College Applications Are Free?: Everything Seniors Need To Know About The GEAR UP Fee Waiver

The Appalachian State GEAR UP logo. GEAR UP is a federally funded program that aims to increase post-secondary enrollment rates through fee waivers, college awareness and academic support for low-income and rural students. Photo Credits: ASU

Rebecca Billette, Editor-in-Chief of The Powderhorn

For most seniors, the process of college applications has been unfamiliar terrain, filled with unanswered questions and confusing concepts. A large source of uncertainty for Watauga High School’s class of 2026 has specifically been the GEAR UP fee waiver. 

Although information has been sent out regarding it since the beginning of the school year, many seniors still hold conflicting interpretations of what and who it covers: Does it only cover App State? Only UNC-system schools? Only students below a certain income? 

Luckily, sources across WHS have provided all the information about the GEAR UP program and fee waiver a senior could need, and perhaps an explanation of why students may not have known about it.

Ms. Courtney Gragg is the College Adviser for Watauga High School through AdviseNC. She has been a key point of contact for seniors regarding the GEAR UP fee waiver and other important college application information. A common misconception many students had was that GEAR UP only applied to Appalachian State University, largely due to the annual survey ASU’s chapter conducts with Watauga students.

“GEAR UP is actually a federal program, and it's grant-based,” said Gragg. “App State is GEAR UP, but also App State is not the only GEARUP, if that makes sense. It’s a bigger program. App State just has their own chapter and this is where they focus on Western North Carolina. And so we hear ‘GEAR UP’ and we're like, ‘Oh, that's an App State thing.’
Yes, kind of, but GEAR UP’s also a national thing.”

GEAR UP’s mission is to provide academic assistance and financial aid to low-income students and increase post-secondary enrollment. Watauga County qualifies as a rural area under their parameters, allowing certain cohorts of students to be eligible for fee waivers and other benefits. Unfortunately, the eligibility of a certain class of students varies by year, and it can be difficult to determine.

“They write a grant every couple of years, and it includes certain cohorts of students, and so that's why last year's seniors were not eligible for it,” Gragg said. “So, they were not a GEAR UP cohort, unfortunately, but because Class of 2026 are, that's how you get access to the GEAR UP guarantee with App State.”

Since GEAR UP eligibility is determined by cohort, every current senior is eligible for the fee waiver on Common App, not only certain students. Three-year graduates should contact Ms. Gragg for further information as to their eligibility. Another misconception students had about the GEAR UP fee waiver was which specific colleges it covered. Fortunately, it covers every college that students can apply to through Common App, and the process to enable it is simple.

“In Common App, it was actually a much easier process than I expected,” said Emma McGinnis, a senior in the process of completing her college applications. “Some colleges specifically would ask, ‘Do you qualify for our fee waiver?’ and that made me scared because it felt wrong putting no to that question. But in my personal profile, I just had to select that I was approved for a personal GEAR UP fee waiver, and that would override any of the fee waiver questions asked by individual colleges. Then, I also had to add my school counselor as a member on my Common App profile, and so she has access to view the schools I have applied to, and she has an extra step that she will approve my fee waiver.”

Current seniors who have not yet submitted all their applications should take advantage of this great opportunity and enable their fee waiver if they have not yet done so. For students who have already submitted, however, and were unaware of this benefit, there is unfortunately no way to get a refund.

“When you start paying money to the college, you're outside of the school's hands,” Gragg said. “So, our goal is to help get you there and help support you in the process, but once you have started paying money to the school, unfortunately, it's kind of out of our hands, and unfortunately, there's nothing we can do.”

Many seniors who were unaware of the details of the fee waiver have been frustrated, especially since they may have missed out on a chance to save money and have already paid their application fees. Ms. Gragg believes the largest reason for this misinformation was a lack of students checking their email.

“Unfortunately, we are just seeing some miscommunication across the board, and a lot of it really comes down to checking your email,” Gragg said. “There's over 400 seniors, and there's four counselors and me. So, while we try to bridge that gap as much as possible by meeting students one-on-one, it really is important that seniors check their email. It's important that every student checks their email, but seniors especially have so much going on.”

While seniors have received communication throughout the year regarding the fee waiver, a large complaint was the lack of elaboration on what exactly the fee waiver was and who was eligible. In a poll conducted on The Powderhorn’s Instagram on November 5, 2025, 33% of students reported that they did not know the fee waiver covered every single school on Common App.

“I found out about the GEAR UP specific fee waiver mostly through word of mouth, just other students talking about their college application process and mentioning that they had used it,” McGinnis said. “For myself personally,  I knew I had access to one because I’d qualified for other fee waivers like the ACT and SAT in the past. However, I did not know it was available to everyone. It was only through other students communicating it to me.”

Many students shared a similar experience, noting that information about the fee waiver was often at the bottom of emails and did not elaborate on which students were eligible for it, leading many to assume they weren’t.

“I definitely think there was a lack of communication between some of the administration on just, you know, the application process in general to some of our students,” said McGinnis. “For some people, they maybe have parents or older siblings that have helped them with their application process, but I think many people just truly don't have those same resources and they really rely on the communication from the school and so just the fact that I was notified from other students, it just really did show that it was the students helping each other out.”

Whether students knew about the fee waiver or not, the best way to relieve confusion is to make an appointment with Ms. Gragg and gain clarification on whatever questions you may have. If seniors have experienced fees bouncing back or applied through a system besides Common App, they should also plan on making an appointment to ensure they are covered.

“The Common App opens August 1, but we really encourage and push students not to hit submit until they've met with their counselor or met with me, and so that's why I have 12 to 14 slots a day for students to meet with me, 30 minute meetings to try to help bridge that gap a little bit,” said Gragg.