Why do you have to pay for your official college transcript if you've?
The cost used to be nominal, to cover the expenses. Official transcripts are printed on paper that must be controlled, so you need expensive paper, a safe/vault, a process, and people to do the work. Electronic transcripts have a low item cost, but you have to pay for the technology. When you bundle in the actual mailing, a $510 fee is pretty reasonable (CSUMB charges $7.50). Ive needed quite a few of these over the years, from my three degrees, so Ive spent I dont know, a couple of hundred dollars? However, recently, schools have been increasing what they charge. Its a zero sum game; if charge less in one place, you must charge more in another, because the budget has to be made up. Every increase in tuition is scrutinized and criticized, so you find other ways to make money. No one looks at transcript charges when choosing a school. Some schools are moving to services for this, like Parchment. These services add costs, but the school can set a limit. Even worse, schools that have closed basically have to offload their records to such services, which essentially can then charge what they damned well please; the school cant control the charge, because the school is gone. Ive seen transcript prices of $50, and thats not including special shipping/delivery.