Some NC colleges are waiving application fees this week. Here’s how to apply for free.
It’s college application season in North Carolina and around the country — and with the average application fee nationwide at about $50, the cost of applying to any number of colleges can add up quickly.
Enter: College Application Week, the annual, weeklong event from the College Foundation of North Carolina (CFNC) that allows high school seniors to apply to dozens of North Carolina colleges and universities for free.
This year’s event runs from Oct. 16-20 and includes public and private universities, plus all 58 community colleges, across the state. To have the student’s application fee waived by the participating colleges, students must apply through the application hub on the CFNC website: CFNC.org/apphub.
Curious about which colleges are participating in the weeklong promotion? Need information about how to apply to a college using the CFNC hub?
Here’s what to know about College Application Week in North Carolina.
List of colleges participating in College Application Week 2023
The following colleges are participating in College Application Week:
Barton College
Belmont Abbey College
Brevard College
Cabarrus College of Health Sciences (Application fee is only waived for certain applicants. Check with the school for more information.)
Campbell University
Catawba College
Chowan University
Davidson College (Application fee is only waived for certain applicants. Check with the school for more information.)
East Carolina University
Elizabeth City State University
Elon University (Application fee is only waived for certain applicants. Check with the school for more information.)
Fayetteville State University
Gardner-Webb University
Greensboro College
Guilford College
Johnson and Wales University - Charlotte
Johnson C. Smith University
Lees-McRae College
Lenoir-Rhyne University
Livingstone College
Louisburg College
Mars Hill University
Meredith College
Methodist University
Montreat College
North Carolina A&T State University (Application fee is only waived for certain applicants. Check with the school for more information.)
North Carolina Central University (Application fee is only waived for certain applicants. Check with the school for more information.)
North Carolina Wesleyan University
Pfeiffer University
Queens University of Charlotte
Saint Augustine’s University
Salem College
Shaw University (Application fee is only waived for certain applicants. Check with the school for more information.)
St. Andrews University
UNC Asheville
UNC Pembroke
UNC School of the Arts (Application fee is only waived for certain applicants. Check with the school for more information.)
University of Mount Olive
Warren Wilson College
Western Carolina University
William Peace University
Wingate University
Winston-Salem State University
All 58 community colleges in North Carolina
How to apply to college through CFNC portal
To apply to a college through CFNC, you’ll need to do so through the organization’s application hub at CFNC.org/apphub.
You will need to create a CFNC account to navigate to the application hub and start an application.
Once you are in the application hub, CFNC offers these directions:
“Select the button immediately to the right of the “Start an Application” paragraph. A window will appear which contains a list of all colleges whose applications are available. You may enter an appropriate term to search for your desired college, or you may directly navigate the list.
“Once you have found the college, select the application you want to start from the drop-down list to the right of the campus name.
“Once you have selected the application for the college, click the ‘Apply’ button immediately to the right of the selected application name.”
More information about College Application Week and applying to college through CFNC is available at cfnc.org/apply-to-college/nc-countdown-to-college/nc-countdown-to-college-faqs/college-applications-faqs.