Application Fee Waivers

Types of Fee Waivers

The Graduate School will consider a waiver of the application fee for applicants who demonstrate financial need, personal hardship, or other circumstances that make paying the application fee unduly onerous. You may access the request form after you have submitted your application.

After you have clicked the button to submit your application, you will be taken to your Applicant Status page. Information about the application fee and the link to access the waiver request form appears near the top of this page. You must fill out the Application Fee Waiver Request Form and upload materials to support your request, such as letters from your university, tax returns, or other financial documents after submitting your application.

Important: Under no circumstances should you include your Social Security Number on any of the documents submitted via this form. If your Social Security Number or other sensitive, personal information appears on any of your financial materials, please redact before uploading.

Please Note:

  • Submission of a fee waiver request form does not guarantee that your application fee will be waived.
  • Do not submit the application fee payment if you have a pending fee waiver request or will be requesting a fee waiver, as application fee payments are nonrefundable (except for processing errors). You will be notified via email when your request has been reviewed, which may take 5-7 business days. If your request is not approved, you must pay the fee with a credit card before your application will be considered complete.
  • If you have previously requested and received two fee waivers for prior applications to GSAS, you may be ineligible to request an additional fee waiver for a new application. Each applicant may have only two approved application fee waiver requests.

If you have been offered an application fee waiver after speaking with a GSAS staff member at a recruiting event (or via correspondence), detailed instructions for requesting this Special Request fee waiver will be viewable after submitting your application. 

Please be prepared to provide the following information in your request:  

  • Your full name
  • The name, date, and location of the recruitment event you attended
  • The date you submitted your GSAS application
  • Your GSAS application reference number
     

The Office of Academic Access and Engagement will reply to your message to approve or deny your request. If your request is not approved, you must pay the fee with a credit card before your application will be considered complete.

If you are applying to Columbia University through an outside fellowship organization, you may be eligible to have your application fee waived. There is no separate fee waiver request form required, though the organization’s representatives are required to enter their direct contact information as part of the application.

Eligible outside organizations include:

  • Amid East
  • DAAD-German American Exchange
  • DAF – Danish American Fulbright Commission
  • Fulbright

GSAS automatically grants a Fee Waiver to applicants who are currently enrolled GSAS students. No fee waiver request form is required.

Fee Waivers are granted to applicants who are currently serving in the US Military. No fee waiver request form is required.