Part of applying to college is paying for doing so. Stanford University is known for its high fee ($90) and long odds of admission. The University of Georgia charges $60. The University of Florida charges $30 for the application plus a $5 processing fee.
These colleges and others with fees typically permit those who say they can't afford it to file a form to seek to waive the fee, and officials report that it's not hard to get a waiver for those who meet certain conditions.
But momentum appears to be building for the idea that fees may discourage low-income applicants, who may doubt that they will get a waiver and who already may feel intimidated by a college-application process that no one in their family might have tried before.
This month, two liberal arts colleges -- Bowdoin College and Trinity College of Connecticut -- announced such initiatives. And on Monday, the City University of New York announced a systemwide initiative that will drop fees for many more students and families because CUNY educates so many more low-income students than do most private liberal arts colleges. All three institutions have a $65 regular fee.
Read more at Inside Higher Ed: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/09/28/more-colleges-drop-application-fees-low-income-students