More and more public universities are accepting high school students before they have even applied

For some ninth-graders near Fresno, Calif., the invitation comes — years before they put on cap and gown — out of the blue: They have been accepted to Fresno State, the letter says.

Public universities across the country are increasingly sending out such acceptance letters even before students apply to college. More than a third of states now have at least one public university using “direct admission” programs that automatically admit high school students if they meet certain academic criteria.

The programs aim to aid fill places at colleges and universities at a time of sinking enrollment. They attract high school students by saving them the stressful application process for a guaranteed place at university. And they are likely to escalate in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court decision banning racial admissions, which represents a fresh opportunity for schools to escalate diversity in their applicant pools.

Some states, such as California and Texas, have long had guaranteed admission programs in which high school students who graduate in the top percentage of their class are automatically admitted to certain public universities. However, direct admission programs typically go a step further by proactively reaching out to students and providing information about options, requirements, and application steps.

“For us to be able to tell our ninth graders that you can go to college and be conditionally accepted into Fresno State, I can’t tell you how the kids light up,” said Misty Her, assistant superintendent of the Fresno Unified School District. She said 95% of students in her district qualify for free and reduced-price meals.

Under Fresno State’s Bulldog Bound program, ninth graders from partner school districts in four counties who meet California State University minimum requirements are automatically admitted provided they maintain their grades and meet high school graduation requirements. Gone are the complicated applications and fees, standardized testing and pressure to stack extracurricular activities, Fresno State officials said. And the college will make early financial aid estimates.

Meanwhile, students receive a Fresno State ID card, college email address and access to campus libraries.

“I believe in my heart that this is the gold standard for recruiting, retaining and graduating students,” Fresno State President Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval said in announcing the program.

“I’m pleased to see states and institutions thinking about ways to improve access to college,” said Taylor Odle, an assistant professor of education policy studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who has studied college admissions policy extensively.

With direct admission, “the conversation at the dinner table can be, ‘Do I go or not?’ Not ‘Did you fill out this form, did you write this essay?'” Odle said.

For high school students whose families may not have attended college, the ability to skip the lengthy admissions process is a “real game changer,” said Mary Churchill, director of the higher education administration program at Boston University and a college admissions expert.

“When you offer direct admission to ninth graders, you actually know them and can prepare for them,” she said. She said that if colleges know the fresh students, they can better prepare to serve them and provide a seamless educational pathway from kindergarten through senior year of college.

However, the programs can have some disadvantages. They can be restrictive for students who are already planning to go to university but may stop pursuing a more selective university once they have received a direct offer of admission. This is called “undermatching,” Churchill said.

Other potential drawbacks, experts say, include students overlooking the importance of assessing whether the school is a good fit for them.

Government programs

There is a pilot project in South Dakota, where fewer students are graduating from high school and fewer of them are enrolling in higher education Project will begin this fall notifying some high school students in Aberdeen, Sioux Falls and Spearfish that they have been proactively admitted to one or more universities in the state. According to South Dakota Searchlight, these include Black Hills State, Northern State, South Dakota State and the University of South Dakota.

In Georgia there is a program called Georgia Match, championed Last year, Republican Gov. Brian Kemp sent letters to 120,000 high school seniors saying they would be eligible to enroll in one of up to 23 public universities or 22 technical schools without an application fee. The major state schools – University of Georgia, Georgia Tech and Georgia College & State University – are not participating.

In a dozen statesAt least one public university uses the Common App direct admission program: Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Virginia.

The Common App allows students to apply to multiple colleges with one online application and is often used by high school students.

Idaho was the first state to implement a statewide direct admission program in 2015. It offers admission to all Idaho high school graduates. A study A study published by Odle in January 2022 found that the Idaho program increased the number of students enrolled in the state by 8% to 15%, depending on the campus. However, the increases were concentrated in two-year campus programs, the study said.

Connecticut, Hawaii and Minnesota have also launched some state direct admission programs.

“It’s about more than just admissions – it’s a commitment to supporting dreams and building a future,” said Phong Yang, associate vice president for strategic enrollment management at Fresno State.

Advantages and disadvantages

The college application process can be a barrier, said Odle, noting in a year 2023 Working paper Research from 1.2 million high school students found that a quarter of students who start a Common App college application never finish it.

The most essential predictor of whether a student ultimately submitted a college application was whether they completed the essay in their Common App, the study found. It found that 94% of students who provided a valid response to the essay submitted an application, compared to only 43% of non-submitters.

The number of completed applications varied greatly depending on the students’ ethnicity and career aspirations, parents’ level of education, type of school, level of education in the community and household income, the newspaper said.

David Hawkins, chief education and policy officer at the National Association for College Admission Counseling, said direct admission programs can be beneficial for both students and colleges, particularly by encouraging students to seek out the college experience.

However, he warned that students should be careful when evaluating direct admission offers to determine whether the college is right for them. For example, students with disabilities need to look into on-campus accommodations, he said. And every student must feel comfortable at the university.

“Not all students will be the best fit for every school,” Hawkins said. “A large state university may not be right for a student who doesn’t like large crowds.” Those students should look at other schools, he said. Advisors might tell them, “Have you considered XYZ college? Look somewhere else.”

Joan Koven, a Philadelphia-area education consultant who guides students through college applications and essays, said direct admission programs also aid colleges attract a diverse student body.

“After the SCOTUS decision, everyone is looking for ways forward [ending race-based admissions]to complete the student body,” she said in a telephone interview.

She said the only downside she sees with direct admission is that students come to college “and it doesn’t meet their expectations, or they can’t do the work and drop out.”

“You want to find the right mix to get people excited about higher education and [knowing] what that might look like,” she said.