College Board Profile: Is it a scam?

Paying for College
1

<p>I don't know if this topic has been adressed before, but it sure does bother me.</p>

<p>Why, exactly, does it cost $18 to send the Profile form to a given school? What are we receiving for that amount? Why is the Fafsa (which is free and asks substantially the same questions) not sufficient?</p>

<p>Finally, why is the College Board so inefficient? I submitted my forms on February 2. I checked later and found that they will be transmitted to the selected schools on February 10 (so much for making several college's Feb. 1 deadline). Why, when everything is in electronic form, do they delay this transfer of information for over a week? Surely, they are not reading these forms themselves.</p>

<p>Why do we put up with the College Board and their exploitive charges? What can be done to change this system?</p>

2

<p>I don't why it costs, but some schools offer forms that can be used in lieu of the profile.</p>

3

<ol>
<li><p>It costs money because the creation and monitoring of the software used to run the Profile costs money. I believe the College Board is a non-profit organization. Perhaps they charge more than their costs for this service and use this to subsidize other services that the College Board provides below cost, but it is not surprising to me that this service costs money. FAFSA costs money as well, but is paid for through tax dollars. The fact that it is free to you does not mean it is free!</p></li>
<li><p>The Profile asks questions about real estate assets and other financial assets that the FAFSA does not ask. In fact, in some cases the Congress has made a political decision that federal student aid shoud not be based on real estate assets, presumably in response to complaints from persons in areas with high run-ups in housing prices.</p></li>
<li><p>There are fee waivers for the Profile for low-income students.</p></li>
<li><p>I think it would be interesting to discuss the policy option of intergrating the two forms, and financing all of this with taxpayer money. However, private colleges are unlikely to sign on to such a plan unless the federal government agrees to ask questions that the private colleges consider highly relevant to a family's ability to pay. In other words, Congress would have to stay out of dictating what questions should be on this form.</p></li>
</ol>

4

<p>In response to rdaneel's, point #1: College Board, a part of Educational Testing Services, may be a "non-profit" organization, but it is a very big business, with revenues now approaching one billion dollars a year that come from a multitude of tests (AP, GRE, Toefl, SAT), product sales, and yes, one of the latest inventions, the Profile Form. They pay very big salaries and bonuses--approaching the level of Fortune 500 companies--to their top executives. </p>

<p>Here is a quote from a NY Times article of several years ago . . .
"This money comes directly out of the pockets of test-takers, their parents, and taxpayers from states that contract with E.T.S., people who have no choice but to pay for these tests," said Robert Schaeffer, the public education director of Fairtest, an advocacy group critical of standardized testing. "It's very sad to think how many families' SAT and A.P. fees went straight into bonuses."</p>

<p>I'm just in a mood to gripe since I just had to pay $95 to the College Board to determine if (!) my S is elegible for financial aid at schools to which he may or may not be admitted. Obviously, many colleges can and do create their own forms, and since they are giving out the money, they have the right to ask any question they want of us. It seems that the College Board is used for the convenience of colleges that do not want to collect their own information, certainly not for ours.</p>

<p>sybbie719: that is a very comprehensive overview. I think that would be helpful information to a lot of people. I'm sorry that it's buried in the middle of this thread. Thank you.</p>

5

<p>While you may be frustrated at the concept of paying $18 to file the profile, it could be more frustrating having to find a away to come up with over $40k of your own money. </p>

<p>Personally, I think that 18 is a small price to pay especially if you are looking for or need need based aid which may end up being more that the cost to file the profile at minimum hundreds (or in some cases, thousands times over). </p>

<p>Out of 4000 colleges in the country, we are talking about a few hundred schools that require the profile. Most of these schools, meet 100% of your demonstrated need and will meet that need using a larger percentage of grant aid vs loans. At the end of the day, life is all about choices. No one is going to force you to pay the 18 for the profile or even to file one, but as long as you can live with the outcome, it's all good.</p>

