how come act and sat scores can't just be sent to common app and distributed from there?

outrageous that applicants have to play $12 PER COLLEGE just to send the scores, instead of being able to send the scores to the common app and then manage the scores from there.

The ACT and CB make money this way. It’s pretty simple.

I second @marvin100 . To advance after qualifying as a National Merit Scholar Semifinalist, I had to send my SAT scores from college board to college board for an additional $12. Ridiculous that after taking both the PSAT and SAT, which are paid college board tests, they would still make me pay for them to pull up my scores.

Not to mention that giving colleges digital access to your scores is not a costly endeavor… it’s like selling a cup of water for $4.

Thankfully more and more colleges are going standardized test-optional each year.

@LookAtThisNet I agree. I mean, I understand they have to make money, but many top students are applying to about 20 colleges. I wish Collegeboard would offer some bulk discounts. Or something.

But on the other hand, they probably don’t want to encourage people to apply to a whole lot of schools. Imagine if it was just 2 dollars?

You would probably see the number of applications go way up, the way it’s gone up since the advent of the Commonapp.

Then you might as well abolish commonapp because students are paying $75.00 a pop to apply to each school.

I saw an idea once to make common app more like UCAS and limit students to 8-12 schools, and perhaps limit the number of ivies/top 10 schools as well.

@BB1313 That would make sense but the ACLU would likely sue as an infringement of rights.