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New York’s high school seniors won’t need to pay application fees for nearly 130 universities across the state starting this month, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Monday.
It’s the third year the state has waived fees during application season to help remove financial barriers for families and boost college enrollment after a pandemic-era slump.
Nationally, spring 2025 data shows that undergraduate enrollment increased by 3.5% from the year before but remains below pre-pandemic levels, according to National Student Clearinghouse, which collects enrollment data.
Twenty City University of New York campuses will waive application fees from Oct. 27 to Nov. 21 for all New York City high school students. CUNY will waive application fees for students living outside of the city from Nov. 10 to 21.
“Waiving application fees is a simple but powerful way to encourage all students to apply to college, especially those who face logistical or financial challenges,” Félix Matos Rodríguez, City University of New York chancellor, said in a statement.
CUNY’s enrollment fell by roughly 10% in fall 2022 compared to 2021. Statewide, undergraduate college enrollment was down by 2% during that same time, according to Clearinghouse.
But CUNY saw successful enrollment numbers for the 2024 fall application season after it waived application fees for all New York City public high school seniors during the spring of 2023. High school seniors also received personalized acceptance letters mentioning waived fees, an initiative led by CUNY and the city’s Education Department.
Last year, CUNY’s four-week fee-waived application period brought in 60,000 freshman applications, Matos Rodríguez said at his November “State of the University.”
Students can also apply to up to five State University of New York campuses for free from Oct. 20 through Nov. 3. Other private New York City-based schools, including the Fashion Institute of Technology, Fordham University, and Pace University, will also waive application fees. (Some of the city’s top private institutions, such as New York University and Columbia University, were not on the list.)
Fees can discourage students from applying to colleges, Philip Oreopoulos, an economics professor at the University of Toronto, previously told Chalkbeat.
“Even a small fee, where you have to whip out your credit card or you have to get your parents to do that, can cause delays, can cause like, ‘Oh, I’m going to do this later,’” he said. “And then it just never happens.”
Ananya Chetia is a reporting intern for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Ananya at achetia@chalkbeat.org.
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