<p>Thank you.</p>
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<p>And each and every service that they offer is a choice.</p>
<p>There are plenty of places where you can prep for the SAT (or self prep) that are not involved with college board.</p>
<p>You do not have to take the SAT. You can take the ACT or chose one of the 900 SAT optional schools.</p>
<p>You do not have to take the AP exam (yes, you can take the class without taking the exam. You only submit exam scores if you are looking to get credit). There is dual enrollment, college courses, College now to demonstrate rigor.</p>
<p>The profile is used by ~ 300 schools. This means that ~ 3700 schools do not use the profile.</p>
<p>CB also provides fee waivers for the SAT, applications, AP test and the profile.</p>
<p>Considering the fact that the cost of a 4 year education at many private schools are going to cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $200k if accepted and you receive aid, you have recouped several times over the money that you have so begrudingly given to the CB.</p>
<p>There are always choices and trade-offs related to those choices. It is your choice to apply to a school that requires the SAT for admissions and the profile for the distribution of aid. If you find it so egregious to deal with the college board and feel that they are just ripping you off, it is not a college board issue, it is a college issue as the colleges are using the SAT/profile. Keep your money in your pocket and show those damn colleges by not applying to them. (rant over)</p>
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<p>CB is “not for profit”…it is not “non-profit”. There is a difference. “Non-profit” implies the ability to gain tax exempt status as in something like a charity.</p>
<p>Although it’s been several years since we were seemingly paying College Board for stuff each month, I do agree with those above that are questioning this company. I really felt like it was some great scheme they had going! From SSATs, PSATs, SATs, SAT IIs, APs, GREs, CSS Profile, superscoring, paying to send scores to each school, rushing the scores. What a racket! I also remember the sigh of relief when I sent them my last payment. The “dot-com” in their address says it all!</p>
<p>I guess I still don’t understand the angst directed towards College Board. CB exists ONLY bcos its member colleges want it to. CB offers all of this extra stuff ONLY bcos its member colleges want it to. CB makes money (?) processing the Profile ONLY bcos its members want it to.</p>
<p>In short, CB’s “scheme” or “racket” exists ONLY bcos its’ member colleges want it to exist. Thus, whatever service CB performs, it performs on behalf of it’s member colleges, colleges/scholarships that your kids apply to. Instead of directing angst to CB, don’t apply to its member colleges. Or, complain to your state representative if your instate public still participates in the NM program. For example, a state could develop its own test to replace the psat, could it not?</p>
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<p>Sure, they could, but that doesn’t mean they feel like it. It’s kind of a hassle hiring yet another testing company to generate yet another standardized test just to prove some kind of abstract point to a whiner, and then (if we’re replacing the psat, it doesn’t make sense not to replace the SAT too, right?) you have to create another scholarship committee (there’s more to National Merit than the test; there’s a package that you have to fill out) to evaluate the new application and give out the new scholarships to the new winners. You have to get a lot of people – or a small group of loud, influential people – to complain for any legislator to even begin the process of getting funding for that for the state Education Department.</p>
<p>I’m not big fan of the College Board. Some of you here may remember the time they incorrectly scored a LOT of fall SAT scores…and those scores were not only reported very late but also many were reported incorrectly. My DD had applied EA to two schools and we couldn’t get a human being on the phone to find out WHERE her SAT scores even were…no they were not available online…or anywhere else for weeks. They kept moving the date available later and later and later. The CB can be a PITA at times.</p>
<p>But as others have pointed out…this is the way it is. There are SAT optional schools and there are FAFSA only schools. You don’t HAVE to do a standardized prep course, and you don’t actually HAVE to use any of the services the CB offers.</p>
<p>I will say…I think their customer service is right up there with the DMV, Bank of America, and most health insurance companies…and NO I do not think those folks have good customer service.</p>
<p>We very happily completed (hopefully) the last Profile in this family. It was a day to celebrate. One of our kids will be taking the GRE in a year or two…but so what? It’s the way it is.</p>
<p>I’m not a big fan of CollegeBoard either, but the things that irritate the OP are just standard practice business model stuff. They look for services they can provide that people (and colleges) will pay for. It’s not different than any other business, except like a few other businesses they effectively have a quasi-monopoly. That’s not their fault, though, it’s just business. If another company came along and offered similar services that were more attractive to students, parents, colleges, then the monopoly would weaken.</p>
