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Application Fee

To apply for admission, the application fee is $95 and is non-refundable.

You may submit payment by credit or debit card. If using a debit card, the card must have an associated credit card logo. The application system only accepts Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and American Express. For questions about your payment, please contact our vendor ApplyWeb directly.

Application Fee Waivers

For Domestic Applicants & U.S. Citizens:

The Graduate School (TGS) is able to provide a limited number of fee waivers* to eligible applicants who meet the following criteria:

  1. Started an application for a TGS PhD or MFA program
  2. U.S. citizenship or permanent residency
  3. Identification as at least one of the following:
    1. A first-generation college student (neither of your parents/guardians have obtained a bachelor's degree)
    2. A veteran or current member of the U.S. Armed Forces
    3. Eligibility for the Federal Pell Grant during your undergraduate career
    4. Participation in any of the following programs:
      1. Fisk to Vanderbilt Bridge Program 
      2. The National GEM Consortium 
      3. Initiative for Maximizing Student Development (IMSD)
      4. Northwestern Introduction to Graduate Education (IGEN)
      5. Mellon Mays Undergraduate Research Fellowship (MMUF)
      6. National Name Exchange (NNE)
      7. Northwestern University Postbaccalaureate Research Education Program (NU PREP)
      8. Northwestern Summer Research Opportunity Program (SROP)

By indicating this information on the application, you will automatically bypass the payment page. 

*TGS strives to support as many eligible applicants as possible. There may be some cases, however, where TGS may not be able to grant application fee waiver requests from all eligible applicants due to the volume of requests we receive. As a result, we encourage applicants to submit their applications as soon as possible, since application fee waiver requests are reviewed on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Please note: If you do not meet the application fee waiver criteria listed here, please reach out to the program of interest to check fee waiver availability. Not all programs will be able to accommodate requests.