NACAC - Spring 2020 - 22

CONFERENCE CORNER
We found that more than 360 colleges failed to highlight how to obtain an
application fee waiver, so we reached out to them. Many didn't charge a
fee at all, something that was left out of their website language.

easily be dismantled by admission and financial
aid offices, high school counseling centers, and
nonprofit organizations.
The enrollment deposit is only one
example of a micro-barrier. Add to the
list: application fees, housing deposits,
standardized testing registration, SAT and
ACT score sends, the cost of test preparation
or transportation to the testing center,
availability of admission representatives in
one's community, visits to campuses, and
the vast social capital required to apply to
college. While we might not be able to solve
school funding formulas or institutionalized
racism overnight, we as a community can
do more to equitably support those without
financial resources and extensive connections
to ensure that they, too, can make it to and
through college.
Take the application fee. In 2019, working
with a colleague, I reviewed more than 1,500
college admission websites. We found that
more than 360 colleges failed to highlight
how to obtain an application fee waiver, so
we reached out to them. Many didn't charge a
fee at all, something that was left out of their
website language. Others wrote back to us,
only they thought they were writing to a lowincome student requesting information about
an application fee waiver and financial aid. We
played "secret shopper" to better understand
true responses from admission offices.
The results were astounding. More than
70 percent of responding colleges failed to
include any information about financial aid,
and several told "the student" to submit a
fee waiver-like the NACAC fee waiver-
without providing a link to the form or an
explanation about NACAC. While many
responded and offered fee waivers and codes

THE JOURNAL OF

to submit a free application, a few notable
replies included:
* We only provide fee waivers to alumni
children.
* We need to vote on your fee waiver as a
committee.
* We only offer fee waivers to those who
visit-and, in this case, the college was
located thousands of miles away from our
low-income secret shopper.
Those responses are unacceptable. In addition,
too many colleges require documentation of
federal free lunch status or other barriers for
the application fee to be waived, and this is
one reason why students give up applying. At
the 2019 NACAC National Conference, my
colleagues and I presented to a sparsely
populated room about micro-barriers in the
admission process. Namely, we covered how a
lack of high school visits by colleges, along with
application fees and enrollment deposits, created
barriers for underserved students.
In our research project about waivers,
we found some excellent examples of how
public colleges are changing course. Boise
State University (ID) and University of North
Carolina-Charlotte represented exceptional
instances of how colleges should outline their
fee waiver policies. Both institutions included
clear and concise language on their admission
websites about eligibility for fee waivers and
how to obtain one. Boise State went so far as
to offer an enrollment deposit waiver through
a web-based form. The admission directors at
both institutions disclosed that their budgets
hinged on application fee revenue, yet

COLLEGE ADMISSION

because of their institutional missions and
personal commitment to lowering barriers,
they offer fee waivers to those most in
need. Still, more must be done to eliminate
barriers and mitigate their harmful effects on
underserved students.
Dustin Lynn's story didn't end with his
admission letter. Lynn was determined to
make it work. He knew the opportunity he had
in front of him could change the trajectory of
his life. He told his parents about the $400
enrollment deposit and hoped for the best.
"Dad told me, 'Well, I'll just have to mow more
lawns. We'll come up with it, somehow,'"
Lynn told me. And they did. Lynn enrolled in
college as a rural, first-generation, Pell Grant
recipient and graduated with a bachelor's
and master's in education from the same
institution. Today, he's director of college
counseling at Battle Ground Academy (TN),
co-leader of the NACAC Rural and Small Town
Special Interest Group, and a fierce advocate
for low-income students in the college
admission process. In fact, he's the colleague
who helped me review those 1,500-some
college websites, looking for answers about
application fee waivers.
We shouldn't have to highlight examples of
how our own colleagues have overcome microbarriers in the admission process, but I hope it
serves as a stark reminder that our community
includes first-generation, low-income folks who
made it to college, despite the persistent barriers
that we fail to dismantle.
NACAC member Andrew Moe is director of
admissions at Swarthmore College (PA), coleader of NACAC's Rural and Small Town SIG,
and a member of the association's Inclusion,
Access, and Success Committee.

NACAC - Spring 2020

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