Schools waive fee to apply

To encourage first-generation and low-income high school seniors to apply to college, Gov. Bev Perdue has declared Nov. 16 to Nov. 20 “College Application Week.”

Students with financial need will see lower application fees and extra assistance from college counselors. University administrators said they hope it will prompt a rise in applications and a more diverse applicant pool.

More than 380 high schools will hold programs to help high school seniors apply to colleges and universities in the state using its Web site, according to a press release from the College Foundation of North Carolina.

CFNC and the Carolinas Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers are working together on the project.

Thirty of the 36 private post-secondary institutions in North Carolina have decided to waive normal application fees for students who submit applications during this week and demonstrate financial need.

The 16 UNC-system universities and the other six private institutions in the state will waive fees outside of this week as well.

None of the state’s 58 community colleges require an application fee this academic year, and several small private universities also have dropped their fee for 2009-10.

Archie Ervin, associate provost and director of diversity and multicultural affairs at UNC-Chapel Hill, said his office has been working to increase the number of first-generation students applying to the University for years.

“I do think that due to the governor emphasizing this week for first-generation and low-income students that there will be more entering the application process,” Ervin said.

“However, if you are a low- income student, UNC already has a practice in place that does this.”

The event was set for this week because it will encourage students to get their applications done before early admission deadlines in most state colleges and universities, said Ben Kittner, the market research and public relations manager for CFNC.

It also allows time for any lingering high school transcripts or late letters of recommendation, Kittner said.

“The purpose, really, is to encourage students to get their applications together, particularly low-income and nontraditional college students,” he said.

“We will have counselors and volunteers for the schools who participate, and now we are also going to have colleges who are going to waive their application fees.”

Zaire Miller McCoy, senior associate director of admissions at Elon University and a member of an executive committee organizing the event, said all parties in this effort were cooperating, and, overall, College Application Week faced minimal obstacles.

“In terms of obstacles, the biggest is whether or not the student is really prepared to submit their applications,” McCoy said.

“Do they have their essay prepared and ready to attach it to the application? Are they ready to fill out all the necessary pieces of it to submit to the school of their choice?”



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