Students push Ivy League to drop fee for needy applicants

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Ivy League students are asking their schools to automatically waive the application fee for applicants who are low-income or the first in their family to attend college.

A letter to the Ivies was penned by Brown University senior Viet Nguyen (n'wihn).

Nguyen leads the undergraduate student government at Brown and asked student government leaders at the other seven universities to sign on. He said Wednesday that it's being distributed on the campuses.

Already, low-income students who get a fee waiver for the SAT college entrance exam can choose four colleges from over 2,000 participating colleges and apply for free. Students can also request a waiver from a school directly.

But, Nguyen says, some students don't know to ask in the first place and others use their waivers on schools with higher acceptance rates.