Editorial: Ending application fees

While two of these organizations, Princeton in Asia and Princeton Project 55, waive the application fees for students facing financial hardship, Princeton in Africa and Princeton in Latin America do not. This is in part due to the differences between the fellowship programs: The latter two are much younger organizations and have not had much time to build up large donation pools. Though the fee requirement of these organizations is understandable, it is not desirable and serves as a financial barrier for low-income students and graduates. Eliminating financial disincentives to applying would ensure that all eligible Princetonians could compete in these fellowship pools.

There are a number of ways to make this happen. One solution is for the University to provide assistance to current seniors. Though these organizations are separate from the University, Princeton has an interest in ensuring that all students have access to them. Postgraduate service programs are of great value to the University. They not only help fulfill Princeton’s mission of service, but also help service-minded graduates find jobs that might not otherwise be available to them. Furthermore, making sure that students do not face financial disincentives in their pursuit of service has been a consistent goal of University programs like the Pace Center and the International Internship Program. Since there may be legal impediments preventing cash donations from one nonprofit to another, grants to help pay for these fees could be given directly to students and structured like the subsidies for breakout trips. Seniors with demonstrated need could be given an application grant to use for applying to these programs.

An alternative to grants could be a change in the structure of the fellowship programs themselves. Princeton in Africa and Princeton in Latin America could begin to waive their application fees for students with demonstrated financial need and defray the costs by reducing the stipend of those accepted applicants by that amount. This would allow accepted fellows to pay the fee with their stipend. There will likely only be a few students who would require waivers, so the number of non-reimbursed fees would likewise be small. Moreover, alumni who donate to these programs could also request that a portion of their donations go toward reducing fees for future applicants in need. Alumni were the driving force behind the creation of many of these programs and could provide the necessary additional impetus to meet this goal.

These organizations, the alumni who support them and the University all have a vested interest in making sure that all Princetonians are in a position to take advantage of postgraduate service fellowships. Making these kinds of creative adjustments can make the difference for students in need.