Lanier: College costs take off before you even get in

By Elizabeth Lanier
Teen Columnist

With college-application season coming to a close, many teens throughout Hampton Roads and the rest of the country are left with bated breath and empty wallets.

The collective breath is held for the final acceptances and rejections expected by April, and the roomy pockets are from all the expenditures of applying to schools.

First, the SAT - say bye to $45, then another $30-plus for the SAT's annoying little siblings, the SAT Subject Tests, which are required by more and more colleges each year. Then it's about $10 for each required score report you send (plus a $30 fee if you need to rush the reports).

A variety of other fees have rather unfairly been slapped onto everything from registering for the tests to receiving your score. Because the College Board essentially has a monopoly on the SAT, it can add as many senseless fees as it likes, and students have no choice but to comply.

The College Board has even in the past had a service that allows students to receive their scores a bit earlier - with a fee, of course. And the Board still has a fee that lets anxious students be assured that their SAT has been graded correctly - $50 for the test and essay, each.

Um, call me crazy, but shouldn't it have been graded correctly regardless? The fee may as well be called, "Throw a hundred here if it will make you feel better" or "Contributions to Mr. Gaston Caperton's yacht fund." What was that $45 registration fee spent on, exactly?

The Board, with Caperton as president, has found a way to profit from the anxieties and insecurities of young people; I don't know whether to call them cruel or brilliant.

It can be argued that maybe it isn't so evil. The College Board offers waivers for students with deep financial need. That still leaves many students in the dust, though; just because you're in the middle class doesn't mean your family can afford these fees. And even if your parents can, they may not understand the importance of them and refuse to pay them, leaving teens scrambling for jobs to pay them on their own in this tough economy.

Without the aid of many tests to show just how qualified you are to attend college and the money to apply, you'll easily find yourself stuck in a rut, feeling as though you're trapped in a depressing chapter of a Dickens novel.

College application fees are another big expenditure, usually ranging from $25 to $70 each. Top Virginia universities tend to waver around the $60 mark.

With the rising population, competition for spots has shot up. Schools that once were reasonably sure bets are much harder to get into, while the Ivies and other top schools are near impossible. You may have spent a grand or more just for a thin envelope saying, "Thanks for the money, but no dice, kid."

With the high chance of rejection, teens need to apply to more colleges than you might expect, and five, 10, 15 applications can add up.

But it's either pay for the test fees, the study guides, the applications, the costs, etc., or bypass college.

So for now, all I can do is grin and bear it... and pray for a massive tax refund.

Elizabeth Lanier, a homeschooled senior in Virginia Beach, eliz.lanier@gmail.com