FAFSA and fee waivers

[philosopuppy]

Has anyone here used their FAFSA report to apply for PhD application fee waivers? I'm wondering whether your EFC has to be below a certain threshold in order to qualify - or whether just having filled out a FAFSA at all is sufficient to qualify. I haven't been able to find any details about this on the websites of any of the programs I'm interested in.

Thanks in advance!

[platonetsocrate]

I've got some time on my hands, and I had good results getting fee waivers at most of the programs I applied to - in fact, it was entirely the reason I applied to as large a number of programs as I did - so I'll type out a longer reply about fee waivers in general based on when I applied this past year, in case it is useful to anyone reading this thread.

I will start by saying that fee waiver applications are often due BEFORE application deadlines. At some programs, you submit your waiver application with your graduate application, and at others, waivers are first-come-first-serve and you have to email to request one, so it is a very good idea to start working on everything VERY EARLY if you plan to use waivers. It is a lot of work, but it can save you hundreds of dollars, and is well worth it, in my opinion.

The Process of Applying for Fee Waivers

For UChicago, UIUC, Indiana University, U of Iowa, U of Maryland, U of Michigan, Michigan State, U of Minnesota, U of Nebraska, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, and UWM:
- By November 15, submit the FreeApp request form here: https://www.btaa.org/resources-for/students/freeapp/introduction.
- This is one waiver request that serves as a waiver request for each of these programs. In my experience, the schools I applied to followed up with a waiver code. It was incredibly simple and easy.

For pretty much every other program:
- I started in September by going to each program's website and taking note of the fee waiver application process. Unfortunately, almost every school was different. (I'd list names with specific examples, but I don't want to be misleading in case the procedures for those schools change or have changed already.) In general, though, each program would have had one of the following procedures in place:
(1) a graduate school level policy in place, with something like 
(1a) instructions to submit required documentation showing your parents' annual income is below a certain threshold 
(1b) instructions to submit required documentation showing you receive the Pell Grant
(1c) instructions to submit required documentation showing you are an independent student and your annual income is below a certain threshold
(1d) instructions to submit required documentation showing you receive need-based financial aid
(1e) instructions to submit required documentation showing that you received or were eligible for a GRE fee waiver
(1f) an email address for someone you can contact to request an application form
(1g) instructions to submit a separate application to the graduate school for a merit-based fee waiver
(1h) instructions to submit required documentatino showing you are a McNair scholar (or similar)
(2) a departmental policy in place, with something like
(2a) an email address for someone you can contact to request an application form
(2b) instructions to submit required documentation showing something along the lines of what's in 1a-e
(2c) instructions to confirm that you attended one of a list of eligible programs (normally a minorities and philosophy type of program) 
(3) a graduate school or departmental policy against granting fee waivers
(4) a graduate school policy against granting fee waivers, but a departmental policy granting them for certain extenuating circumstances if the student emails to ask and submits required documentation
(5) strict requirements for who qualifies for a fee waiver based on income, AND a separate application as in 1g for those who do not qualify
(6) graduate school policy granting fee waivers based on certain criteria, AND a departmental policy granting fee waivers for those who do not qualify for graduate school ones but still find the fee to pose financial hardship in some (documentable) way

Many programs have some sort of combination of requirements - for example, that you attended undergrad continuously and will not have taken any breaks in your education prior to grad school AND got need-based aid, or whatever the other requirement may be.

The Required Documentation
First, the way in which each program wants you to submit required documentation differs, too. A few places had Google Forms to fill out and attach documents. At a few others, there was an email address (I would just send a form-like email and attach the documents). At many others, you had to submit the documentation at some point in the application portal - sometimes before submitting it, other times after. Normally, when it was meant to be submitted in the portal, there was some sort of important instruction about how to ensure things went correctly, so be careful with those.

As for what you can submit - and to finally address your main query -

I will list below some forms of documentation. As you can tell from what I've said above, though, simply having completed a FAFSA wouldn't be sufficient - what counts is that whatever you submit - FAFSA or otherwise - proves that you are eligible for a fee waiver. So, I'll list some examples of documentation that might be useful at one or more places, just to help people get an idea of the sort of thing they could end up submitting.

(1) a letter from your financial aid office, on the financial aid officer's letterhead, confirming [insert eligibility requirement here]. This one is the best, in my opinion, because if you start by looking up the policies at each program, you can use the same letter to apply for a waiver at multiple places. 
(2) your FAFSA Student Aid Report
(3) an undergraduate transcript
(4) a Financial Aid Award Overview from an undergraduate institution
(5) written confirmation of a GRE fee waiver receipt
(6) written confirmation of a fee waiver acceptance at a different educational program or institution
(7) a tax return*
(8) a W2*
(9) a letter from your advisor or department chair
*just a note that some places might say they do NOT accept documentation that contains sensitive personal information, or that they will accept such documentation if and only if the sensitive information has been omitted.

Some places are exact about what you need to submit (as in, they name the required document). Others give eligibility requirements, and leave it up to you how to confirm you meet them (for these, I like the financial aid office letter best). 

 

Actually Doing It

If you want to fund your applications using fee waivers, you absolutely must start early. Get the list of where you're applying over the summer, or at least a list of the maximum number you're applying to, with the caveat that you may take a few off the list after further consideration. Create a new document. Go to the Graduate School website and the Department website for each school. Find what each entity says about fee waivers. Paste it into your document. Once you're finished, read over it as a whole. Use it to figure out what documentation you'll need, and try to maximize your ability of using the same form of documentation for multiple programs. Send emails to representatives at each school asking about any part of the fee waiver application process that is unclear. For every place you are not eligible, politely inquire whether they grant exceptions (if, that is, you are in circumstances that would warrant an exception, and be honest with yourself here about your privilege relative to other applicants). Aim to be among the first applying for the waivers, since there is normally a limit on the number of waivers that can be granted in a given application cycle.

Edited May 6, 2020 by platonetsocrate