so how much did you spend?

[cheesethunder]

That's 4,000 dollars a piece.

hah i meant i wasn't sure if thats what they do with the app money not that i couldnt do the math! though my math skills are pretty questionable.

is that alot? that seems like a lot ot me, since i just spent over 2 grand on this whole application process.......mmm gre prep class at $1000.

[modernity]

you would think the most prestigious schools would charge the most, with the application fees decreasing from there.

With mine, it's pretty reflective of the prestige and/or the general cost of living within that area (ie NYC/Boston fees are more than those in smaller cities in the midwest/plains states). However... I don't understand how it costs that much money for them to process our applications, I mean, we do most of the work if we do it correctly, don't we?

I think my total costs are going to go over about $500 or so, not counting my initial GRE costs and rescheduling fees. I'm trying not to add it all up, I really don't want to know.

[alexis]

$535.12

(For 5 programs, and even one was a free app; post office, transcripts, GRE score order)

[LateAntique]

Okay, so what does the "application fee" actually PAY FOR, anyway? "Processing"? What does that mean? Am I really paying for storage space on their computer servers? (I would not be averse to paying if the money were going directly into the pockets of the departments' grad division secretaries, but I doubt that is the case, so I remain bitter on a personal level, and pissed off on a social justice level).

Okay, I realize that an argument can be made that schools "have to" charge something, or else they would be inundated with applications from people who are applying for the heck of applying, and it would be a burden on LOR writers, et cetera et cetera. ('Course, they're forgetting that SOPs are the biggest non-bank account burden in this process, and are enough of a barrier to prevent blanket applying on their own). But if that really were the only reason, you would think the most prestigious schools would charge the most, with the application fees decreasing from there. I know I am just one person, but comparing the schools I looked at (not just the ones to which I'm applying)...that is definitely not the case. It seems fairly random.

Anyone have any insight?

I was discussing this with my girlfriend this evening. Why do schools have such varied app fees even when they receive similar amounts of applications? Why does one school charge me 75, but another charges me 30? Where is that extra 45 bucks going?

[Deleted]

I was discussing this with my girlfriend this evening. Why do schools have such varied app fees even when they receive similar amounts of applications? Why does one school charge me 75, but another charges me 30? Where is that extra 45 bucks going?

I think it is:

1) a way to make easy money and pay the people processing the applications

2) a way to block too long shots applications. If Stanford's app was free, they would get hundreds of additional applications from people who would apply just to "try" in case they get lucky. Instead it costs $100 so you think twice about submitting your app. That is why I think the fee is sort of proportional to the rank of the institution: Stanford/Harvard=big fees, South Harmon Institute of Technology=small fees.

[captiv8ed]

I had figured it awhile ago, but I don't remember what the exact number is

But I spent $50+ on GRE prep books. $225 on the test. I got a fee waiver the first time but then had to take it a second time. Add another $50 for the gas to get to Seattle once and Puyallup once, plus tickets for my family to see AstroBoy while I was taking the GRE and Denny's lunch for them. I asked my hubby to drive me the second time because I was such a mess of nerves.

My transcripts are probably about $200. Now I have to add in $20 for the Kinko's scanning fee. Which is funny because when I saw that Princeton wants unofficial transcripts, I thought that would actually save me some money.

And then there are the application fees.

I was thinking of going to law school. I applied for the fee waiver and got it. I got an awesome prep book for free. I could take the test twice for free,and there were a certain number of score reports for free. AND once a school saw I had a waiver, most automatically waived their application fee. So, the law school application process is more need blind than graduate school in sociology. hmmm

[Beck]

By this time next week, I'll have spent right on AU$300 just in postage.

Sum total will be just shy of AU$2000 for eight apps, including GRE, transcripts, application fees, postage.

There is no way in the world that I could have afforded to apply to grad school when I was an undergrad working two or three days a week in retail. Even now it's a struggle.

Edited December 16, 2009 by Beck

[shai]

let me just say this - international students pay for TOEFL as well.

[Serric]

Roughly $900; including the GRE, roughly $1040. I applied to ten schools, so $160 of that was for the ETS to send my scores to the schools (I didn't end up applying to two schools that I listed). That's the part that annoyed me the most, as it's ridiculous that printing a score and mailing it could be THAT expensive (especially since most of the time they'll just dump a lot of scores on a CD and mail it to a department that requests it). Screw the ETS for nickel-and-diming potential graduate students on every little thing for an already bull-plop test.

[ristastic]

For 10 programs: GRE prep material, the GRE twice, extra GRE scores, transcripts from 2 schools, 10 application fees (ranging from $50-$125), and copies/supplies/envelopes/postage, I spent about $1,600.

