Many or all companies we feature compensate us. Compensation and editorial
research influence how products appear on a page.
Personal Finance Reports

Which Colleges Bring in the Most Money From Applications?

Updated Apr 05, 2023   |   8-min read

Unless special circumstances apply, almost every college application comes with a cost. Most of the time, a college or university charges an application fee of around $50. However, the fee can range from as low as $10 to as high as $150. 

Money generated from application fees comes to the respective institution as revenue, not profit. Just as prospective students must answer mind-numbing forms and churn out college essays, there is someone on the other end that needs to review those same forms and essays to ensure that academic standards are preserved. 

The price of paying a professional to review applications is transferred to the applicant in the form of an application fee. Further, application fees also prevent prospective students from applying to hundreds of schools and turning the already arduous process into something nearly impossible. 

Nevertheless, it’s interesting to think that colleges and universities can potentially bring in millions upon millions of dollars in revenue solely from applications to their own schools. 

For the third time, LendEDU has used the most recent college admissions data from the National Center for Education Statistics’ Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) to tell you the following:

  1. The 500 Colleges That Make the Most Projected Revenue Off Declined Applications*
  2. The 500 Colleges That Make the Most Projected Revenue Off Total Applications*
  3. The 500 Colleges With the Highest Admissions Yields (Enrolled-to-Admitted Students Ratio)
  4. The 500 Colleges With the Lowest Admissions Rates
  5. The 500 Colleges That Had the Most Applicants
  6. The 500 Colleges That Had the Highest Enrollment

This year’s data, which reflects students applying to be freshman for fall of the 2018-2019 academic year, comes at a time when college admissions stories have become front page news; the college admissions bribery scandal that implicated Hollywood stars is still ongoing, while a recent Wall Street Journal story detailed how colleges were buying test data to encourage more applicants only to reject most in order to boost exclusivity.


The 500 Colleges That Make the Most Projected Revenue Off Declined Applications*

Revenue off declined applications was calculated by subtracting a school’s total number of admitted students from the total number of applicants and then multiplying the resulting number by the respective school’s application fee.

All revenue figures are strictly projections as institutions will waive or discount the application fee for many applicants. Unfortunately, the original data source did not account for this.

The data reflects students applying to be freshman for the fall semester of the 2018-2019 academic year.

The 500 Colleges That Make the Most Revenue Off Total Applications*

Revenue off total applications was calculated by multiplying a school’s total number of applicants by the same school’s application fee.

All revenue figures are strictly projections as institutions will waive or discount the application fee for many applicants. Unfortunately, the original data source did not account for this.

The data reflects students applying to be freshman for the fall semester of the 2018-2019 academic year.

The 500 Colleges With the Highest Admissions Yields (Enrolled-to-Admitted Students Ratio)

A college’s admissions yield (or the enrolled-to-admitted students ratio) was calculated by dividing the total number of enrolled students by the total number of accepted applicants and then multiplying by 100 to produce a percentage. To be considered for this ranking, a college had to have over 2,500 applicants.

The data reflects students applying to be freshman for the fall semester of the 2018-2019 academic year.

The 500 Colleges With the Lowest Admission Rates

A college’s admission rate was calculated by dividing the total number of admitted students by the total number of applicants and then multiplying by 100. To be considered for this ranking, a college had to have over 2,500 applicants.

The data reflects students applying to be freshman for the fall semester of the 2018-2019 academic year.

The 500 Colleges That Had the Most Applicants

The data reflects students applying to be freshman for the fall semester of the 2018-2019 academic year.

The 500 Colleges That Had the Highest Enrollment

The data reflects students applying to be freshman for the fall semester of the 2018-2019 academic year.

Financial Aid Tips When Applying For College

If there’s one thing more stressful then the college application process, it’s figuring out how to pay for college. LendEDU provides a few different strategies below on how to afford to attend a higher education institution.

Fill Out the FAFSA

As a college student, it’s crucial to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). The FAFSA is used to award financial aid, grants, and work-study programs to applicable college students. In other words, submitting the FAFSA is your best opportunity to receive “free money” in order to attend college.

The FAFSA is also imperative to fill out because it’s what determines your eligibility for federal student loans. Because of their relatively low interest rates, federal student loans are a terrific way to finance college.

Apply for Scholarships

Scholarships are another excellent way to afford a college education, and they don’t need to be paid back! There are countless college scholarships from which to choose, so check out which ones might be a good match for you.

LendEDU offers a $1,000 scholarship twice per semester to two students based on a personal finance essay prompt they are asked to answer. Check out this website for more information on the LendEDU scholarship.

Look Into Other Student Loan Options

If you’ve exhausted all of the above options and still have gaps left to fill in terms of paying for college, there are some other student loan options into which you can look. For example, you can look at Parent PLUS loans if you have parents that are willing to shoulder some of the financial load.

There are also private student loans, which can offer competitive interest rates in comparison to federal student loans. Some private student loan lenders include College Ave, ELFI, and Citizens Bank.

Methodology

All data used in this report originates from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), a primary source for information on colleges in the United States provided by the National Center for Education Statistics.

Final release data for admission statistics, enrollment statistics, acceptance statistics, and application fees at individual colleges was for the 2018-19 academic year. This was the most recent academic year in which the complete dataset was available; any subsequent academic years were yet to be completed. This application data refers to those who were applying to colleges with the intent of being a freshman during the fall semester of the 2018-19 academic year.

Revenue off declined applications was calculated by subtracting a school’s total number of admitted students from the same school’s total number of applicants and then multiplying that number by the respective school’s application fee. This number provided the total revenue off applications where the students were not accepted to the respective institution.

Revenue off total applications was calculated by multiplying a school’s total number of applicants by the same school’s application fee. This number provided the total projected revenue off of all total applications, accepted or denied.

A college’s admissions yield (enrolled-to-admitted ratio) was calculated by dividing the total number of enrolled students by the total number of accepted applicants and then multiplying by 100 to form a percentage. To be considered for this ranking, a college had to have over 2,500 applicants. This ratio was indicative of how many students that were accepted to a certain school actually went to that school.

A college’s admission rate was calculated by dividing the total number of admitted students by the total number of applicants and then multiplying by 100. To be considered for this ranking, a college had to have over 2,500 applicants.

*All revenue figures listed in the first two tables are strictly projections made by LendEDU. This is because most higher education institutions will waive application fees for prospective students with financial need. Additionally, many colleges and universities will offer discounted application fees if the application is filled out and submitted online. Since the original data source did not account for waived or discounted application fees, LendEDU made projections as if no application fees were discounted or waived. This is why all figures included in the first two tables are strictly projections, not factual revenue figures.

LendEDU’s projections operate under the assumption that each and every applicant to a respective school had paid the full application fee for that respective school, which is likely not the case. So, while the dataset provided us with accurate application, admissions, and enrollment statistics, it did not provide the exact number of applicants that had the application fee either waived or discounted.

Additional Resources on Paying for College

See more of LendEDU’s Research