SAT and College Application Fee Waivers: how to get one and what it covers

Reader question: If my family cannot afford SAT and application fees, what waivers can I actually get, and how do I claim them?

Here is the short answer: there are two waivers to chase, and one unlocks the other. An SAT fee waiver from College Board covers two free SATs, unlimited score reports, and, once you are a senior who has taken the SAT, waived application fees at participating colleges plus free CSS Profile applications. Separately, the Common App fee waiver lets you submit Common App applications without paying the application fee. You claim the SAT waiver through your counselor or College Board; you claim the Common App waiver inside the Common App profile section, with your counselor possibly asked to verify.

The SAT fee waiver: what College Board covers

College Board's official benefits page lists exactly what an SAT fee waiver gives you:

• Two free SAT tests, with no late registration fees and no international fees on those tests if you are a U.S. student testing abroad.
• Unlimited score reports to send to colleges.
• Waived application fees at participating colleges. To access this benefit, College Board says you must be a senior in high school and have taken the SAT.
• Free CSS Profile applications for financial aid from participating schools.
• No cancellation fees. If you cancel, your unused fee waiver benefits are returned to you.

SAT fee waivers are for low-income 11th and 12th grade students living in the United States or U.S. territories, and U.S. citizens living abroad. College Board's educator guide lists the qualifying circumstances: you are enrolled in or eligible for the federal National School Lunch Program; your family's annual income falls within the USDA Food and Nutrition Service income eligibility guidelines; you are in a federal, state, or local program that aids students from low-income families, such as TRIO programs like Upward Bound; your family receives public assistance; you live in federally subsidized public housing, a foster home, or are homeless; or you are a ward of the state or an orphan.

Ask your school counselor for a fee waiver code, or submit College Board's SAT Fee Waiver Request Form yourself if you are in the U.S. or a U.S. territory. The request form takes about 1 to 2 weeks to be approved, so ask early, not the week of the registration deadline. You get one set of fee waiver benefits per lifetime, so plan both test dates.

The Common App fee waiver: how to claim it

The Common App fee waiver lets you submit an application through Common App without paying the application fee. Common App's own fee waiver form lists the eligibility criteria, and having received or being eligible for an SAT or ACT fee waiver is on the list, along with free or reduced price lunch eligibility, family income within USDA guidelines, public assistance, programs for low-income students, subsidized public housing, foster care, homelessness, ward of the state or orphan status, Pell Grant eligibility, or a supporting statement from a school official, college access counselor, financial aid officer, or community leader.

To request it, find the Common App Fee Waiver section in your Common App profile, review the eligibility requirements on the form, and sign to confirm that you meet one or more of the criteria. Your counselor or school official may be asked to verify your eligibility, per the form itself.

One honest warning that Common App prints on the form itself: colleges have different policies on who can use the Common App fee waiver, so check each college's requirements. Separately, College Board's BigFuture FAQ says that if you have received an SAT fee waiver, you may apply to any Coalition, Common, or Universal College Application college without a fee, and that for colleges outside those platforms you can submit the application fee waiver forms from your College Board account directly to the institution.

What the waivers do not do

They do not waive everything. The SAT waiver covers only the benefits College Board lists, and waived application fees apply at participating colleges, not at every college on earth. If a college on your list does not accept the waiver, you may need to pay that application fee or ask the college's admissions office directly about alternatives. That is the truthful limit of the benefit, and it is still an enormous one: two free SATs, unlimited score sends, and most or all of your application fees gone.