Waiving Application Fees?

Hi! So as I’m beginning to apply to colleges (and noticing that the application fees are actually pretty expensive), I remember hearing that some colleges will waive your application fee if you have visited them. Is this something you have to do when applying or do they do this…? I probably wont qualify for financial aid-waived fees so this is important. I’m kinda confused about this haha any help is appreciated!

In my D’s experience its pretty random. One school handed out a slip at the end of the tour that had something to enter to get a free app. One sent an email with a code in it. Most schools we visited did not give a free app for visiting. We got several free app offers in the mail from schools that she had never contacted but with one exception these were less selective schools that were probably looking for more applicants.

We never had a fee waived just for visiting. We did have some waived because they were less selective schools and they wanted students like my kids to apply. My S did get his application fee waived for one selective college for participating in a specific program at the school.

Some schools will waive fees for students that they really want at their school- this normally happens with less selective schools that are trying to attract the better students. It’s very rare and random though.