High school seniors looking to attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison should get their applications in before September if they want to save a few bucks: The application fee for prospective undergraduate students is set to increase from $44 to $50 on Sept. 1.
The UW System Board of Regents voted on the fee increase earlier this week.
Nearly 40,000 students applied to UW-Madison in 2014. The board said the $44 application fee did not sufficiently cover the costs involved with reviewing the growing volume of applications.
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According to the university, the $6 increase would generate $210,000 annually for the school’s admissions office.
But UW senior Montserrat Calixto said she thinks increasing application costs can be discouraging for many students. Calixto sought out resources from her high school to discount application costs.
“There are a lot of kids out there who dream of going to college and one of the biggest factors for them is the application fees,” Calixto said. “Lots of minorities have financial issues. I don’t see how increasing fees helps these students pursue college.”
Even with the fee hike, UW-Madison’s application fee is still about $7 below the Big Ten average.
The Board of Regents is also considering whether or not the UW will adopt the Common Application next year, an online program which allows students to apply to multiple universities simultaneously using a single application. If approved, there will be additional fee increases in 2016 to offset the costs of using the program.
You can see how UW-Madison’s application fees stack up compared to other Big Ten schools in the chart below:
Application Fees by Big Ten School (In Dollars)
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