Guide
What a $0 application fee means here
A college is on this page when the Scorecard application fee is exactly $0. The fact column shows $0 on every row because that is the rule. A blank fee is not $0, so a college that does not report a fee stays off. The table sorts by undergraduate enrollment.
A fee waiver for some students is a different thing. This page cannot see waivers. It can see a published fee of zero. A college that charges a fee and then waives it for many applicants stays off when the published fee is not zero.
- Schools
- 2,628
- States
- 55
- Median admit rate
- 78%
- 789 report a rate
- Median earnings
- $39,991
- 10 years after entry
Reported zero, not a missing number
The distinction between blank and zero is the whole point of the page. If blanks were treated as free, colleges that never filled in the field would flood the list. Exact zero means the file contains a fee and the fee is nothing.
The list is long. Many public colleges and many open-admission colleges report no fee. Many colleges outside those groups do too. Do not assume every row is a community college. The degree and control figures below show the mix.
Waivers and blanks
A college with a $50 fee and a generous waiver policy is not on this page. The waiver may matter more to your bill than the published fee. It is still not the field. The college's own application instructions are where waivers are described.
A college that left the fee blank is not listed, even if the real-world fee is zero. Check the profile. If the fee cell is empty, this page has nowhere to put the college until the Scorecard reports a number.
A free application is not a free college
The application fee is small next to tuition. A $0 fee can sit beside a high sticker price, or beside a low one. Read the price section before you treat this list as the affordable list. Net price after aid is on the school profile.
Enrollment order puts large campuses first. That is a convenience. It is not a claim that a larger college is a better place to send a free application. Later pages continue the roll in the same order.
Why the page exists anyway
Readers do look for colleges that do not charge to apply. The field answers that search cleanly, as long as blank is not quietly turned into zero. The guide is here so that limit is visible.
Test policy and admission rate are separate. A no-fee college can be selective. An open-admission college can still charge a fee. Use those pages when they match the question, and use this one for the fee alone.
Where the schools are
These schools sit in 55 states. The largest groups are California (270), Texas (178), New York (154), Ohio (122), and Pennsylvania (120). The rest of the roll is spread across the other states in the table.
The full roll has 2,628 schools. The table shows 100 at a time. The page links under the table move through the rest. Page 1 is the canonical address.
Who runs them
By reported control, 1,058 are public, 793 are private nonprofit, and 777 are private for-profit. A blank control stays out of that split.
Predominant degree is the credential the campus awards most often. On this list it is a certificate at 1,164 schools, a bachelor's degree at 826 schools, an associate degree at 636 schools, and a graduate degree at 2 schools. A campus can still award other credentials.
How large they are
The largest undergraduate enrollments on this list are Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester, New Hampshire, with 163,164 undergraduates, University of Phoenix-Arizona in Phoenix, Arizona, with 85,991 undergraduates, Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Arizona, with 73,371 undergraduates, Ivy Tech Community College in Indianapolis, Indiana, with 58,267 undergraduates, and Lone Star College System in The Woodlands, Texas, with 45,188 undergraduates. Enrollment is the undergraduate figure. It is not a ranking, and it leaves out graduate students.
34 schools are reported as online-only. The others are not marked that way in this file.
Admission
789 of 2,628 schools report an admission rate. The median of those rates is 78%. Schools with no reported rate stay out of the median. A missing rate is not an open door, and it is not a closed one.
The lowest reported admission rates on this list are Minerva University in San Francisco, California, at 3%, Florida Academy of Nursing in Miramar, Florida, at 5%, and Colby College in Waterville, Maine, at 7%. A lower rate is harder entry. It is not a score for the school.
The highest reported admission rates on this list are Martinsburg College in Cheyenne, Wyoming, at 100%, Reach University in Oakland, California, at 100%, and University of Arkansas Community College-Morrilton in Morrilton, Arkansas, at 100%.
What they charge
Among 921 public colleges that report an in-state sticker price, the median is $4,700. 137 other public colleges on the list do not report one. Among 903 private colleges that report a sticker price, the median is $26,610. 667 other private colleges on the list do not report one.
Sticker price is not net price. Grants, waivers, and a service commitment can move the bill by a wide margin. Open a school for the net-price figures.
Earnings and graduation
Among 2,345 schools that report earnings, the median of those school-level medians is $39,991. The clock starts at entry, not at graduation. The highest reported medians on this list are University of Health Sciences and Pharmacy in St. Louis in Saint Louis, Missouri, at $137,047, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in Boston, Massachusetts, at $125,557, and Touro University Nevada in Henderson, Nevada, at $104,805.
Among 2,514 schools that report a graduation rate, the median rate is 52%. A blank rate is left out. It is not treated as zero.
Athletics in this file
65 report NCAA Division I athletics, 5 play FBS football, and 29 play FCS football. A blank athletics field means this file has no division for that campus. It does not prove the campus has no team.
Also on other lists
Some of these schools also meet the rule for another list on this site. The overlap is a second flag or a second classification. It is not a second ranking.
7 are also on R1 research universities. 22 are also on R2 research universities. 130 are also on liberal arts colleges. 31 are also on HBCU colleges. 349 are also on Hispanic-serving institutions. 20 are also on women's colleges. 45 are also on men's colleges. 24 are also on tribal colleges.
How these figures work
Admission rate, enrollment, sticker price, earnings, and graduation rate all come from the College Scorecard. Earnings are the median 10 years after a student entered the school. Tuition for a public college is the in-state sticker price. Tuition for a private college is the published sticker price. None of these is net price after aid.
A blank field stays blank. This page does not turn a blank admission rate into an open door, a blank fee into a free application, or a blank earnings figure into zero. The table above is membership under the rule in this guide. Sort order is not a quality ranking.