College Application Fee Waivers

Every senior who takes the SAT or SAT Subject Tests using a fee waiver will receive four college application fee waivers directly from the College Board. Eligible students can use them to apply to any of the over 2,000 participating colleges. This initiative is made possible thanks to the commitment of colleges across the country to ensure that application fees are not a barrier, and fee waivers are an important part of our efforts to propel low-income, first-generation, and underrepresented students into the educational opportunities they have earned.

How Students Access Their Fee Waivers Online

Eligible seniors will access their college application fee waivers via their College Board online accounts by visiting collegeboard.org/mysat.

Once students log in, they will see a message titled Apply to college for free with a link to where they can print their college application fee waivers, search for colleges that accept the waivers, and review submission instructions specific to each school. 

College Application Fee-Waiver Distribution

Because students who take the SAT using a fee waiver have already had their eligibility verified by their counselor, college application fee waivers do not require additional counselor approval. Here is how it will work for different populations of students:

• Seniors who tested during previous academic years will receive their fee waivers online by July.
• Seniors testing for the first time will receive their fee waivers at the same time they receive their SAT test scores — typically 19 days after the test date.
• Juniors who test with an SAT fee waiver will receive fee waivers at the beginning of their senior year.
• Students will be able to access their college application fee waivers up through one year after graduation from high school (note: fee waivers can only be used for first year college admissions and not transer admissions).

Student Eligibility Conditions

These are the student eligibility conditions for use of college application fee waivers from the College Board:

• The student meets one or more of the eligibility criteria for using an SAT fee waiver and may use up to four college application fee waivers from the College Board.
• The student has taken at least one SAT or SAT Subject Test with a fee waiver, or has taken an SAT that was paid for by his or her state or school district

Terms of Use

Student may use up to four college application fee waivers from the College Board.

Participating colleges have agreed to consider waiving their application fees. Colleges may have specific fee-waiver policies or criteria, and they retain the final decision on whether to waive the application fee. College application fee-waivers should not be used for applications to colleges that are not listed in the directory.

College application fee waivers are not intended for waiver of test fees for either the SAT or SAT Subject Tests.