As the parent of a newly minted high-school senior, our mailbox has been flooded with brochures, catalogs, and open-house invitations from colleges across America.  That goes for our e-mail inbox as well. The pitches just keep on coming. Don't get me wrong. I welcome the information and, in fact, wish I'd been courted so tenaciously when it was my time to consider schools.

Within the last few weeks, however, the pace of the mailings has picked up. Within the past couple of days alone, my daughter has gotten e-mails from Siena College, outside Albany, N.Y., Wells College, also in upstate New York, and Fordham University in the Bronx, saying that if she applies online within the next month or so, they'd waive the $50 application fee. Mind you, these were unsolicited pitches.

To sweeten the offer, Siena promised an admission decision in "just one week" and told her not to worry about writing a "brand new essay." Instead, they said, "send us a graded paper you've already written." By applying before the Nov. 15 deadline, the school said, my daughter would also be considered for $28,000 over the next four years. Wells' pitch was fairly similar. 

I've encouraged my daughter to investigate the application process, whether or not the schools are at the top of her wish list, because it's good experience. She's got nothing to lose and everything to gain.

According to Collegeconfidential.com, a site that offers advice on how to choose, apply, and pay for higher education, there are several ways to get a fee waiver when applying to college. As in my daughter's case, a growing number of schools are willing to waive their fees to those who apply online. Also, if you come from a low-income family and feel that paying an application fee would be a hardship, then you can get your application fee waived by most colleges. You need to include with each application a signed statement from your guidance counselor which confirms that you and your family cannot afford to pay application fees. Some colleges include fee-waiver forms with their applications; some high schools have their own forms or use those provided by the National Association for College Admission Counseling or by the College Board. However, it doesn’t really matter how or where the request is written. Your counselor can simply jot a note on school stationery if he or she doesn’t have an official fee-waiver document. Check the colleges on your list to see what fee-waiver options exist.