Fee Waivers

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

GEPA provides a number of fee waivers to departments based on the amount of applications the department received during the previous cycle. The department decides which applicants receive these GEPA-provided fee waivers; there are no guidelines or rules set by GEPA for them. These fee waivers are granted to an applicant after they’ve submitted their application; however, the applicant should be in communication with the department prior to the submission of their application.

Number of Waivers Per Department

Each department has a set number of waivers that are shared among all of their state-supported programs and another, separate set number of waivers that are shared among any self-supported programs they may have. To make it as clear as possible, we have written a separate line for each on our Fee Waiver Spreadsheet.

Beginning in Fall 2024 (with the opening of the Fall 2025 applications), the number of GEPA-provided fee waivers granted to each department will be based on the total number of applications that were submitted to that department during the previous admissions cycle. (You can verify how many applications were submitted to your department last year in the admissions dashboards on Tableau.) *Please note that in order to maintain an equitable and fair use of GEPA fee waiver funds, requests for additional GEPA supported fee waivers cannot be accommodated. If your department wishes to provide additional fee waivers to your applicants, you may opt-in to the Department Supported Fee Waiver Process.

• Departments with under 500 applications submitted receive 5 fee waivers

• Departments with 500 to 1000 applications submitted receive 10 fee waivers

• Departments with over 1000 applications submitted receive 20 fee waivers

To verify the number of fee waivers your department receives/has remaining, see our Fee Waiver Spreadsheet.

Granting an Applicant a GEPA-provided Fee Waiver

1. Instruct the applicant to submit their application but do not pay the fee. *This is an important step! Please be sure the application has been submitted prior to completing step #2 below.

2. Email the Admissions Assistant at gradadmissions@ucsd.edu with the applicant’s name and slate ID.  

3. We will send you a confirmation the waiver has been applied and that application has been moved to the Department Review 1 bin.

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. 

Important Conditions

• 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. 

How-To Guide For New Users

A step-by-step guide on how to submit a department-supported fee waiver can be found here.