Do Fee Waivers hurt chances of admission?

Paying for College
1

<p>I'm applying to like 6-7 schools. Nothing too prestigious (think state schools). Last year, my dad was laid off, cutting our family income by a third. So applications are going to be a challenge. My GC told me I could use a fee waiver, which would make things less stressful by a ton, but I'm scared that it's going to affect my chances at my schools. Should I try to make it work?</p>

2

<p>

No, of course not. Schools waive application fee for many many reasons - top students, special talents, alumnus/alumna, or financial difficulties. My kids applied a few schools for free because they did their applications online.</p>

3

<p>My experience with this is no, it didn’t hurt students who used them.</p>

<p>However, are you applying to out of state public universities? For the most part, those schools give virtually no “need” based aid to students from out of state. If you have high stats, you can get merit money sometimes.</p>

4

<p>For in-state public schools, it definitely should not make a difference. However, there are some private colleges that have “need aware” admissions that try to avoid accepting too many students with very high financial need. Potentially, it could matter at a few of them, I’m guessing.</p>

5

<p>

Fee waivers do not imply “very high financial need”</p>

6

<p>It depends on the fee waiver. </p>

<p>Yes, there is a difference between the fee waivers used to attract high stat kids and the ACT/College board/NACAC/ EOP fee waivers that are given to low income/high need students.</p>

<p>However, since most schools are need blind to US citizens/Perm residents/ eligible non-residents, using a fee waiver pretty much is not going to make a difference in the admissions process. Op should keep in mind that the overwhelming majority of schools in the country do not meet 100% demonstrated need. Since money is really going to be an issue, OP should make sure that s/he does have some financially feasible options in the mix.</p>

7

<p>See <a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/26/education/for-low-income-students-considering-college-a-nudge-to-aim-high.html?_r=0[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/26/education/for-low-income-students-considering-college-a-nudge-to-aim-high.html?_r=0&lt;/a&gt;
This is timely.

I don’t think College Board would start this outreach program if it thinks that “Fee Waivers hurt chances of admission”!</p>