Any Free Application Fee Programs similar to UChicago?

Paying for College
1

The University of Chicago has a program called “NoBarriers” where any student that applies for financial aid is exempt from paying their application fee. Does anyone know of any other colleges that have similar programs?

It’s not that I am in dire need of financial aid when it comes to applying to colleges. For these scenarios, I know that application fee waivers exist, which I don’t qualify for. This is more for me seeing what other reach schools I can apply to without wasting money as I can’t really bring myself to spend $75 on more than one or two reach schools since I probably won’t get into most of them.

Talking to other students, I always am hearing people say things like “it would be nice to go to [insert 5-7 highly selective schools], but since getting in would be unlikely, why waste all that money on applying.”

Thanks in advance!

2

You can ask any school for a waiver. Many give them just for asking, for visiting, for applying online without using the Common App. They can say No if they don’t offer them. It is still work to apply, and you’ll still have to pay for scores and the CSS to be sent. If submitting the FAFSA, you’ll have to make sure to remove your first 10 schools and replace them with additional schools.

There is a cost to applying beyond the $75 application fee.