Majority of UW schools waive application fees
Move made to boost enrollment, bring in lower-income students
A majority of University of Wisconsin campuses hope a decision to waive application fees for the next two years will open doors for lower-income students and fill seats at a time when many universities are struggling to increase enrollment.
The UW System Board of Regents approved a plan Thursday to waive the online application fee for new undergraduate students, including transfer students. Every UW school will participate, except for UW-Madison, which has a $65 application fee and UW-Eau Claire and UW-La Crosse, which have $25 fees.
The decision came after most UW campuses waived their application fees this fall in an effort to remove barriers for students who might not be able to apply to college, or multiple colleges, because of financial barriers.
According to initial UW System data, waiving the fee has, at least in part, increased the number of applications the universities received.
As of this month, UW schools have received 6,078 more applications than the same time last year. The number of students applying to more than one UW school is up by more than 4,000, at 13,662 in total.
The decision doesn’t come without a financial sacrifice. For example, UW-Milwaukee estimates the waiver will cost $480,000 in lost revenue. At UWGreen Bay, the estimate is about $200,000 a year.
The argument made in favor of the fee waiver is an increase in student enrollment will offset the lost revenue and then some.
Sheryl Van Gruensven, the chief business officer at UW-Green Bay, estimated the university would need to recruit somewhere between 30 and 40 additional students in order to break even.
But UW-Green Bay’s shift in recent years to become more “access-focused” — a phrase used in college admissions in reference to a university’s commitment to accept most students who apply despite low test scores or other barriers — seems to have helped the campus increase enrollment each of the last five years.
UW-Eau Claire and UW-La Crosse’s decision to opt out of the waiver raised questions from the UW System Board of Regents’ education committee, which ultimately passed the plan, as did the full board later Thursday.
Campuses in Eau Claire, La Crosse and Madison will still grant application fee waivers to students on an individual basis — some are as simple as checking a box on the application, no other questions asked.
But Regent Edmund Manydeeds III ended up voting against the proposal in the committee meeting because, he later told the Journal Sentinel, he thought there should have been more time to discuss the campuses choosing to opt out.
Manydeeds was supportive of UW-Madison’s decision, noting the application fee there helps pay to parse through the large number of applications the university receives. But he wanted to hear more from UW-La Crosse and UW-Eau Claire about their decisions.
“I don’t think we should put those barriers up if we can avoid doing that,” he said, noting that even when a waiver is a simple check of a box, students could be too self-conscious, prideful or nervous to request the waiver.
Administrators at UW-Eau Claire and UW-La Crosse told regents they used the money from their fees to pay the staff who process their applications, but also that the fees helped the universities determine that the students were being intentional in applying to their universities, and helps them get decisions out to students quickly.
“I think the fundamental issue is that our campuses are not open access, that’s the key difference between many of the other comprehensives and Eau Claire and La Crosse and Madison,” said Betsy Morgan, provost at UW-La Crosse, told the regents.
Regent Tracey Klein, chair of the education committee, supported the waivers but acknowledged universities were trying to strike a balance between increasing access and the perception among some people that a $0 application fee is a reflection on how selective a university is.
“Selectivity is in the eyes of the beholder but in addition to being inclusive and being accessible, as is our mandate under the state charter, I think we also want to be perceived as good,” Klein said. “Maybe not elite or exclusive, but excellent campuses. So, I think that balance is tricky.”
Another consideration, raised by Klein and others, was the potential for increased competition between UW schools as more students will be able to apply to more schools than before.
Kay Eilers, who oversees enrollment management at UW-Milwaukee, said it’s likely campuses will see more competition. But the responsibility of making the case for their campus is on the universities, she said.
“That’s our job,” she said. “To do that outreach to make sure we’re presenting our institution as a really viable option.”