<p>I understand there is some dissatisfaction that there is this big money-maker business between students and their college admissions process. However if you stick with the public univ. system it’s significantly minimized (as it should be), and if you’re applying to numerous private colleges, you actually get a great return on the money you pay the CollegeBoard in the convenience of simple submission of multiple applications, access to institutional grants and scholarships, and submission of test scores.</p>
<p>I mean, I kind of loathe the CollegeBoard myself, but it’s kind of like hating paying for car repairs. Just one of those things… but it does have its benefits. ;)</p>
<p>I posted this on a different thread a few months ago:</p>
<p>What really chaps my hide is that the CSS Profile costs $16 per each additional school (?$25 for the first one?) and their website is crappy, with no real help on answering the questions, no phone support, and corrections need to be submitted BY HAND.</p>
<p>Compare this with FAFSA - totally free, great website, with little “help” boxes to click on for nearly all questions (and it actually helps!), FABULOUS phone support- very friendly and helpful, and corrections can be made online.</p>
<p>And… (wait for it) … it’s run by the GOVERNMENT. This little fact must really make the rightwingers’ heads spin…</p>
<p>I’m always sure to really compliment the FAFSA phone support people --their system is way, way WAY better than that of the money-sucking College Board, and I tell them so. </p>
<p>Today, I’ll add that the $16 fee really seems out of line - ACT and CB charge $8 or $9 per school to send test scores – why so much more for the Profile?? Highway robbery.</p>
<p>College Board Fee Waivers are available for the SAT, SAT Subject Tests, PSAT, and AP’s: [Fee</a> Waivers & Reductions](<a href=“http://professionals.collegeboard.com/testing/waivers]Fee”>Fee Waivers & Reductions - Education Professionals)</p>
<p>CSS Profile fee waivers are also available. Details about fee waiver eligibility are found in ‘‘CSS/PROFILE Fees and Payment Information.’’ </p>
<p><a href=“https://profileonline.collegeboard.com/prf/2faq.jsp#paying400[/url]”>https://profileonline.collegeboard.com/prf/2faq.jsp#paying400</a>
Q: What are fee waivers and Fee Payment Codes?
A: The College Board waives PROFILE fees for a limited number of first-year, first-time college applicants from families with incomes below the poverty level. The fee waiver covers the PROFILE application and reporting fees for up to six colleges or programs. Fee waivers are awarded automatically to students who qualify based on the information reported on the PROFILE. </p>
<p>Scholarship programs and institutions buy Fee Payment Codes from the College Board and distribute them to students. They cover the application fee and reporting to that program or college.</p>
<p>@college_ruled
What do you mean?</p>
<p>You need to apply for need-based aid each year you’re in college. So while this year you may be submitting the CSS Profile to 5 schools, next year you’ll just submit it to the college you are attending.</p>
<p>The original question of the OP…</p>
<p>Does anybody else feel that it’s wrong that CollegeBoard monopolizes ability for aid?</p>
<p>is just wrong. CB does not monopolize the ability to get aid.</p>
<p>CB should not be blamed for being in the business of transmitting CSS/Profile info for colleges. Yes, I agree that CB can improve its cusotmer service, website and other services pointed above. Thinking of any other company would be ‘out of the frying pan and into the fire’.</p>
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<p>I haven’t seen anyone post with “angst” which implies fear or some sort of anxiety. Mostly people that dislike CB dislike that they charge two times what ACT charges for the same product. That they have an on-line application system that would be decried as a giantic “fail” by most businesses due to lack of user friendliness and truncating without warning and an inability to update and transmit additional information, a company that has developed high school classes that cost public schools, taxpyers and students money, and they receive your private financial information but aren’t regulated. Angst is not the correct word…maybe disdain or repugnance but not angst. No one HAS to utilize any of the CB offerings if they don’t want to and I have no doubt someone will build a better mousetrap one of these days. Fee waivers for indigent famililes is the very least CB can be doing.</p>
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They do for many top school. Many people are not going to not apply to their favorite schools because they have to pay College Board.</p>
<p>They do for many top school. Many people are not going to not apply to their favorite schools because they have to pay College Board.</p>
<p>Then that is their choice.
We all have different criteria we use when selecting schools.
Some of the criteria we considered involved transportation- both to and from home & in and around the college town.
We didn’t use whether or not a school used certain forms to help them determine finaid- but we did consider what % of need a school met.
Another family is certainly able to select out schools that use PROFILE, if they choose- no one is forcing them to do otherwise.</p>