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Common App fee waiver: who qualifies and how to get one
Who qualifies for a Common App fee waiver, how to request one through your school counselor and why eligible students should use it.
SourceBased on what we at Aristo learned from the Stanford admissions office.
The Common App includes a short section asking whether an applicant qualifies for an application fee waiver, and readers in Stanford's admissions office saw the answer when they read a file. A surprising number of families who would qualify leave it blank. Some are unsure whether they count, some worry it will mark them in a way they do not want, and some simply do not notice it.
Each of those reasons is understandable, and each has a cost that arrives later, in December when the fees are added up or in the reading room where the file is weighed. What readers actually make of the waiver is the part families most often get wrong.
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