Date of Award

Spring 5-2026

Document Type

Honors Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Public Administration and Policy

Advisor/Committee Chair

Stephen B. Holt

Committee Member

Ashley Fox

Abstract

In October 2022, the State University of New York (SUNY) system announced their first SUNY Free Application Week, a two-week-long fee waiver program during which students could apply to up to five SUNY institutions with no application fee. In October 2022, the State University of New York (SUNY) system announced their first SUNY Free Application Week, a two-week -long fee waiver program during which students could apply to up to five SUNY institutions with no application fee. This paper seeks to determine whether SUNY’s now-annual program is an effective means of increasing access to higher education by analyzing fall first-time, full-time college enrollment. Using institutional data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from 2018 to 2024, this analysis compares enrollment trends in New York with those in the neighboring states of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, which have no comparable fee waiver program. A difference-in-difference approach is used to estimate the impacts of the policy. The findings suggest that the implementation of SUNY Free Application Week is associated with a modest increase in fall first-time, full-time enrollment at New York institutions. This is an indication that policy interventions that seek to remove or reduce the financial burdens of the college application process may be viable solutions in expanding access to higher education.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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