22 schools is not ridiculous for me, because I might not be able to feasibly attend those instituions anyway. At least that’s what we thought at the time. Turns out I’ll get plenty of aid and now the costs of applying to these schools is effecting us a bit. Still irked that you all saw it fit to bash on me for a pretty offhand remark about the amount of schools I sent scores to.
So you are looking for merit. Here is a way to see what your chances are. Google the common data set for reach school. Look for the stats on non-need based aid. What % of students got it (remember to use the whole student body to calculate that %, not just the incoming class). Do your stats fall within that same % of the top of the class? Say 10% get aid – are your stay in the top 10%? It is a rough measure, but gives you an idea if you are in the ballpark.
Then if you get the average amount, will the school be affordable?
Also read the school website about merit aid to pick up hints there about how it is awarded.
If you do this, you might be able to eliminate some schools based on this info.
But now you say you will get aid… Is that based on the net price calculators for each school? If your parents are divorced, own rental property, or a small business, they aren’t too accurate.
Also, if you do get merit, many schools just reduce your need based aid by that amount. You have to ask the schools, it often is not clear on their website.