College applications shouldn’t feel like a luxury, but for many students, that’s exactly what they’ve become. With application fees as high as $90 per school—plus the cost of sending test scores, transcripts and prepping for standardized tests—the system feels like it is designed to favor those who can afford it.
According to Forbes, the average student applying to seven to ten colleges can spend anywhere from $500 to $1,500 on application fees alone. And while fee waivers exist, they rarely cover everything, leaving students to make impossible choices: Should I apply to the schools I really want, or just stick to what’s affordable?
The whole process feels unfair to many. If you have money, you can take expensive test prep courses, hire a private college counselor and visit campuses to gain an advantage.
The test prep industry is a $1.5 billion business, with companies like the Princeton Review and Kaplan charging hundreds to thousands of dollars for SAT and ACT tutoring. Studies have shown that students from high-income families score, on average, 100–200 points higher on the SAT than low-income students, largely due to access to better resources. If you don’t have these advantages, you’re stuck relying on whatever free resources you can find—if you’re lucky enough to even have those. The system creates an uneven playing field where students with fewer privileges have to work twice as hard just to keep up.
And beyond this, colleges profit from the system. Many universities encourage students to apply to more schools to “keep their options open,” but each additional application adds revenue for the schools while increasing stress for families. Even sending standardized test scores is an added cost. For many families, these extra expenses add up quickly.
I can’t help but wonder how many amazing students give up on applying to their dream schools because of the cost. Why should something as basic as applying to college come with such a heavy price tag? If higher education is supposed to be accessible, then why do so many schools put up financial barriers right from the start?
There has to be a better way. Maybe it’s eliminating application fees altogether or making fee waivers easier to obtain. Some schools have already taken steps in this direction. For instance, over 170 colleges do not charge application fees, and about 30% of colleges report waiving application fees for students with financial need. However, these measures are not universal and often insufficient.
Perhaps the solution is simplifying the system—eliminating the extra costs of sending test scores or allowing more students to self-report their scores, a policy some universities have already adopted. Whatever the solution is, one thing is clear: something needs to change.
Education is supposed to be about opportunity, not income. We need to stop punishing students for dreaming big and start building a system that lets everyone have a fair shot.