Why am I doing this again?

[coyabean]

I had figured it awhile ago, but I don't remember what the exact number is

But I spent $50+ on GRE prep books. $225 on the test. I got a fee waiver the first time but then had to take it a second time. Add another $50 for the gas to get to Seattle once and Puyallup once, plus tickets for my family to see AstroBoy while I was taking the GRE and Denny's lunch for them. I asked my hubby to drive me the second time because I was such a mess of nerves.

My transcripts are probably about $200. Now I have to add in $20 for the Kinko's scanning fee. Which is funny because when I saw that Princeton wants unofficial transcripts, I thought that would actually save me some money.

And then there are the application fees.

I was thinking of going to law school. I applied for the fee waiver and got it. I got an awesome prep book for free. I could take the test twice for free,and there were a certain number of score reports for free. AND once a school saw I had a waiver, most automatically waived their application fee. So, the law school application process is more need blind than graduate school in sociology. hmmm

I did, too. I still keep my LSAC file up to date. I don't even want to go to school but I can't help but cringe at the differences.

And I go to all these talks about the "pipeline" issue with diversity in academe and no one ever discusses this! You take a student who hasn't had a paycheck in four years and a family who is struggling to help when and where they can and tell them, "oh. you can be an elite PhD after ten years of shit wages and only AFTER you pay the $1000+ entry fee and get acclimated to a culture so different from yours as to be foreign OR you can spend a couple hundred bucks, go to law school and three years later be in a position to take care of yourself and maybe even help your family."

Pipeline is looking more like the gulf of Mexico to me.

[shorty06]

$075 one application (others free due to McNair)

Hooray McNair!

$75 GRE (fee reduction)

$0 GRE Prep class offered by McNair

$75 Application fee (other 10 schools granted fee waiver)

$140 additional score reports

$117 transcripts

$20 GRE study book

$15 GRE flashcards

$20 admissions essay book

$462

What I would have paid w/o McNair:

Probably wouldn't have taken the GRE prep class... but something to consider

$747 more in app fees

$1209

[johndiligent]

lmao maybe its your program 3/5 of my canadian schools needed gres subject+general......and yea they were all 100 bucks to apply for! wth! even the masters programs were like 90.

Yeah, Canadian schools get fewer applicants so I suppose it all evens out in the end.

[ridgey]

Okay, so what does the "application fee" actually PAY FOR, anyway? "Processing"? What does that mean? Am I really paying for storage space on their computer servers?

Maintaing an office dedicated nearly exclusively to dealing with applicants. Someone has to open the envelopes 3000 sets of transcripts arrive in. I imagine on averae at least 2 hours per applicant are spent handling an application (at grad school and dept levels combined), and more if the applicant is a serious contender (gets more than two minutes from the adcom). So lets say a school gets 1500 applicants (low, I would think) that's 3000 hours. If a fulltime job is 40 hours/week for 50 weeks a year, that's 1.5 people fulltime. Let's say the salary for such a job is $30 000, that's $45 000 in salary alone. $45000/1500= is $30. Still haven't accounted for offices, computers, the rights to ApplyYourself, etc.

Clearly there would be change from a $100 dollar application fee. But I doubt it's a big revenue generator.

[JerryLandis]

GRE: $180

GRE transport: $300 (maybe more, conveniently erased that from my memory)

GRE scores: $20 (yay for non-US schools!)

Application fees: $110, $110 Canadian (so like 200 USD?), $95, $55, $50, $50, $100

Postage for Supplemental Materials: four envelopes each costing about £7.50 - so $50

total comes to $1100

[JerryLandis]

I understand why they need to have application fees, but it seems a bit odd in applying for what is basically a job. I've never had to pay to apply for a job, seems a bit off for me to have to pay for this. Especially with all the hard mailing deadlines - postage here is usually reliable enough for personal letters, but I don't trust the basic service to get an important letter across in under a month. I just had to mail everything in very very far in advance, which meant that I lost weeks when I could have been improving my writing sample and SOP if I had more time to mail it in. Using a courier service to send a letter from the UK to the US costs £40 per letter if I remember correctly.

[coyabean]

I understand why they need to have application fees, but it seems a bit odd in applying for what is basically a job. I've never had to pay to apply for a job, seems a bit off for me to have to pay for this. Especially with all the hard mailing deadlines - postage here is usually reliable enough for personal letters, but I don't trust the basic service to get an important letter across in under a month. I just had to mail everything in very very far in advance, which meant that I lost weeks when I could have been improving my writing sample and SOP if I had more time to mail it in. Using a courier service to send a letter from the UK to the US costs £40 per letter if I remember correctly.

