There are three ways an applicant may have their application fee waived: through a general fee waiver, the departmental GEPA-provided fee waivers, or a department-supported fee waiver.
General Fee Waivers
Domestic applicants may request a fee waiver under the following criteria, by submitting the listed documents:
Need-Based Federal Aid - the applicant will need to submit a FAFSA report, Financial Aid Award Letter, or document posting Federal need-based aid.
Financial Hardship - the applicant will need to submit their most recent state or federal tax forms, exhibiting the number of dependents and the adjusted gross income or Federal 1040 forms. See https://grad.ucsd.edu/admissions/requirements/application-fee-and-fee-waiver/income-eligibility-guidlines.html for more information.
U.S. Military Service - the applicant will need to submit a copy of DD 214 (Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marines, Navy). If active duty, they will be asked to identify the branch of service in the application.
Graduate Prep Program Participation - UC San Diego provides a fee waiver for applicants who have participated in specific graduate programs. Note: Not all graduate preparation programs are eligible for the fee waiver. On the "Additional Information" or "Other" page of the online application the applicant will be directed to select the program in which they participated. The name and business email address of the program director are required for the UCSD Graduate Admissions staff to verify their participation. If this verification cannot be completed, they will be asked to provide additional information or pay the application fee.
Please direct applicants to wait until their fee waiver request has been reviewed to pay their application fee. We ask that fee waiver requests are submitted at least one week before the application deadline to allow our office time to review all requests. For more information about fee waivers, see https://grad.ucsd.edu/admissions/requirements/application-fee-and-fee-waiver/index.html .
Departmental (GEPA-provided) Fee Waivers
Department fee waivers may be granted to an applicant before or after the submission of their application. Ideally, the applicant should be in communication with the department prior to submitted their application.
For questions about how many department fee waivers your department receives/has remaining, please contact the Admissions Assistant, Amanda Glover alglover@ucsd.edu, or gradadmissions@ucsd.edu.
Granting a Fee Waiver Prior to Application Submission
Make sure the applicant has begun their application.
Send the name and Slate ID of the applicant receiving the fee waiver to the Admissions Assistant, Amanda Glover alglover@ucsd.edu, or to gradadmissions@ucsd.edu. You may CC your department’s evaluator as well.
The Admissions unit will send a confirmation to you once the fee has been waived.
The applicant may submit like normal.
Granting a Fee Waiver After Application Submission
If an applicant has already submitted their application, you may still request a department fee waiver.
Instruct the applicant to not pay. They will not need to take any further action.
Follow steps 2 and 3 above.
Department-Supported Fee Waivers
Departments may opt-in to this fee waiver process if they wish to pay additional application fees for applicants once they have already used all of their allotted GEPA-provided departmental fee waivers. If you choose to participate, you will be able to submit a form through Slate that will allow applications in the “Awaiting Payment” bin to move forward to the “Department Review” bin. Then, at the end of each year, we will use the funding source you provided to cover each application that was moved forward in this way.
How to Opt In
If your department is interested in awarding department-supported fee waivers via Slate for this admissions cycle, please email your admissions evaluator/officer and provide the following information:
Department Name
Project-Task-Funding Source
i.e. : 1234567-8-9101112
As a reminder, your department will be billed for the total amount of application fees awarded using this process in Slate at the end of the admissions cycle.
Please Note
Only those with graduate coordinator level access in Slate will be able to process a department-supported fee waiver for an applicant in Slate.
In order to apply a department-supported fee waiver, the applicant will need to have submitted their application, but cannot have already paid the application fee. The application must be in the “Awaiting Payment” bin in order to proceed with a department-supported fee waiver. The form to apply this fee waiver will not be available to you if the applicant is not in this bin. Please be sure to provide these clear instructions to applicants you wish to provide a department-supported application fee waiver for. GEPA will not refund application fees to applicants who do not follow these instructions or who have already paid their application fee. No exceptions.
It is at the discretion of the department on whether they wish to advertise the opportunity to request a department-supported fee waiver from your department to prospective applicants. GEPA does not share information about department-supported fee waiver options for prospective applicants on the GEPA admissions website. If your department wishes to provide this information on your website you may do so, though it is not required. If you do share this information publicly, we ask that prospective applicants are clearly instructed to reach out directly to your department with their request for a department supported fee waiver, and not to GEPA. GEPA will not be processing these requests. We also ask that you share that applicants who have already paid their application fee are not eligible for a department supported application fee waiver, as noted above. There are no exceptions to this policy.
Guide For New Users
A step-by-step guide on how to submit a department-supported fee waiver can be found here.