The Rialto Unified School District paid for students to apply to CSU schools

By Jaslene Infante

All the schools in the CSU system that the seniors were allowed to choose from.

On November 19th, select 12th-grade students at Rialto High School were granted fee waivers from the Rialto Unified School District for their California State University applications. Students who did not qualify for a fee waiver directly through the Cal State Application website were allowed to select their campuses of choice to be paid for by the school district.

The cost of applying to one singular California State University is $70 dollars. Most students want to apply to multiple universities in order to increase their chances of being accepted into a school, and these application fees add up very quickly. Some students may see the cost of their application to colleges and consider not applying at all.

In order to make it easier for students to apply to their campuses, the CSU system considers the income of students’ parental figures and grants low-income students a fee waiver to apply to four colleges of their choice. This is very helpful for students who may struggle financially, but there are many students who do not receive a fee waiver and have to pay a large amount of money to be able to apply to the colleges they want to attend. 

The Rialto Unified School District considered this issue and granted up to 150 students who did not receive fee waivers from the CSU system to get a few CSU schools to pay for. The only requirement for students was to have their California State application complete and ready to submit by the district's deadline of November 19th.

Students who had their California State University schools paid for by the district recognized that this was a major thing and were very appreciative. One senior named Diana Chavez said, “As someone who did not qualify for the CSU fee waiver, I am very grateful that the school district was able to cover two of my CSU applications and it was a big help for me.” Chavez was allowed to apply to California State University, Fullerton, and San Diego State University through the district’s fee waivers.

Chavez considers CSU Fullerton to be one of her dream schools, “I visited Cal State Fullerton, and I fell in love with everything about the school, so I’m very thankful that the district was able to pay for me to apply there. It would’ve been difficult to pay for the application without their help,” she says. 

Another 12th-grade student, Daniela Hernandez, was able to apply to California State University, Fullerton, and California State University, San Bernardino, because of the fee waiver from the district. Hernandez says, “I think it was a good opportunity for those who did not qualify for a fee waiver to get their applications paid for free through the district.” The district was very helpful to students, and they are very grateful for it.

In terms of Daniela Hernandez’s personal opinion about the fee waivers, she says, “Even though they only did two schools, I am still very grateful I was able to sign up and apply to those schools because it is one less thing I need to worry about. I really want to go to those schools after high school.”  

The counselors at Rialto High were also there to assist the seniors who were waiting to get their CSU application paid for and guided students through the whole process. They used their expertise in this field and were able to make the application process smoother for students.

Now that these seniors have completed their Cal State applications and have been paid for, they begin the process of waiting to see if they are accepted to these schools. Students usually receive their decisions during the Spring of the following year, so for now, they can appreciate the fact that their applications are made and paid for through the Rialto district.