It’s no secret that college has become an expensive investment that many have to take on if they want to climb up the economic ladder. When families plan for their children's future education, there are many expenses to consider: tuition, visits to prospective schools, and exams like the ACT and SAT. But there is another expense that is slowly becoming more burdensome: the college application fee.
College application fees are roughly $40 a pop, U.S. News and World Report reported this fall. This is the highest it’s been in six years.
But application fees for the top 28 universities are almost double that, with an average application fee of $77. So, if a high-achieving high school senior decided they wanted an elite east coast education and applied to Columbia, Dartmouth, and Brown, the student (or the family) would be expected to dole out $235 for those three schools alone.
The rising cost of applying to college is a big factor in undermatching, the phenomenon of lower-income and high-achieving students just not applying to top universities.
The number of college applications dropped significantly for the first time since the 1990s during the 2012-13 school year, according to the New York Times. The drop hit for-profit and community colleges the most, although signs are pointing to traditional four-year colleges seeing a steady decline in applications next. This predicted drop in applications is expected to last several years. While rising college application fees cannot alone be directly attributed to this — a drop in the college-age population certainly isn't helping — the overall high cost of a college (application fees included) is thought to be a major factor.
Here are some of the highest application fees by region:
East Coast:
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Boston University ($80)
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Columbia University ($80)
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Dartmouth College ($80)
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University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill ($80)
West Coast:
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Stanford University ($90)
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University of Southern California ($80)
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California Institute of Technology ($75)
Midwest:
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University of Chicago ($75)
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University of Notre Dame ($75)
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Washington University in St. Louis ($75)
South:
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Rice University ($75)
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Texas A&M University ($75)
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University of Texas at Austin ($75)
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