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Anyone know what stats one typically needs to get fee waivers from schools like Columbia, NYU, and Penn? Asking for a friend (aka my seething father post-hearing application expenses)

I'm not sure about the statistics, but it never hurts to ask. Something weird that happened in my case was that I asked both NYU and Columbia for fee waivers (around September), got denied, then received fee waivers from both of them in the next couple of months. I don't know if they had me on lower priority and were waiting until later in the cycle to offer me the waivers, or if it was just an oversight. I feel like it was the latter, but I really have no idea.

I don't have an answer for you, but schools send out fee waivers to people with low numbers just so the schools can deny them and raise their selectivity for rankings purposes.

Other than that tidbit, I'm not sure. Maybe go digging in the old applicant threads if you really care.

Not sure where the cutoff is (if there is one), but I got NYU/Penn/Chicago waivers literally the day after my 170 score release. But yeah, they also send tons to people they just want to reject. So don't overthink a waiver...just enjoy it if it happens.

Also, some tricks for fee waivers:

If you're poor (I mean actually poor, not "OMG, I'm too broke to buy my favorite brand of pinot grigio this weekend," poor), apply for an LSAC fee waiver.

If you're interested in T14 fee waivers, see about attending an LAWS event (assuming you live near to a major city). I went, and a few of the schools offered a fee waiver just for attending and/or filling out a card with my contact info.