direct accessThe approach, as it’s often called, should allow colleges to send offers to students based only on their GPA or some other criteria, such as intended major or geographic location, without the hassle of essays, letters of recommendation, and months of uncertainty.
Federal data shows that more than 85 percent of four-year schools accept at least half of applicants. They only let those candidates jump through hoops first. The purpose of direct admission, participants say, is to make the process less burdensome, show low-income and first-generation students that college is within reach, and turn more prospects toward institutions desperate to meet enrollment goals. .
Niche.com Inc. “There should be a little bit of electric mobility going from college to families right now,” said Luke Schurman, chief executive officer and founder of the company, which provides profiles and ratings of hundreds of thousands of schools. and towns. Ala ran a direct-admissions program with two colleges last spring and is now working with 14.
Within the past year, the Common Application, private-college scholarship program SAGE Scholars, the state of Minnesota and Concourse—which was purchased in September by enrollment-management consulting firm EAB—also launched direct-admit programs in combination with colleges or universities. have been expanded. ,
The process is fairly straightforward for most: Students interested in learning more about colleges, or who are specifically interested in joining the direct-admission pool, submit their biographical information and basic information such as GPA and areas of academic interest. Along with registering on the website. Most of the students do not know which schools are participating. The platform then screens students based on the requested criteria of the schools and after coordinating with the schools, sends admission offers.
It takes about a half hour to complete the 30 questions on the Niche website, Mr. Schurman said.
When running its screens, Niche first notifies qualified students who have expressed interest in the school, for example by opting in to receive mailings—they are most likely to be receptive to an offer. The next group of students they reach out to may have shown interest in similar schools.
Claire Gabor was only considering larger public schools closer to her home in Portland, Ore., until an email in February bearing the logos of Niche and Mount Saint Mary’s University in Maryland swayed her down that path. “Congratulations, Claire!
“My first question was, ‘Is this real?'” said Ms Gabor, now 19. “Then I read it.”
Impressed by a campus visit, talks with a rugby coach and a $25,000 annual scholarship that brought the total cost below that of state universities in Oregon, he is now a freshman at Mount St. Mary’s.
Under this model, a student’s file goes into the official applicant pool only after they have accepted the school’s offer and agreed to be contacted further. Then it is up to the school to entice the student.
“Dating metaphor, you can’t escape it,” said Joe Morrison, founder of EAB’s Concourse platform, comparing the process to swiping right on an app by both parties.
Concourse’s Greenlight Match began last year as a pilot with 10 colleges focused primarily on low-income and first-generation students in Chicago through community-based organizations. It now has over 70 partners on the domestic front, including Auburn University and Southern Methodist University.
Colleges participating in the direct-admission pilots so far include institutions large and small, public and private. A more select few schools say they have started discussions about signing up, at least for students interested in particular academic subjects, or for international students.
“Any project, opportunity, initiative that helps take the friction out of students wanting to go to college is something that’s on my radar,” said Jordana Mazierz, director of graduate admissions at Montclair State University in New Jersey. , which is working with Common Application. and EAB. “Why do we have to make it so hard for them?”
Last year, the Common Application offered spots to nearly 3,000 candidates based on Montclair State’s GPA criteria. Thirty-one put down deposits, and 27 actually enrolled.
Miguel Popoca Flores, a senior at Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis, said he didn’t know he had so many options until he learned about Minnesota’s direct-entry program. Based on their GPA, they are guaranteed admission to schools including the University of Minnesota Duluth, Dunwoody College of Technology, and Minnesota State University, Mankato.
He’s still applying to others, but if they don’t drop out, “you always have this college as a backup,” he said. “You’re not stuck.”
Augsburg University in Minnesota is participating in direct-admission pilots with the Common Application and the state of Minnesota, and is cutting its own application to an average of seven minutes to complete.
Nearly all applicants with unweighted GPAs There are at least 2.75 recruits. Within a few days, online offer letters arrive, which also contain details of the guaranteed scholarship.
According to Robert Gould, vice president of strategic enrollment management, Augsburg is already connected to 184 students through the Minnesota pilot, about half of whom were not on the school’s radar. And as of November 7, it had received 1,581 applications through the Common Application and its website, up 44% from the previous year. It admitted 1,094 of them.
The route to direct admission can actually be lengthy for some students, as many schools require that those flagged for acceptance still complete applications. Critics have warned that this could frighten prospects and undermine the goal of simplifying the process.
SAGE Scholars, a tuition-awards program for private colleges, is now what some founder James Johnson likens to a mortgage pre-approval — subject to verification, and potentially more paperwork, if schools so choose.
More than 30 schools have signed up for its “Fasttrack” program this fall.
Goldie-Beacom College in Delaware has about 700 undergraduates and was overwhelmed to see 4,333 students qualify for admission through FastTrack based on a 2.5 GPA threshold.
Administrators narrowed the pool by geography and academic interest, reducing the field of automatic admissions to 434.
Larry Abbey, executive director of institutional advancement, said even a modest gain from FastTrack would count as a success.
“If we have a student enrolled in it, we didn’t have that before,” he said.
(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modification to the text.)