<p>My parents are divorced. My mom makes a decent income, doesn't receive a lot of child support, and has 3 kids in private school. She honestly works hard for us to have a good education and I don't want my college process to bog her down. I was wondering what kinds of requirements are necessary for application fee waivers? I am trying to detemrine how many schools I should apply to.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>I believe your school counselor will handle that for you
If you are on free/reduced lunch at school- which assuming you aren't since that usually isn't a service that is offered in private school, then you should be eligible for fee waivers.
So unfortunately it doesn't look like you would qualify- so use those applications wisely- but remember- if $35 X 6 seems like a lot of money wait till you see those college bills- it ain't nothing!</p>
<p>Yes, to echo wise folks above, see your counselor for the last line on fee waivers. They are generally reserved for <em>very</em> low income kids.</p>
<p>There's the collegeboard kind, which are official colored collegeboard waiver forms. I got them from the local Career Center lady (which is part of guidance). But collegeboard limits it to 4 a student, at least where I'm from. And I need more... so...</p>
<p>There's the unofficial kind, which is basically a note from the counselor explaining the circumstances and asking the adcom office to waive the fee.</p>
<p>Also, some schools have their own fee waiver form. UPenn comes to mind as one.</p>
<p>I get reduced lunch but still don't get a fee waiver on college apps. I think your income has to be below 30,000 at least.</p>
<p>thanks for all the responses everyone :)</p>
<p>Your counselor can write a letter, and most colleges will accept it. It probably depends on your high school, but you might have to bring up the issue with your counselor, he/she probably won't suggest it and might not be willing to do it if they don't feel it is necessary for you. In the discussion about free applications, some people said they just asked for a fee waiver and got one, so that might work with some colleges.</p>
<p>I would recommend trying to get the application fees waived if money is a problem, because there are a lot of other expenses that you will almost definitely have to pay. There's the fees to send test scores, the fees to take the tests, the fee for the PROFILE, plus sending it to each school, some high schools have a fee for sending the transcript, plus just postage to send the zillion things they will need.</p>
<p>CynthiaR is right about the additional monies needed in the college process. With most applications ranging betwen $50-75 it can be an expensive process.</p>
<p>If you are working over the summer, I would suggest saving your money to help with the process since you will be the main beneficiary of it. IF your are not working, maybe you an look for a part time job or do some odd jobs in the hopes of earning money to help defray the cost.</p>
<p>the parents forum has a thread that list Free college applications. Maybe some of the schools you are considering are on the list. Hope this helps</p>
<p>I am working, and its not that bad of a job for a first job, so I will definitely use this money to help pay for college apps, but if I can get fee waivers, I could spend this money on the other things needed for the process (i.e. sending scores / profiles)</p>
<p>Honestly speaking the college admission process is so expensive that it really is the first sign of what will be coming ahead in the next 4 years.</p>
<p>Lets say you are an average person applying to several diverse colleges, some in the south, some in the west, some private, some public, some prestigious, some education factories, etc...</p>
<p>The application fee is on average around 60, most of the prestigious privates at 65 and some of the state flagships at 55. </p>
<p>So first you have 6 colleges to apply to. Thats 6 * 60. Already 360 dollars. </p>
<p>Then you have to send your SAT scores to each college which is i think 15 dollars so thats another 6 * 15 which is 90 dollars. </p>
<p>If you are also sending in ACT scores, then that would be 24 times 6 which is 144 dollars. </p>
<p>If you go on just one college visit it will no doubt run you about 300 dollars at minimum, simply for the gas, or train, or plane ticket, plus the food and maybe the lodging. </p>
<p>Then to the schools you get accepted to you usually will send your AP scores so thats another 15 dollars.</p>
<p>So in total you will be spending between $465 on the low side and $909 on the high side. That is a lot of money especially since you havent even touched the actual cost of colleges. So i recommend saving NOW.</p>