<p>One can choose a school that only uses the fafsa, but keep in mind that the overwhelming majority of them do not meet 100% of your demonstrated need and are really heavy on loans. so it is really up to you if the $18 is "worth" it (I can unequivocably say that in our house, it was more than worth the expense).</p>

<p>Also keep in mind that:</p>

<p>The FAFSA and the CSS profile look at your finanical situation differently and they are essentially used for 2 different reasons.</p>

<p>At minimum you file the FAFSA (at almost every school) to determine your eligibility for federal aid (Pell/ seog grants, stafford and perkins loans). Most public univeristies will just require the fafsa (the exception may be UVA, UNC- CH, Mich and a few others which may require their own forms)</p>

<p>The CSS profile is used at different colleges that distribute their own institutional aid (Many of these schools have much deeper pockets).</p>

<p>Many schools that use a federal methodology to determine EFC will require only the FAFSA. Schools that use an instutional methodology or a combination of the 2 will require the CSS profile or their own FA forms.</p>

<p>Differences between the IM and FM models are</p>

<p>IM collects information on estimated academic year family income, medical expenses, elementary and secondary school tuition and unusual circumstances. FM omits these questions.</p>

<p>IM considers a fuller range of family asset information, while FM ignores assets of siblings, all assets of certain families with less than $50,000 of income, and both home and family farm equity.</p>

<p>FM defines income as the “adjusted gross income” on federal tax returns, plus various categories of untaxed income. IM includes in total income any paper depreciation, business, rental or capital losses which artificially reduce adjusted gross income.</p>

<p>FM does not assume a minimum student contribution to education; IM expects the student, as primary beneficiary of the education, to devote some time each year to earning money to pay for education.</p>

<p>FM ignores the noncustodial parent in cases of divorce or separation; IM expects parents to help pay for education, regardless of current marital status.</p>

<p>FM and IM apply different percentages to adjust the parental contribution when multiple siblings are simultaneously enrolled in college, and IM considers only siblings enrolled in undergraduate programs.</p>

<p>The IM expected family share represents a best estimate of a family’s capacity (relative to other families) to absorb, over time, the costs of education. It is not an assessment of cash on hand, a value judgment about how much a family should be able to use current income, or a measure of liquidity. The final determinations of demonstrated need and awards rest with the University and are based upon a uniform and consistent treatment of family circumstances.</p>

<p>Except in the most extraordinary circumstances, Colleges classifies incoming students as dependent upon parents for institutional aid purposes, even though some students may meet the federal definition of “independence.”</p>

<p>Students enrolling as dependent students are considered dependent throughout their undergraduate years when need for institutional scholarships is determined.</p>

<p>For institutional aid purposes a student may not “declare” independence due to attainment of legal age, internal family arrangements, marriage or family disagreements.</p>

<p>Your COA (cost of attendance) is tuition, room board, books travel expenses and some misc. expenses associated with attending college.</p>

6

<p>parents2,</p>

<p>take solace in the fact that you only have to pay the fee one time :) </p>

<p>it does not cost anything to renew.</p>

7

<p>It does say in the directions to apply submit the Profile at least a week before your deadline, because it takes them that long to get it to the schools. They may be inefficient but they are acknowledging it.</p>

8

<p>I’ve just done my SAT like two weeks ago, when i saw this article from bloomberg about application process for the ivy league and stuff which talked also about collegeboard selling our personal information to universities 30 cents per name. is this illegal?
i’ve been reading the privacy policy but couldn’t get any satisfaction of disproof or proof of them selling it. here are the links:</p>

<p>[Privacy</a> Policy](<a href=“The Privacy Center – College Board Privacy Center”>The Privacy Center – College Board Privacy Center)</p>

<p>[Ivy</a> League Colleges Solicit Students Rejected for Stake of Selectivity - Bloomberg](<a href=“http://preview.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-13/ivy-league-solicits-students-to-boost-selectivity.html]Ivy”>http://preview.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-13/ivy-league-solicits-students-to-boost-selectivity.html)</p>

9

<p>I don’t have anything to add to all the above excellent information, but i do feel the need to note that even if they sent your forms out on the day you submitted - Feb. 2 - they were not going to get to your schools by the Feb. 1 deadline. Just sayin’.</p>

