Jessica Bendzick/ Winonan

Throughout the last week of October, any high school student who submitted their Winona State University college application could have done so without incurring the traditional $20 application fee.

This was because October was College Knowledge Month.

Jessica Espinosa, Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Coordinator of College Transition, said College Knowledge Month is part of a national effort, so the week of Oct. 27 through Oct. 31, thousands of colleges across the nation waived their application fees.

She said the focus of the effort is providing assistance for the financial barrier of sending in a college application for underrepresented students.

During last year’s College Knowledge Month, Espinosa said the MnSCU system received a total of 33,353 applications. Of those, 19,315 applications were submitted during the last week of October, when most institutions waived the application fee.

Espinosa said, “While we cannot attribute all 33,000 to College Knowledge Month, it definitely has an impact.”

In 2013, Winona State received 3,493 applications during College Knowledge Month, which was the third highest of all Minnesota institutions, she said.

“It’s not just about applying to college, but rather about the whole process of learning what’s the best fit for you, understanding different kinds of colleges and writing your essay,” she said. “It’s more complicated than just sitting down at your computer and filling out an application. There’s all these steps that happen before that.”

Winona State director of admissions Carl Stange said the primary role of waiving application fees for one week was to show how higher education can be affordable and achieved by any young person in Minnesota.

He said the busiest application month is traditionally November, and typically Winona State Admissions tries to respond to students within ten days of receiving their application.

MnSCU sets the general application fee rate, Stange said.

“I appreciate the fee, because it does show that you had a commitment in considering our institution,” he said.

Winona State also has an adjusted waiver policy, which means the university will waive the application fee for any student at any time who are unable to pay the fee.

Stange said last year they received close to 2,000 applications during the free application week and about a third of the students who apply during the free application week will actually enroll at Winona State.