The Sam Houston State admissions office made the process of becoming a Bearkat a little easier and a lot cheaper this semester by waiving all application fees from March 9 through April 10, including renewal and transfer student fees.
“We understand times are tough,” Admissions counselor coordinator Jesse Bernal said. “It’s just one less application fee students have to worry about and obviously, it’s an incentive to apply to SHSU.”
By waiving the application fee, the admissions office will save incoming freshmen $40 while former students who reapply will save $10 and transfer students will save anywhere from $20 to $40.
The move comes as part of an effort to increase applications to SHSU and enrollment numbers, which are already among the fastest growing among universities in the state of Texas.
“We have seen that our numbers have gone up throughout the period that we’ve advertised it,” Bernal said. “We have a good relationship with several high school counselors and we’ve spread the word through them. We also had a community college advisor conference and that was the day we got the word that we could go ahead and do [the offer]. The word is definitely getting out.”
The admissions department has also been working with the Division of Enrollment Management and the mobile “Go Kats Go” center, which travels to area high schools to inform seniors about the application process, the application fee waiver and gain interest in SHSU.
“It has been a team effort,” Bernal said. “Not just our department, but our whole division.”