10

<p>3. There are fee waivers for the Profile for low-income students.</p>

<p>Yes, so those who are paying are subsidizing those who don’t.</p>

11

<p>Oh my lord–is THAT where my 18 bucks went??? </p>

<p>Do you really feel aggrieved by that?</p>

12

<p>This thread should be stickied, please.
The info is very useful.</p>

13

<p>Thread goes back to 2007!</p>

14

<p>Really, 2007! You could probably just recycle the whole CC universe every year and people would still get all their questions answered. It’s virtually always the same questions, the same answers year after year after year. ;)</p>

<p>But, really, when you look at the cost of college overall, I really don’t get the posts saying “Why do I have to pay EIGHTEEN dollars??!” It’s a hoot.</p>

15

<p>Quote: Oh my lord–is THAT where my 18 bucks went??? </p>

<p>Do you really feel aggrieved by that? </p>

<p>Actually, yes. A lot of the problems we face in our society are created because those who are looking for a handout are taking advantage of the forced philanthropy imposed upon those who are struggling to make their own way. When you consider the fact that the majority of the people who are in the highest income bracket are routinely capable of legally protecting themselves from tax liability, you will find that the majority of the cost for forced philanthropy ideas such as this are borne by those who have barely worked their way out of the poverty levels which would qualify them for this waiver, and often, they were unable to take advantage of the waiver while they were working their way out of it, simply because they didn’t have the time to invest in researching it’s existence.</p>

<p>I just submitted a request to receive a copy of my old test scores…Aside from their website saying that the price was $21 for my records, the operator at college board wanted $28 plus 10.50 for sending them to me. That’s $38.50 to receive a 4 digit number (University of Maryland only wants $55 to submit my application for review, and most people can get unlimited cellphone service for a whole month for less than $38.50.) AND, to top it all off, they told me that if they were unable to find my records, that the $28 fee was not refundable. This means that they really have no incentive to even look for my records, because they’re essentially getting paid for NOTHING.</p>

<p>Now, last I checked, they had computers back when I took the SAT’s (1999 was a long time ago, I know, but we did have office programs and database software back then.). It doesn’t cost 40 bucks in man-power to pull up a digital record. It does, however, when a company takes advantage of a situation to hoard what are legitimately public records and not allow access without a “gate-keeper fee” such as this. </p>

<p>This is honestly why the world is in financial chaos right now, because too many people are looking for a way to get paid without doing any actual work. Eventually someone is going to realize that when too many people are operating that way, there’s not enough of any actual production to keep our civilization functioning. </p>

<p>College Board is a scam because they are holding education hostage one fee at a time. I use the term “education” loosely here because most colleges and universities are equally complicit in these exploitation practices (Requiring expensive books with multiple “editions” for subjects such as trigonometry, which hasn’t fundamentally changed in thousands of years; lying to parents about crime levels around their institutions; giving “honorary” degrees to undeserving public figures; Running classes with incompetent/absentee professors, etc.)</p>

16

<p>Old thread is old.</p>

<p>But… </p>

<p>

</p>

<p>No one forces you to go to PROFILE schools.
No one forces you to take the SAT or go to schools that require it.
No one forces you to take AP tests. </p>

<p>There, just figured out a way to not contribute a dime to the CB.</p>

17

<p>This thread was originated in 2007 and was briefly revived a year ago…</p>

<p>This is an OLD THREAD.</p>

18

<p>SATS ARE A SCAM!! lol why do you need to pay so much to send a digital copy of the sats?</p>

19

<p>seriously Testninja? some people actually CANNOT at all, in anyway, believe it or not, afford an eighteen dollar fee or especially a $40 fee for an SAT test, so their waiver system is actually quite helpful to those of us who cant pay for it. Just because its inconvenient to some people, or even because they have to give up something to pay this fee doesnt make it wrong when there are others who dont even have the money in the first place–ever.</p>

20

<p>There are no waivers for low income transfers aka scam</p>