How to eliminate grad application fees

[Caracal]

Application fees have two purposes: One is to cover the cost of processing applications. Two is to deter frivolous applications.

How common are frivolous applications really? When I was applying to PHD programs, every application I had to do was different. I was able to mostly reuse materials, but I usually had to modify them in various ways and it always took some time. I suppose an unserious applicant might just dispense with all this and just send the same form materials to everywhere, but even the process of completing an application form is a hassle. When I apply for jobs, I usually find that it takes me almost an hour just to fill out the online forms required and get everything uploaded in the right format. I just can't imagine there are really that many people doing all these applications just for fun.

[dismalist]

Application fees have two purposes: One is to cover the cost of processing applications. Two is to deter frivolous applications.

How common are frivolous applications really? When I was applying to PHD programs, every application I had to do was different. I was able to mostly reuse materials, but I usually had to modify them in various ways and it always took some time. I suppose an unserious applicant might just dispense with all this and just send the same form materials to everywhere, but even the process of completing an application form is a hassle. When I apply for jobs, I usually find that it takes me almost an hour just to fill out the online forms required and get everything uploaded in the right format. I just can't imagine there are really that many people doing all these applications just for fun.

Sure, if there are enough other hurdles, deterrence doesn't require money.

[Puget]

Application fees have two purposes: One is to cover the cost of processing applications. Two is to deter frivolous applications.

How common are frivolous applications really? When I was applying to PHD programs, every application I had to do was different. I was able to mostly reuse materials, but I usually had to modify them in various ways and it always took some time. I suppose an unserious applicant might just dispense with all this and just send the same form materials to everywhere, but even the process of completing an application form is a hassle. When I apply for jobs, I usually find that it takes me almost an hour just to fill out the online forms required and get everything uploaded in the right format. I just can't imagine there are really that many people doing all these applications just for fun.

I'm not sure I'd use the word frivolous, maybe just clueless, but we get a lot of applicants who clearly haven't done their homework (more for the MA than the PhD program)-- e.g., haven't bothered to identify potential mentors, or list people as potential mentors who make no sense with their research interests, state research interests that no one in the department fits, state a goal to be come a clinician (we are not a clinical program), etc. And that's *with* an application fee.

[mamselle]

You may also get a few who are thinking to get some kind of financial aid out of their (putative) admission, not realizing that grad and undergrad support systems don't work the same way.

M. 

[Dismal]

re frivolous: our PhD program has about a 5% acceptance rate, not because we are an amazingly good program, but because the denominator is huge. There are no real barriers to entry regarding specific undergraduate coursework (this is for a multidisciplinary program) and even the $75 fee doesn't seem to induce applicants to do their homework. And perhaps the city is a draw.

Getting rid of the application fee will lead to more applications, but the OP desires this. What hasn't been mentioned is that, as with the Common App, the yield might be much lower. You might be more likely to accept people who aren't going to come as they only applied because there was no fee. I guess it is an empirical question.

[fizzycist]

What hasn't been mentioned is that, as with the Common App, the yield might be much lower. You might be more likely to accept people who aren't going to come as they only applied because there was no fee. I guess it is an empirical question.

Yeah, we will probably have to recalibrate number of offers, and there will be 1-2 years of growing pains. But our yield has been fluctuating for last 6 yrs anyhow--Trump visa stuff, GRE elimination, COVID, rankings changes, etc.--so we are used to playing a guessing game with the number of offers anyway.

[Caracal]

re frivolous: our PhD program has about a 5% acceptance rate, not because we are an amazingly good program, but because the denominator is huge. There are no real barriers to entry regarding specific undergraduate coursework (this is for a multidisciplinary program) and even the $75 fee doesn't seem to induce applicants to do their homework. And perhaps the city is a draw.

Getting rid of the application fee will lead to more applications, but the OP desires this. What hasn't been mentioned is that, as with the Common App, the yield might be much lower. You might be more likely to accept people who aren't going to come as they only applied because there was no fee. I guess it is an empirical question.

I guess the question would be whether, given that lots of people who shouldn't apply, do, even though there is a fee, a lot more are going to apply without a fee.

The OP mentioned this, but this does seem like a case where it may not be particularly difficult or time consuming to deal with extra applications if many of these people are obviously not competitive. If you have a job search in a tough humanities discipline, the hard part is that you may get 100 applications and 60 of those people are going to be completely qualified for the position. For grad school applications,  a quick read through a statement of research interests (or whatever the field specific equivalent might be)  is going to quickly identify people who shouldn't be applying and if you can eliminate a lot of applications right off the bat, it really shouldn't be that much extra work.

[AJ_Katz]

if I could just pay the waivers from my own single-PI grants I probably would. Totally worth it for improving my dept and perhaps even considering just my own research group. But of course that is not allowed, and my personal discretionary accts are not big enough to consider this, so I need to find a cheaper solution.

Our faculty do not have the expertise to decide if an applicant has "financial need", so we stay out of it altogether. However, some faculty have indicated that the fee is a barrier to someone applying for their program, so I give that faculty member the option to pay for their admission fee themselves.  If they have already enough confidence in the applicant to pay for it out of their grant, they have likely gone to the trouble to recruit this person. 

I would not bother trying to get fees waived for everyone else.  IMO, money is better spent of updating a website to be attractive to prospective applicants.