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December 3, 2024 Login
Opinion

The unsustainable cost of college applications must come to an end

By Rigzin Gyaltsen, November 22nd, 2024

With graduation only a semester away, seniors have college on their minds. With the number of options, students often end up applying to many schools. Unfortunately, most students have to pay upwards of fifty to a hundred dollars per college application. Moreover, application costs are growing each year, and it’s time that these prices were brought down, in consideration of students. 

College application fees can range from forty dollars, all the way to $125. For students like Maya Merhige, a Berkeley High School senior, this number continuously racks up with each application. “I spent over one thousand dollars last week on my registration and some college applications,” Merhige, who is applying to 20 institutions, said. This substantial price tag harms student’s educational opportunities by discouraging them from applying to a broader selection of universities. 

Although some schools offer reduced-price application fees, all students should have the right to apply no matter their financial situation. Tuition costs are enough on their own. Americans have a collective $1.6 trillion worth of student loans. This number can be seen as a direct effect of high tuition prices, some of which can be up to $93,417 per semester, according to Columbia University.

Furthermore, many institutions are already exceedingly wealthy. In 2024, Columbia University made $6.6 billion — $3.3 million of which came from application fees. In addition, the number of applicants has consistently increased while the number of acceptances has stayed relatively constant. Taking Columbia as an example, in 2016, 31,851 students applied, and 2,363 were accepted. In contrast, 60,374 students applied in 2023 while only 2,255 were admitted. It is unfair that colleges continue to charge applicants so much when so few students are accepted compared to the number who apply.

College application fees can be important, however. Fees encourage students to be more selective with their applications, so they can help narrow students’ lists. This can also prove to be beneficial to colleges, as admissions officers won’t have to spend time reading the applications of students who threw their hats in on a whim and don’t actually want to attend their college. Despite this, universities like MIT, make $4.56 billion a year — yet are still charging a $75 application fee. While institutions like these have expenses, they could easily fund admissions officers’ salaries on their own.

From the East to the West Coast, institutions in America must begin lowering, and ultimately eliminating college application fees. In doing so, they will allow greater access to educational opportunities while saving students and their families potentially thousands of dollars. It’s important that colleges and universities lower application costs to ensure equal opportunities, and meet the needs of students regardless of their financial situations.