We’ve all been there. We’ve endured the miserable classrooms set at a temperature below zero and sat patiently at uncomfortable desks awaiting the 3-4 hours onslaught of bubbles, alphabet letters, and math questions. We’ve gazed into the soulless eyes of glorified babysitters distributing the skinny packets of death and collecting contraband cell phones. We have paid the excessive fees and wasted precious time—all for a single score that may or may not be determined good enough for an education that we will ultimately spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on to get a most likely mediocre job and be in debt forever.

This testing that nearly every high school student (and middle schooler if you’ve taken the PSAT) must endure is due to the College Board. We’ve all encountered it at one point or another. It claims to be an organization dedicated to the intellectual aspirations of university-bound teens when, in reality, it’s a large umbrella that shadows over the education system and the minds of teenagers.

On the website, the College Board claims that it “is a mission-driven, not-for-profit organization that connects students to college success and opportunity.” Not only that, but it also “helps more than seven million students prepare for a successful transition to college through programs and services in college readiness and college success, including the SAT and the Advanced Placement Program.”

Well, at least the statistics are honest. If you take a look at the number of people who take the tests and pair it with the price of each one, the results are a bit astounding.

More than 7.3 million test-takers took the SAT or PSAT in the 2016-2017 school year alone. Each of these students, unless they qualified for a waiver, paid $47.50 for the test without the essay or $64.50 with it. I’ll kindly point out that most colleges require it with. Please don’t forget that unless you are inherently gifted at taking the SAT, you’re going to need test prep, which costs another $30, give or take, for a book or however much private tutors cost.

You get your score a few weeks after you take the test, but if the website breaks down, you can always hear your score over the phone for $15! Oh, and, if you want colleges to receive your score, you get to pay $12 per college for the College Board to officially report it to your selected universities (because, apparently, it’s very difficult for them to send a numerical value from one computer to another).

The prices increase from there. If you want to get into a “good” school, many universities “recommend” taking at least two subject tests. If you’re not aware, a subject test is basically a mini-AP exam. You may be scratching your head and asking, “You mean there’s another test we have to take?” That’s right. But I’ll get into the APs in a moment. Subject tests involve more testing and more fees, as they have a baseline price of $26 plus $18 for each additional one you take.

As for APs, or Advanced Placement tests, they cost $94 per test unless you’re lucky and your school pays for it—not to mention that the Advanced Placement faction of the College Board has a monopoly all of its own. Where in regular classes teachers can design their curriculum and alter their teaching style here and there to accommodate the needs of their students, these classes have a strict outline of what a teacher should teach, essentially forcing them to be College Board-information-slewing robots. Having taken two AP classes myself, this setting is not ideal, at least in my perspective. The method removes any personality from the courses and the teachers as well. As far as “helping” students goes, I’m not so convinced.

The problem with this, specifically having to pay so much to prepare for the test, is that a vast majority of those who will get a good score are the ones who can pay for it.

As is the case for many circumstances in this country, success is targeted toward the wealthy. Money gets you proper preparation, which gets you a good score, which gets you into an expensive college that you won’t graduate from without extensive debt unless you’re egregiously rich or are the one in a million who has gotten a full-ride. It’s a rigged system, and 90 percent of the time, the rich come out on top. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

That said, perhaps it’s a case of the upper class helping the upper class out, which we can decipher by taking a look at the salaries of College Board employees. For instance, the former CEO of The College Board, Gaston Caperton earned $1.3 million in 2009 alone. He stepped down, and someone new took over as president; his name is David Coleman. His paycheck is much more modest at a low $734,192. The executives still have a steady flow, however, of over $300,000.

With all the money they make, one has to wonder what the College Board spends it on, right? The answer is lobbying, plain and simple. The College Board spent more than 3/4 of a million dollars in 2009 to influence legislators to adopt and require College Board tests for educational and professional purposes. It’s good to know that our money is being put toward giving the organization an ever-increasing monopoly.

Overall, I would call the College Board’s mission a problem. Taking a look at those who have tried to contest the College Board—such as the Americans for Educational Testing Reform, an organization calling for people to sign a petition to reverse its not-for-profit status—one can see that no one has even considered opposing messages.

It’s unfortunate that a system claiming to be so benevolent and dedicated to helping others achieve higher education is also extremely corrupt and only in it to make money.

I hate to say it, but it’s genius because no one questions them, and those who do are silenced amidst the millions of bubbles yet to be filled in across the nation. It may be that they are never shut down or forced to become a for-profit organization; it wouldn’t be all that shocking. What really gets me when it all boils down, however, is wondering if I’m really all that surprised that this is what it has come to. Corruption and monopolies are almost to be expected in society today. We’ve become a world, after all, subject to desensitization and monetary obsession, and apparently, access to higher education is part of the problem.