Traditionally, graduate schools in North American universities
have charged a substantial application fee which varies by
university and is often higher for international students. This
may have been justified in pre-electronic days when processing
applications would involve direct costs dealing with physical
paperwork, as well as postage fees which would be higher for
international destinations. Today, most universities use modern
fully online systems but the application fees remain in place. It
should be noted that most programs do offer various waivers
including need-based waivers. However, in most cases, they have
strict eligibility criteria that exclude many talented applicants
who deserve the waivers, and they almost always only apply to
domestic students.
A typical prospective student applying to several programs will wind up having to pay $1,000 or more just in application fees on top of what they would have to pay for standardized tests (GRE, TOEFL, and such) and the reporting of test scores which often incurs additional fees. This can take a toll on students from underprivileged backgrounds as well as international students from economically underprivileged countries. Needless to say, this creates discrimination based on economic standing and goes against Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. The practice of charging application fees for graduate applications must stop! The collected fees are actually put to good use (for example to fund student visits) but that does not justify their existence and their discriminatory effects.
I studied at EPFL,
and worked as a faculty at Imperial
College London. Both have excellent Ph.D. programs that do
not charge application fees. I'm sure there are many many other
examples, and invite everyone to help me gather a stronger case
against application fees by adding more examples to this
spreadsheet.
I'm committed to working toward eliminating any discriminatory
barriers in higher education and consistently raising such issues
as unjust fees to my colleagues across the board. Fortunately, the
University of Michigan
has demonstrated strong commitments to DEI and has taken steps in
the right direction by providing generous fee waiver policies.
Some graduate programs at U of M have at various points eliminated
their application fees (for example, as of October 2020 the SEAS program,
and the Chemistry
program, the latter only for domestic applicants). However,
there is still a long way to go and I'll work towards seeing a day
when the fees are completely eliminated in all programs.
In 2020-21, I collected powerful stories that many applicants
shared with me on the financial challenges faced by them, which
you can see in
this document. If you'd like to share your own experience,
I'd love to hear that. Knowing more and more first-hand
experiences will help me think of better strategies to work toward
resolving this issue and build a stronger case when discussing
with colleagues.
I strongly encourage colleagues in my department and also other
universities to join the effort, in any way possible, on
eliminating unnecessary fees and providing equal opportunities for
talented students irrespective of their social and economic
backgrounds.
(Disclaimer: This
is my personal website, and any opinions expressed in this
website are solely my own.)
Last Updated: September 2022