The Rising Cost of Applying to College (Comment)

News & Commentary

11/28/05 - The Wall Street Journal reports that the cost of college is rising because of preparation costs for the CEEs, college counseling, scholarship searches, and campus visits.

A typical college preparation and application budget is $7,100. However, locating these educators and advisors can be a significant drain on one's schedule and sanity. Finally, even after successfully assembling a great team there is no guarantee of successful admission.

Commentary
Students seeking admissions to the top colleges face ever increasing competition. This article merely illustrates this fact.

An applicant to a highly competitive college should budget for college counseling, college entrance exam preparation, campus visits, as well as college applications. Using the figures in the article, a student (or perhaps more appropriately her parents) should budget:

$3,000 for private college counseling
$2,000 to $1,000 for college entrance exam preparation
$2,000 for college campus visits
$600 for college applications

$7,100 TOTAL (Average)

This informal budget speaks for itself, these costs cannot be dismissed as inconsequential or negligible. College admissions can be an expensive and frustratingly complex endeavor. We have only highlighted the financial expense, yet the applicant must also factor in time expenditures for finding appropriate educators and advisors. Additionally, simply paying for this assistance does not guarantee successful admission.

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