We, the students who roam the halls of Mountain Lakes High School, are often taught of theoretical applications: sunk costs, opportunity costs, and so on. Well, maybe you only cover those topics in AP Economics, a class that requires students to pay for and complete two AP exams in May. I wonder, what is the purpose of all of these expensive exams and theoretical information? Few of the things that I learn in the classroom will ever apply to the real world.
Many of these classes have explicit impacts on our lives, especially the ones promoted by the competitive academic culture of Mountain Lakes. AP classes cost more than the price of the books and pencils we use to copy down never-ending Slides presentations. Instead, we must also pay for the $101 AP exam cost, or $150 if you take AP Capstone, to appeal to the influence of colleges, parents, and teachers.
Expensive Exam Registration
Students in Mountain Lakes and at various high schools around the globe enroll in anything from one to six or seven AP classes per year, some of which require two exams. We are expected to pay for and take all of our exams, regardless of our actual intent on the early November deadline. So many waste hundreds of dollars in pursuit of a score between one and five. Of course, many students have parents that will cover their exam costs, but for those who may struggle to afford these exams, even the fee reduction of $35 has high barriers to entry.
The traditional family size of four must make below $51,338 to receive this option, which is not a livable salary for this part of NJ. According to the Economic Policy Institute, a family of two parents and two children must make $115,974 per year to live comfortably in Morris County, so the majority of the school’s residents will fail to qualify regardless of their ability to pay for the exams.
College Entrance Exams
If a student does decide to pay for these exams, part of their intention is to send their scores to colleges. Therefore, if they want to send successful scores, they may buy a Princeton Review Book, which costs about $20 per book, or Heimler’s Ultimate Review Packet, which is $25. If a student performs well enough on their exams to send a score report, they must pay $15 per school or $25 for rush delivery. So, when applying to about fourteen schools, like myself, a student will pay up to $210 to send colleges their AP scores.
Beyond the cost of AP Exams, unless a student decides to apply test-optional, another exam cost is the SAT or ACT, which cost $60 and $63, respectively. Most counselors recommend taking the exam no more than three times, so you may end up paying $180 to take the exam. However, to prepare for this exam, the College Board influences you to buy their $30 review book. If you want a chance at 1600, the book may not be enough. Many students will also pay for an SAT tutor, which costs around $70 per hour. Therefore, an applicant’s ability to pay for parts of the college application can influence their acceptance chance.
College Application Fees
While some of these costs are avoidable parts of the application, the applications are another added cost. Many college applications are around $70, so without any fee waivers, a student can pay, on average, anywhere between $400 and $1200. This does not include the cost of the CSS profile. If your family makes over $100,000, you will pay $25 to fill out the form for one school and $16 for every additional school. Applying for financial aid becomes a cost in itself.
High school not only prepares you for the challenges you face as an undergraduate and beyond, but the next stage of school: even more expenses. The majority of the costs of being a student are aimed toward college admissions. After playing the game and receiving an acceptance to your future school, then begins the cost of tuition, housing, meal plans, textbooks, and the list goes on.
The cost of being a student can stick with you until you are in your 50s and 60s. What starts in high school as a couple of thousand dollars increases exponentially as you further your education. Therefore, it is hard to separate success in our modern society from a certain number of zeros that prop a person up every step of the costly way.
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