For seniors who are applying to any or all of the nine Universities of California, it might come as a surprise to find out that the application fee has risen from $60 to $70.

According to guidance counselor Clay Stiver, however, the fee increase may not affect most MVHS students, who generally have employed parents and relatively stable household incomes, as much as it could affect students at other schools.  Nonetheless, Stiver has met students who, because of certain financial problems at home, do take the extra $10 into account when determining which UC campuses they wish to apply to.

Senior James Kang, who decreased the number of his UC choices from six to five, is one such student.  This decision was not solely based on the UC application fee, but also on the general financial issues with college applications that many other seniors have —  choosing not to apply to some reach schools in order to spend more money on universities in which getting admitted is more of a possibility.

“I could have applied to more [UCs],” Kang said.  “But I’m not only applying to UCs — also privates and other out-of-state schools.  There are opportunities for me to apply [to reach schools], but it’s an extra financial burden I have to consider.”

Senior Sayali Khare was not surprised at the application fee change because she already knew that the UC system was losing money.  Like Kang, she also acknowledged the fact that people would apply to fewer reach schools due to budget problems; however, her decision to apply to five UCs was not affected by the fee increase.

“Even if [the price] didn’t rise, I would still have applied to five schools,” Khare said. “I wasn’t going to apply to all of them because I wouldn’t go to [certain ones] if I [were admitted].”