UNC offers Common Application, increases fee to apply

As high school seniors begin applying to college, those applying to UNC could find the process easier, but more expensive.

UNC is offering applicants the option to use the Common Application for the first time, and officials in the admissions office are bracing for thousands of additional applications.

In anticipation of more applications, the office plans to hire more application reviewers, who will be paid through a $10 increase in the application fee.

Students will have to pay $80 to submit their application beginning this year — an increase from the $70 that the University has charged for the past six years. The fee increase was recently approved by the UNC system’s General Administration.

“We lost a couple of permanent staffers last year and we haven’t yet filled the positions with full-time staff members, so we will use those spots to hire application reviewers,” said Barbara Polk, senior associate director of admissions.

The admissions office is expecting as many as 4,000 more applicants this year because of the new program, Polk said.

The Common Application is an online resource that lets students submit one standard application to multiple schools.

The University chose to offer the program in January, while also keeping the option for students to fill out the traditional UNC application.

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“We haven’t found any evidence that any of the increases (in the past) changed the composition of the applicant pool,” Farmer said, adding that UNC’s application pool has grown more diverse in recent years.

Students have the option of requesting a waiver if they can’t afford the increased fee.

Roughly 6.5 percent of all the first-year students who applied last year received a waiver of the application fee, Farmer said.

Freshman Erin Blaser said she is glad to have escaped the new application fee.

“I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to go here, so the fee would have made me change my mind about applying,” Blaser said.

Polk said the use of the Common Application would make the University a more attractive option for international students.

“Students across the country and particularly students around the world will find it easier to apply to UNC with the Common Application,” Polk said.

Contact the University Editor at university@dailytarheel.com.