In North Carolina alone, there are thousands of high school seniors applying to colleges or universities. College Application Week is a great opportunity for students to submit applications to different schools, without having to pay any fees. 

Applicants during the week of Monday, October 21st, can apply to college for free at several UNC system schools and every North Carolina Community College.

According to newsobserver.com, “Most NC public colleges are participating in NC College Connect to allow free applications. These include UNCG, UNC Pembroke, Winston-Salem State University, Elizabeth City State University, and more,”.

Many of these institutions offer students the opportunity to save a large amount of money during these weeks, which many other colleges do not provide. 

“I’m applying for free because I work a minimum wage job… I can’t necessarily afford an 80-dollar application fee,” said Aubrey Devereaux, senior. 

Another great thing about Free Application Week is that it is still within the early action timeframe that many students want to participate in for an increased chance of admission and quicker admission decisions.

“Free application week is really good because it allows people to increase the number of colleges they’re applying to without having to spend a lot of money,” said Gwen Peterson, senior, ““It increases their chances that they’ll get to, be accepted somewhere and get to pursue their college education without having to [pay] a lot of money. You don’t want finances to be a barrier to getting into college,”.

The main advantage of applying early using Application Week is saving money. Free application week allows students to save hundreds of dollars that they would have to use on application fees they typically come with. 

“Last year, at the time of pre-college application week there was a total of, by the end of the week, 57 total completed. We should have over 57 this year. 2 years ago it was only a total of 31, so it’s been going up each year so, yeah, we should get probably much more this year than the last 2 years,” said Michael Grabiec Counselor at Athens Drive.

Students of all different standing can afford to save money, which is vital for their upcoming years in college. Free application week has many benefits that help students around the state.

The only advice I would give is just to get on and apply. Honestly, if they just get on and they just start their application and just sit down and knock things out … if they do that and submit their applications it doesn’t take very long and [get] just get as many out there as possible. That’s the only advice I would give. Apply, apply, apply!” said Grabiec.