By Meghan Proctor ’16

By now, many seniors have applied to some colleges. Some may have already finished the process. Whether someone has applied to one college or 10, that student likely had to pay an application fee, usually around $40 – $50. This payment may not seem like much individually, but they can add up to become a problem, especially for students applying to many colleges.

College is expensive, and there is no way around that. However, students should not be punished for wanting to apply to many different schools. The application fees can discourage some students from applying to colleges that they would at least like a small chance to get accepted to, even if those schools will likely reject them.

There is a long process between receiving a potential student’s application and making a final decision, and those who review the hundreds of applications received each year need to be paid. However, with the thousands of dollars in tuition each enrolled student pays per year, it should not be too difficult to find a way to pay them with a reduced or eliminated application fee.