An education at the most prestigious schools in the world, such as the Ivy League in US and Oxbridge in UK, is coveted by many students. However, is the exorbitant cost of attending such schools and trying various means to distinguish oneself during the application process causing good education to be available to only the affluent?
For instance, to get into US universities, students must take the SAT Reasoning Test and at least 3 SAT Subject Tests. From personal experience, this reporter has discovered that taking SAT 1 can cost more than $150 per sitting and no fee waivers are available for international students. While those from rich and influential families can easily afford to repeatedly re-take the test until they achieve their desired scores, the majority of students, who come from lower to middle class families, do not have such a privilege. Since College Board’s score choice allows students to choose which scores to send to universities, this undoubtedly grants students from affluent backgrounds a distinct advantage as they can re-take the test numerous times to ensure good results.
What about certain American exams that tests students’ understanding of introductory level college work? This reporter has gathered from her inquiries to various sources, including College Board and Singapore American School, that the registration fee for 1 of such exams is a costly S$220. Of course, since no one takes only 1 such exam, the registration fees alone can cost more than S$1000. This is not including the fees for the preparatory courses and the costs of reference materials. Can a middle class family with average incomes of S$3000 to S$4000 really afford to pay such an expensive amount simply to give their child an advantage over his peers, considering their not insignificant household expenses?
Furthermore, it has been reported in the Times that a disproportionate amount of students accepted to Oxbridge come from affluent backgrounds, despite such students being the minority of the total British student population. In addition, many successful applicants to Ivy League colleges hail from exclusive New England boarding schools and elite New York college preparatory schools where tuition fees can easily cost up to S$50000 per annum.
This begets the conclusion that the educational system is structured in such a way that students from well-to-do families are unfairly advantaged. However, instead of becoming demoralized and dejected, students from less affluent families should use this to motivate themselves and work even harder to gain recognition so as to prove that success can be achieved by the less wealthy as well. This is certainly what this reporter will do.