EpicSplit '21–'22 app cycle Class of 2025 class year

Reach out to every school to which you plan to apply for an application fee waiver (and probably a CAS waiver too). If you ask nicely, pretty much every school will waive the application fee, although quite a few don’t waive CAS fees no matter what. Try to do that in August so you can submit applications as early as possible.

If you can afford it (and especially if you can get free applications), try to apply widely. Even if you have a geographical preference or some other reason for knowing you’d only attend one of, say, five schools, send applications to two or three peer schools for each one on your ‘real’ list. For instance, my real list was pretty much WashU, Missouri, and Saint Louis. I didn’t close myself off to other possibilities, but there was a 90% chance I would be going to one of those three. I knew I wouldn’t attend Nebraska or Case Western, but I wanted to apply in the event either or both offered me a bigger scholarship than Saint Louis that could be used for negotiation. Same story for Tennessee, Penn State, Baylor, and Texas A&M (competition for Missouri), although Missouri declined to negotiate with my Penn State full ride. The USC and BU applications were also primarily to compete with WashU, though WashU ended up blowing them out of the water anyway.

My initial WashU offer was $99K. I visited and made it clear how much I wanted to go there but that I couldn’t justify that debt over a full ride at Saint Louis. Obviously, from a rankings perspective, that’s not particularly strong leverage, but it still yielded a substantial increase in my scholarship a couple months later. It doesn’t hurt to negotiate, especially if that means being honest and open with a top choice. You never know how much they want you unless you ask — but be transparent and explain your situation.