Colleges Where It's Costly to Apply

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With many families worried about the competition in college admissions, the number of submitted applications has soared in recent years.

A recent report by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California--Los Angeles found more than 28 percent of fall 2015 freshmen submitted seven or more applications -- more than double the percentage from a decade ago.

[Find out the 10 most and least expensive private colleges.]

But these fees can add up quickly for prospective students -- especially with the Common Application, experts say. The Common App makes submitting multiple applications easier since the form is accepted at nearly 700 colleges and universities.

While some universities waive or reduce fees for students who apply online, other schools charge a hefty amount per application.

[Explore the colleges and universities that report meeting full financial need.]

California's Stanford University and the University of Central Oklahoma charged $90 per application, more than any other university among the 1,028 ranked colleges that reported application fee data to U.S. News in spring 2016.

Among the schools that submitted data to U.S. News, the average application fee was around $42. The most common fee charged was $50.

Of the 46 schools that charged $75 or more for an application, the majority -- 39 in total -- are National Universities; these institutions offer a full range of undergraduate majors, plus master's and doctoral programs.

Below is a list of colleges and universities that charged the highest application fees in fall 2015, though all schools listed will waive the fee for students with financial need. Unranked schools, which did not meet certain criteria required by U.S. News to be numerically ranked, were not considered for this report.

* RNP denotes an institution that is ranked in the bottom one-fourth of its ranking category. U.S. News calculates a rank for the school but has decided not to publish it.

Don't see your school in the top 10? Access the U.S. News College Compass to find admissions data, complete rankings and much more. School officials can access historical data and rankings, including of peer institutions, via U.S. News Academic Insights.

U.S. News surveyed more than 1,800 colleges and universities for our 2016 survey of undergraduate programs. Schools self-reported myriad data regarding their academic programs and the makeup of their student body, among other areas, making U.S. News' data the most accurate and detailed collection of college facts and figures of its kind. While U.S. News uses much of this survey data to rank schools for our annual Best Colleges rankings, the data can also be useful when examined on a smaller scale. U.S. News will now produce lists of data, separate from the overall rankings, meant to provide students and parents a means to find which schools excel, or have room to grow, in specific areas that are important to them. While the data come from the schools themselves, these lists are not related to, and have no influence over, U.S. News' rankings of Best Colleges, Best Graduate Schools or Best Online Programs. The application fee data above are correct as of Dec. 20, 2016.

Farran Powell is an education reporter at U.S. News, covering paying for college and graduate school. You can follow her on Twitter or email her at fpowell@usnews.com.