How to Register for GRE Fee Waivers

5 min readDec 6, 2016

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What Are GRE Fee Waivers?

The Graduate Record Exam (GRE) helps to offer prospective graduate and business school applicants from all around the world who are interested in pursuing a master’s, MBA, specialized master’s in business or doctoral degree and who come from varying educational and cultural backgrounds provide schools with a common measure for comparing each candidates qualifications.

ETS, the organization that designed and administers the test, only offers a fee waiver for GRE program for some students and aspirants. The fee waiver programs is limited and strictly based on a first come- first served basis. The fee reduction program only compensates half of the test fee and the rest has to be paid by the student, which means that the fee reduction certificate that is issued can be used either for one general test or for one subject test only.

Who Is Entitled to a Fee Waiver for GRE?

Unlike many scholarship programs of most colleges that mainly focus on the grades and merits achieved by the student that apply, the GRE waiver program only takes into consideration the current financial situation of the applying candidates. To receive a GRE college tuition waiver, a candidate must prove their eligibility:

Must be a citizen of the United States or a resident alien

College seniors must be receiving financial aid from a US Territory/US/Puerto Rico based undergraduate college

A college senior, who is a dependent, should have an Institutional Student Information Report (ISIR) that declares that the parental contribution in the senior year at college was not more than $1400

The ISIR of a self-supporting college senior should declare a contribution of not more than $1800 in the senior year

Un-enrolled college graduates must have proof that states that they have applied for financial aid (They should possess an ISIR that states that they are self-supporting and that the financial contribution in the senior year of college was not more than $1800)

Unemployed students should be able to prove their unemployed status and declare that they have been unemployed for at least six months.They are also required to attach a copy of the Unemployed Benefits Statement from the past 90 days as a proof of their unemployed status.

How to Register for a GRE Waiver

In general, your school’s financial aid office should be able to give you information about applying for GRE waivers. Going direct to the ETS website is another way but we have included some tips here with the process broken down to make it easier for you:

Contact your financial aid office or student loan office and inquire into your eligibility for and request a GRE Fee Reduction Certificate.

Get your signed GRE Fee Reduction Certificate, with embossed school seal or stamp and official signature. It should be stapled to a copy of your Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR) showing an expected family or personal contribution of no more than $1,400.

Download and fill out the Computer Based revised General Test (CBT) Authorization Voucher Request Form from the GRE website.

Mail the CBT AVR Form, the GRE Fee Reduction Certificate, the ISIR,a copy of an Unemployment Benefits Statement from the last 90 days if unemployed and a check for $97.50 to:

ETS-CBT/GRE
Box 371859
Pittsburgh, PA 15250–7859

Having completed the above steps, you should wait around 4 weeks for them to send you the authorisation voucher before signing up to take the test. This all needs to be done before the expiration date, which is June 30th.

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