The ugly

This May, 443 students will take 1009 AP exams —but these exams are not free.

Oak Park High School charges $99 per exam, leading to hundreds of dollars in fees for students taking several exams.

“I believe that [the prices of] AP exams are reasonable to a certain extent,” senior Russell Tagawa said. “However, I also understand that students like to take multiple AP exams, and after several additions to one AP exam, the price becomes unreasonable.”

While the College Board does offer reduced-price exams for students, the eligibility criteria exclude the vast majority of Oak Park students.

Students must have a family income at or below 185 percent of the poverty level and be eligible for the Federal Free or Reduced-Price Lunch Program to qualify. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 185 percent of poverty level income for a family of four is $44,123.

By contrast, according to 2013 census data, the median income of a family living in Oak Park is $128,218.

Nevertheless, paying for AP exams still represents a significant expenditure for Oak Park families.

“I think [the price] is on the higher side, especially when you are paying for multiple AP tests,” Oak Park parent Seema Chandra said. “And it keeps going up over the last several years since my first child took the tests.”

Despite the cost, some students believe that gaining college credits outweighs the financial toll.

“I think the $99 price of the AP exams is very reasonable considering the possibility of getting college credit for that course,” sophomore Jacob Tennant said.

However, while students may gain college credit, a 2013 report by Stanford University’s Challenge Success program states that saving money through AP credits “tends to be the exception rather than the rule.”

Many colleges set different standards for accepting AP credit, while some colleges, such as Dartmouth, offer no credit whatsoever. Moreover, many students who pass AP exams choose to repeat courses in college that they are eligible to skip.

Administering AP exams also financially burdens the school.

Though Oak Park charges $8 per exam more than the College Board’s suggested price, it does not profit from administering the exams.

“We don’t make any money,” AP Coordinator Shirin Sexton said. “Our best hope is to break even.”

According to Sexton, the school requires a significant amount of money to administer the exams. For instance, the school must pay proctors on a daily basis. The College Board mandates that the number of proctors increase with the number of the students in the testing room.

The school must also pay for students’ water bottles, snacks, pens and pencils, as well as for late orders, late exam returns, late payments and additional answer sheets.

While some are disgruntled with the costs of exams, most agree that the costs are an acceptable burden in order to have an impressive college application.

“I don’t believe $99 dollars is a reasonable cost for one exam — there’s no way it costs that much to hire graders and transport paper,” junior Alexandra Romanova said. “And although the cost of all the exams over the course of three years is a significant amount of money for any family, mine is willing to pay it if it gives me a chance of getting into a competitive school.”