Imagine you're at your local car dealership, salivating over that hot, red convertible you've been eyeing for months. You're about to say a tearful goodbye to your dream car, but suddenly notice the factory rebate, dealer incentives, and willingness of the salesman to wheel and deal. Before you know it, you've just cut a major chunk off the sticker price and are handed the keys to your new ride.
What if college tuition could work exactly the same way? Wouldn't it be nice to cut, in one fell swoop, thousands of dollars off the "sticker price" at your kids' dream college?
Well, it's time to stop wishing and start acting. At most American colleges and universities, your family can save thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars just by preparing your kids to take a few standardized tests.
Here's how it works: Even before setting foot on a college campus, students can demonstrate their college competency by taking exams in subjects like English literature, chemistry, psychology, studio art, or music theory. By passing one or more of these tests, they stake their claim to academic credit awarded by individual colleges.
This credit, in turn, saves future tuition payments. The more academic credits a student earns now, before going to college, the fewer credits they'll have to take—and pay for—when they do attend.
There are four main types of exams that can save you college cash:
- Advanced Placement (AP): Designed for high school students, AP tests are administered in a wide range of subject areas, with many high schools offering courses that prepare students for such exams.
- College-Level Examination Program (CLEP): Students of any age can take CLEP tests—making them suitable for high school students, current college students, and adult returning students alike.
- International Baccalaureate (IB): In addition to acceptance at a variety of U.S. colleges, IB exams are recognized at many overseas schools.
- Dantes Subject Standardized Tests (DSST): Originally designed for the military but now widely available, DSST exams are more likely to be accepted at two-year colleges, community colleges, and trade schools.
Passing these tests can be worth big bucks: In-state residents attending the University of Oregon, for instance, can potentially shave $2,400 off the cost of their tuition, books, and fees with a single AP biology exam. Out-of-state students would save $6,519.
At Reed College, this same AP biology test would be worth $5,420. At the University of Notre Dame, your family could save a whopping $10,514. This isn't chump change.
When you consider that such exams generally cost anywhere from $72 to $88 dollars each, they are extraordinary bargains.
I can appreciate this on a personal level: When I entered Harvard back in 1995 with one full year's worth of academic credits from four AP exams taken during high school, I saved more than $20,000 in tuition, books, and related fees.
These days, achieving sophomore standing at an expensive private school can save you around $40,000—plus additional savings resulting from one less year of pricey room and board costs.
So how can a family determine the amount of credit each college offers? Some schools include credit-for-testing policies in their student handbooks or on their websites. Other schools' policies may only be available by calling their college registrars.
Taking the time to research this data enables your family to determine which tests are awarded the most credit at colleges your kids are considering. They can then focus on exams that provide the most bang for the buck (or rather, the most "bucks" for the bang). When it's time to actually select a college to attend, comparing the credit awarded for the tests your kids have taken may become a significant factor in the ultimate decision.
Just like your dream sports car, a dream college education can be had for substantially less than the sticker price. Let these standardized tests be your family's discount ticket to ride.
Known as “America’s Scholarship Coach,” Ben Kaplan is publisher of the www.CityofCollegeDreams.org website and the winner of two dozen college scholarships worth $90,000. For more details on this topic, visit his AP tests information page.
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