Well they are setting the power dynamic up from the start. Between this board and the earlier link to a discussion about costs and grad apps on a philosophy board I am beginning to think that it is all designed to remove any and all leverage that the applicant might have in the process. Restrict admissions, set up financial barriers, control all communication and shroud the process in secrecy -- it all unsettles the applicant, puts them on the defensive. Once off-balance it becomes easier to assume an authority position. The poor candidate is replaceable and expendable and they are afraid to challenge the authority, even after they are enrolled.

Or, I have too much time on my hands?

[LateAntique]

Well they are setting the power dynamic up from the start. Between this board and the earlier link to a discussion about costs and grad apps on a philosophy board I am beginning to think that it is all designed to remove any and all leverage that the applicant might have in the process. Restrict admissions, set up financial barriers, control all communication and shroud the process in secrecy -- it all unsettles the applicant, puts them on the defensive. Once off-balance it becomes easier to assume an authority position. The poor candidate is replaceable and expendable and they are afraid to challenge the authority, even after they are enrolled.

Or, I have too much time on my hands?

You are such a social scientist (and I mean that in the very best way).

[coyabean]

You are such a social scientist (and I mean that in the very best way).

I'm actually rather honored.

[JerryLandis]

It does annoy me how much they shroud everything in mystery. I understand that these are private institutions, and they have no obligation to divulge admissions statistics and other information, but since we are indeed paying to apply I think that changes the dynamic quite a bit. If I am going to pay $100 to apply somewhere, I should be offered enough information to gauge whether I have any chance at all before committing to that payment. This especially applies to the rumor I've heard about some universities having an unofficial GRE cutoff, meaning that certain people who had paid the application fee would have their applications tossed out, unread, due to an unspecified "requirement," despite having paid the hefty fee.

Do you really think the process is intentionally engineered to keep poorer applicants from applying, or to discourage them? I personally would have thought that all the intimidating language and hard deadlines were there so that only people who are really serious about applying will, regardless of economic background. Obviously having less money will discourage people from applying widely or at all, but I don't think that universities actively seek that result - I think it's more a case of people thinking that things like application fee waivers, undergraduate scholarships, etc. will take care of people's economic problems to the extent that it won't be the responsibility of the graduate programs to address or acknowledge the issue. Maybe I'm just an optimist, but I think that it's more a matter of idle wishful thinking than calculated social engineering.

[ridgey]

Do you really think the process is intentionally engineered to keep poorer applicants from applying, or to discourage them?

For me, I wouldn't say it's the intention, but it is the result. Very few of the ways the poorest are disadvantaged are because someone decided that economically disadvantaged people should be punished. But, the structures of our societies do act to create and perpetuate poverty, in ways that are within our control, limiting options available to some. Grad apps are no different.

[coyabean]

For me, I wouldn't say it's the intention, but it is the result. Very few of the ways the poorest are disadvantaged are because someone decided that economically disadvantaged people should be punished. But, the structures of our societies do act to create and perpetuate poverty, in ways that are within our control, limiting options available to some. Grad apps are no different.

Yes. I don't care about intent. Intent is actually quite irrelevant. If someone didn't INTEND to kill your dog do you mourn less? So, yeah, it's the way the process is acted out in reality that is my concern. In particular this bothers me because I am so deeply committed to the idea of what education can and does mean for people. Of all industries I feel like education should be the most transparent and accessible.

[J.s.]

I'm in Europe. The cost for applications is much higher because of extra mail cost. Roughly, I apply for 11 graduation schools. I've successfully reached my credit card's limitation. All the cost, including GRE, IELTS, application fee, extra score report, CS GRE and transcript mailing, is about 1000 euro. But I know this is just some expensive lottery, nothing can be ensured for future.

[Pamphilia]

For me, I wouldn't say it's the intention, but it is the result. Very few of the ways the poorest are disadvantaged are because someone decided that economically disadvantaged people should be punished. But, the structures of our societies do act to create and perpetuate poverty, in ways that are within our control, limiting options available to some. Grad apps are no different.

Yes and yes.

[steiner-5]

$400 - Gre Prep course

$125 - Summer Course to meet pre-reqs

$140 - App Fees

$140 - GRE General

$100 - GRE Study Materials

$20 - Score reports

$60 - Transcripts

$20 - Organizational supplies

$100 - Editing service (For SOP)

$1105 - Total

I'm mid-career so, while expensive, it wasn't prohibitive for me. However, I don't know how those of you who are current students do it!