The prospect of college applications is chilling as the class of 2021 watches the seniors write their essays and begin submissions. We’ve all grown up, fed the notions that the endgame of school is to be accepted into the best possible university. Thus, it is not surprising the accumulation of all these efforts into the common apps and away to distant admission officers, leaves student’s stomachs full of frantic butterflies.

While, this fear of rejection and hope of acceptance tends to be universal, it is undoubtedly the viewpoint of a student with privilege. On the most saturated level, no one is guaranteed admittance to university, but it helps if your parents are alumni and donate a building to the campus. Moving down in economic status but still comparably high, students must pay for numerous AP exams and each costing $75. If you have four APs junior year you have to shell out $300 for a test that does not even guarantee college credit. Furthermore, while at Hereford we receive one free SAT test. It is not uncommon for students to retake the SAT which costs $50 after the first try. To add onto the already staggering amount of dollar signs, SAT prep courses can easily range past $1000. These are all examples of spending money in order to get into university, and we’re not even at the actual college applications yet.

To apply to college there is a fee around $70, and if you apply to 7 colleges that is another $490. In addition, College board requires $15 to send out scores for each school you apply to adding up to $105. These numbers are not equitable to students working hard to get the best education possible. The American education system is severely flawed and only at the most standard level is it free. Everything mentioned in this blog, comes to a total of $1,945. Privilege has become a tool to gain access to college, and free education is America’s biggest myth.