Monday, January 24, 2011 By Kyla Crisostomo [ArticleImageHyperLink] Advertising Are we getting paid to be rejected? (Oct. 29, 2010) -- America is a country of “equal opportunity” not “equal results.” That’s what we learn in Government class isn’t it? So why does it fail to give everyone the same opportunity when it comes to applying for a higher level of education? The UC application fee is $60. USC’s is $65, Harvard’s is $75, and Stanford’s application fee is $90. Low income applicants can obtain fee waivers, high income applicants don’t need fee waivers, but what happens to those millions of American students who are stuck in the middle? While their friends are applying to multiple colleges at no charge and choosing schools like a kid chooses chocolate from a grocery store counter, these students are left trying to pick only the most affordable ones. Not the expensive individually-wrapped Belgian chocolates, but a standard 1.69 oz. pack of M&Ms: common, unoriginal, but good enough. Since when did America become just good enough? If this country is actually trying to stay on top of the world, then why isn’t it giving its best students the best opportunities to enroll in the best universities, whether they are low-income, high-income, and everything in between? How can middle-class students apply to all of the schools they desire if they do not have the money to pay for even the applications? And even if they do try to pay it all off, are they just paying hundreds of dollars to get a collection of rejection letters in April? Equal opportunity means that everybody should be able to compete in the admissions process of a top ranked school despite his or her family’s income. We must give all students a chance to get a taste of the best and we can do this by reducing the cost of application fees so that the applications can be accessible to those middle class students who are unable to obtain fee waivers. The lower price will open up the doors for more students to apply which, when added together, should be enough to pay for the processing fees of applications and the salaries of admissions officers. The result will be a larger pool of deserving students who would not have been able to apply otherwise. And these will be the alums who will write off generous checks to the school from behind their desks, welcoming visitors with a friendly bowl of Belgian chocolate.

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