Application fee waiver?

[oceanlover]

i've reached out to all the schools i plan on applying to ask if they offer fee waviers (i suggest everyone do the same, one school waived an $100 app fee with no questions asked!) and one university (which is actually my top) said to send a detailed description of my plea to their director for consideration.   i come from a single parent/low money household and am a first generation college student in my family, but is this the type of stuff they want to hear? I don't really want to give them a sob story to get pity, but I am not sure what else they are looking for.  its a $50 application fee, so a waiver would help tremendously (considering GRE scores and transcripts are already $45 per school).  has anyone else been in a similar situation?

Edited November 17, 2013 by bsantos1991

[Loric]

Just send a response saying much of the same - they can reject or not. Explain funds are tight and you're wanting to apply to give yourself as much opportunity as possible. I'd stick to the basics and not give a sob story. It's expensive - you cant not pay to send test scores and transcripts, but the application fee is negotiable. Then you will have the costs of any site visits.

 

Just spell is out reasonably as to why you want it and see what they say. It wont have any effect on your app itself. If it does, screw those people, you don't want to go there if that's how they behave.

[Maleficent999]

I had a similar experience. I followed the fee waiver instructions for UCSC and they waived it very quickly without any questions. However, I did the same for UT Austin and they were pretty much a pain in the behind. Their website didn't say anything about an income cut-off or how they decide who gets a fee waiver. I sent in everything they asked and after several back and forth emails they said I don't meet the poverty requirements in Texas (like 11k a year income pre-taxes) so they denied it. Would've been nice if they put that on their instructions so I didn't waste my time or theirs. Seems like it really depends on the school but there isn't any harm in trying.

[Guest Gnome Chomsky]

Just curious, does it get back to the department you're applying to if you request a fee waiver? I wouldn't mind requesting one (and I think I'd have a good shot at getting it) but I don't want to become a headache for my prospective department. I don't care about being a headache to the school, just not my department. 

Edited November 17, 2013 by JoeyBoy718

[Loric]

Department will likely be oblivious, your primary admissions advisor will know about it though, and those people often do have a vote in if you get in or out.

 

Admissions people also aren't supposed to care about race or gender, but then some programs ask for video essays where the race/gender becomes obvious and i've read reports of people on adcomms being upset because it was "implied" (though not stated, cuz that's illegal) that they should be picking more minority students to help a school get funding from various programs.

 

Long story short, nothing aside from your application credentials is supposed to play any part in your application. That's not how life actually works.

 

I like to think if a school rejects me or someone else for something they're not supposed to be rejecting people for, it's not a good environment and not a good school and so you're better off not being a part of their nonsense.

[Maleficent999]

Department will likely be oblivious, your primary admissions advisor will know about it though, and those people often do have a vote in if you get in or out.

 

Admissions people also aren't supposed to care about race or gender, but then some programs ask for video essays where the race/gender becomes obvious and i've read reports of people on adcomms being upset because it was "implied" (though not stated, cuz that's illegal) that they should be picking more minority students to help a school get funding from various programs.

 

Long story short, nothing aside from your application credentials is supposed to play any part in your application. That's not how life actually works.

 

I like to think if a school rejects me or someone else for something they're not supposed to be rejecting people for, it's not a good environment and not a good school and so you're better off not being a part of their nonsense.

Agreed. And let's be real, most of us aren't going to be attending programs unless we get funding. I don't know about you but I can't afford to just pay for grad school out of pocket. At least in sociology, they usually won't admit a student without the ability to fund them so it shouldn't really be a surprise that some of us can't pay for the app fee either. I'd be very surprised if having a fee waiver negatively impacted my applications. Figuring out how to pay for everything is a dance EVERYONE, including faculty, has to deal with at every level of graduate studies and in any research field.