APPLYING TO GRAD SCHOOL, POST #6: HANDLING APPLICATION COSTS

Applying to grad school is, for many people, prohibitively expensive. But it doesn't always have to be!

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There are many [burdensome] costs associated with applying to grad school, including but not limited to standardized exams, language proficiency exams, sending your exam scores and transcripts to each school, and the actual application fees. However, in a lot of cases, there...

may be options for you to decrease or eliminate those costs.

For standardized exams and language exams, such as the GRE and IELTS, respectively, you might be eligible to apply for a fee waiver or fee reduction; it might take some searching around online for the information,...

and if you don't find any information about fee waivers or reductions, you can try contacting the administrators: kindly outline your situation, and ask if any fee reductions are possible. For many of these exams, unemployment status, having been on scholarship or financial...

aid during previous study, and having partaken in certain minority and/or underserved opportunity programs can qualify you for a fee waiver/reduction.

If you're still affiliated with your undergrad or any previous higher education institution, you can also ask them if any...

institution- or nation-specific scholarships may be available to help students bear these exam costs

*Quick side-note about the GRE: Especially during this application cycle, it may be worth checking which/how many of your prospective programs actually require the GRE before...

you decide to pay for and take it; many programs have made the GRE optional–or stopped accepting it altogether–in recent years, and due to the pandemic, many additional programs are waiving the GRE requirement just for this cycle.

In the case of sending transcripts, I suggest...

reading each application carefully and making sure whether or not an official transcript is required with the application; in my experience, many of my programs just wanted an unofficial transcript with the application, and would request an official transcript if an offer of...

admission was made.

Lastly, APPLICATION FEE WAIVERS! Many programs will offer application fee waivers/reductions, even if they don't readily advertise it online!

The first thing I recommend is to search the program's website thoroughly for any information regarding fee...

waivers; sometimes, the site will clearly outline their rules for eligibility. If you find yourself eligible, go ahead and apply for the waiver! If you're not eligible for a fee waiver for that particular program, or if the website doesn't have any information about waivers,...

reach out to the program coordinator and ask! Just like I mentioned earlier, you should email them to introduce yourself, express your interest in applying to the program, outline the reasons you think might qualify you for a fee waiver, and kindly ask if a waiver can be granted.

Honesty hour: I probably can't "officially" recommend this, but I serendipitously found myself with this situation/opportunity last year, so instead of "recommending," I'll share a story:

I contacted a prospective supervisor who turned out to be extremely generous and...

supportive, and when I found out that their program didn't offer fee waivers, I told the supervisor that I would have to wait and see if I could/would ultimately apply to the program. Graciously, this supervisor insisted on paying my application fee, despite my ardent protests.

So, I suppose my "more official" recommendation might be to try asking your prospective supervisors as well if any options for fee waivers might exist within their research group, department, etc.

I applied to 7 programs total, and I was able to get application fee waivers...

for 6, plus the surprise I shared earlier for the 7th program, so it is absolutely possible to apply to a good handful of programs without spending too much money.

My overarching advice for all of this: Don't be afraid to ask!