I've been posting a lot about college recently and my football experience, but I know there's a number of high school seniors on this site, so I wanted to take the time to help out the seniors and upcoming seniors to have a successful application cycle like I did.
Find Fee Waivers
This was the most important way that I saved money on college applications, and set me up for a lot of the other strategies that I used. I did not spend a dime on all my college applications, and I know guys who spent hundreds of dollars to apply to a much smaller list than mine. So, where do you find these waivers? Google or AI is a good start. For most smaller, less selective schools (~30% or higher acceptance rate; most D3 schools) a simple visit to campus is enough. Also, check your emails! I signed up for just about every college advertising service out there, and got plenty of fee waivers for schools I actually wanted to apply to. Your inbox will be full, but when you are thinking of a school to apply to, you can usually search up the school name in your inbox and find the fee waiver. This is common among higher-level schools as well; I received multiple Ivy and Little Ivy (NESCAC) fee waivers or fee waiver opportunities via email. Finally, for state schools, you will want to look up when their free application window. In the South specifically (I'm thinking of Alabama and North Carolina public universities here, including Bama and UNC, but I'm sure there are others), there is usually a week-long free application window that you can take advantage of at these schools. I missed a couple of these windows and didn't end up applying to those schools because I could not get the waiver anymore, so be sure to know when these fee-free windows are and mark your calendar to apply then. Additionally, if you are a recruited athlete, make sure you are asking your coach for fee waivers, they will usually provide them. Finally, if a school does not send you a fee waiver immediately, you should still keep them on your list, because they may send their waivers closer to the application deadline. There is no incentive to sending your application in earlier than the deadline you want to apply for, so if you don't have a waiver yet, wait for it to show up and there's a good chance it will. I'm thinking specifically of American and Drexel here; both of those schools sent me a fee waiver very close to the application deadline, and I would end up being accepted into both of those schools after applying on deadline day.
Apply to a lot of schools
I applied to twenty-six schools, all for free. Some I applied to purely for academics, some purely for athletics, some a mix of both (where I am now), and some for reasons I'll get to in the next portion. This advice sounds insane, but when you can do it for free, why not? I used all twenty of my Common Application slots, and applied directly or through the Coalition (Scoir) application to the other six schools. I was accepted into twenty-four of these schools (including a FAR reach), and waitlisted from two. One reason I applied to so many schools is because I wanted options at commitment time: if I wanted to go purely for athletics, I had that option, and I also had the option to focus purely on academics and end my career in high school. This gave me a lot of peace of mind heading into Spring that I would be able to find a good college option. Additionally, applying to a high volume of schools makes it more likely that you'll be accepted into a reach school, mathematically speaking. If you apply to one school that you have a 10% shot at getting into, you have a 10% chance at getting into a reach, but if you apply to a second school that is the same level reach, you have a 19% chance of getting into a reach school, and that math continues as you add more schools. I got into a school that I was given a 7% acceptance chance at, and getting in there helped me big-time on the next step.
Maintain your leverage
I'm going to start this portion with a story. I had a high school teammate who did not get much playing time his Junior year, but he was freakishly athletic and had the best defensive line coach in the state for his mentor, so he was getting Division I offers. Early in the season, he committed to Columbia University, the Ivy League school, for football. However, as the season went on, he tied the school sacks record, and ended up receiving preferred walk-ons and standard offers from numerous FBS programs, including Maryland, South Carolina, and San Jose State. He was all excited and wanted to flip his commitment, but he had a realization: he applied Early Decision (the binding application) to Columbia, and thus was obliged to go there. He had to give up all these bigger and better offers, all because he applied Early Decision. So, what's the moral of the story? Do not apply Early Decision, unless you know that that is the school you want to go to, no matter what happens. It takes away all your leverage in most situations (I'll expand on the exceptions shortly), and it's very rare that schools will only accept you if you apply Early Decision. There do exist schools that take it very seriously (a well-known example being Tufts, where I was waitlisted as a regular decision applicant and relative reach), but you should talk with the school's admissions officers before applying Early Decision to see how much of a difference it would actually make.
The other part of maintaining your leverage is using financial aid appeals properly. Just because a school has sent you a financial aid package does not mean that is all they are willing to offer. Most people don't know this, but there is significant room for negotiation in a lot of cases. Usually, these schools want to see either a significant change in family finances (don't rely on this) or a better offer from a comparable school. I applied to one of the 26 schools specifically because I knew they were going to give me a better package than one of the ones who was recruiting me for track and field, and the coach had encouraged me to apply to other schools in order to get these better offers so he could give me more money at his school. This is a completely valid reason to apply to a school, and I highly recommend it.
Now, let's move on to my financial aid appeals process at the school where I actually am writing this from. I initially received a financial aid package including a large merit scholarship as well as a small amount of need-based aid. I submitted an appeal, including that I had better offers from comparable schools, and they offered me more money, but required me to switch to the binding Early Decision application plan. A few days later, I committed to my school with that offer from the first appeal. This is one of the few times where it makes sense to apply Early Decision: if you're already accepted to and prepared to commit to a school, and you are actively being offered more money to make that decision early. However, there is exactly one way out of an Early Decision agreement, and that is if you are unable to pay the amount that you are offered. I was able to pay the amount after the first appeal, but would have been forced to take out loans. However, I still had my reach applications outstanding, and while you're supposed to close out other applications after your Early Decision acceptance, I was curious if I'd get into any of the reach schools, so I left them open. That decision saved me thousands of dollars. Remember that 7% school that I mentioned earlier? That was a top-20 school in the nation, which means a huge endowment fund and massive need-based grants to anyone with a family income under $200,000. I was accepted into that university, and since my family income was so low, they offered me a package in which I would be paying just $1,300 in billed costs each year to attend the university, including room and board.
All of a sudden, I had leverage again. This left me with a tough decision: do I stick with my college (where I had athletic opportunities, and liked it enough to commit), or do I flip my commitment and go to this top-20 school for much cheaper? I figured the first step was to inform the college where I was committed of this much better financial offer, to see if I could get any more money, or if they'd let me out of the binding agreement to pursue the much cheaper option. I submitted a second financial aid appeal, including the practically-free offer from the top-20 university, and the college responded by offering me several thousand more dollars annually, so that I would go for free with the exception of room and board. I went on a visit to the top-20 university, saw the people there, and made my decision: I was going to turn down the more prestigious school and stick with the college where I had first committed two months ago. People called me insane for this decision (who wouldn't take a free offer to a top-20 school?) but I am still happy with the choice I made. I'm now going to the school I initially wanted to go to, 15 or 20 thousand dollars cheaper than the initial financial aid offer, and I am not taking out a loan to do so. That's a win in my book, all because I used leverage to my advantage to get what I wanted. Remember, you're the prize to these schools, not the other way around.
Thanks for reading! If you have any questions, feel free to reach out. I won't reveal the name of the school I am attending for anti-dox purposes, but I can answer just about any other question you may have. Another great resource is your college counselor at your high school if you have one. They helped me a lot throughout the admissions process, and hopefully much of their advice will be similar to what I'm sharing here, but I know many students don't have access to a college counselor which is why I'm publishing this to help anyone who needs it. Best of luck on your college applications process!