<p>Remember that if you get fee waivers, you will only get 4 waivers this works if you are only applying to 4 shools), since it has nto been my experience, I am not even sure if all schools will take the waiver. But since you will definitely need to compare packages, you may have to apply to a wide variety of schools so yes it can be costly.</p>
<p>Drawingdot along with Cynthia R are both correct with al lof the incremental cost involved in applying for college. Even going to visit on a "free" trip is going to cost you some money. If you cna put together a spread sheet listing schools application fees, profile fees scores, stamps etc. you will have a better idea of how much you will need to spend.</p>
<p>It really is worth it to apply to a lot of schools if you are going to need financial aid. It was a big part of my decision, and I was very glad to be able to compare packages in April. Pretty much all the schools I applied to were need blind and met 100% demonstrated need, yet the financial aid offers still varied widely. I think, over 4 years, the difference between the best and worst aid would have been well over $50K (including loans). When you look at it that way, it is well worth another ~$80 per school.</p>
<p>Yeah, definitely. I started on that list, but do you guys have a recommendation on how many public, private, prestigous schools, etc to apply to? I was thinking about going around 15 + UC's (im in california). </p>
<p>I mean, i talked to my mom about it, she says we can afford it, but I know she is lying and she'll just bust her behind even more for me. I'll have about $2000 at the end of summer to go towards whatever is needed for college. </p>
<p>I know it might be a bad idea, but I am basing where I am going to apply on books (academics, life, size, etc), then visit to wherever I get accepted.</p>
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I know it might be a bad idea, but I am basing where I am going to apply on books (academics, life, size, etc), then visit to wherever I get accepted.
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<p>The usual advice on this board is to visit before you apply. The less colleges you apply to, the more you can focus and specialize your apps - thus increasing the chance that those colleges will accept you. That said, I will not lie - I did not visit most of my colleges on my list before I appled. The costs of traveling extensively, for an extended duration of time, was just too much for a family already struggling to make ends meet. Meaning, it's not a great idea, but it's not the end of the world either.</p>
<p>Also, the number of schools people advise you to apply to varies. Personally, I think 15 is ridiculously high, but for you it might be just fine; it all depends. Just think about what 15 means. 15 (or 30 if your colleges require 2, maybe 3) essays, each catered to the colleges' specific philosophies. 15 different applications fees, ranging from $50 to $80ish. 15 different high school transcript fees, any college course that you've taken transcript fees, SAT /ACT scores fees, AP scores - if your college requires them. How many interviews... how many periods of school do you hafta miss when the college rep comes to your school... Portfolios, writing samples, auditions, deadlines... But, I'm a lazy bum, and I don't like doing any extra work. Just a thought.</p>
<p>my daughter applied to 5 schools- she could have even applied to fewer but I made her apply to more than the 3 that she was interested in because I wanted to see if the finaid packages differed markedly.</p>
<p>More schools would have been too expensive for us and I think it benefited her to be more focused on where she wanted to attend</p>
<p>My daughter had definite requirements as far as attending school so inthe end applied to 7 (her school allowed 8 applications) </p>
<p>She used one free on-line application to Mount Holyoke (which was her safety school), she got to apply to Amherst for free because she was invited to their SOCOH weekend, the rest were as follows:</p>
<p>$40- Barnard, $60-Tufts, $70-dartmouth $50 Bryn Mawr, $50 Williams</p>
<p>Total $270</p>
<p>We end up spending about $130 to send the CSS profile to the 7 schools, along with $to send the SAT scores.</p>
<p>There were other small incremental charges: 14 stamped envelopes for teacher recs, 7 large stamped envelopes to send off the GC rec, transcript and school profile. Stamps, envelopes, registered mail and overnight fees to send off misc. supplemental items (Daughter used common app for all her schools), stamped postcards (which got mailed with everything GC recs, teacher recs, supplemental items, application fees) to ensure that we had a written track record of what each school received, carfare to interviews, etc.</p>