This fall, high school seniors may find college acceptance letters in their mailboxes before they complete a single application. It’s not a scam — it’s a nascent college admissions program called “direct admissions,” offered by a growing number of states and third-party organizations.
Students eligible for direct admissions receive college acceptance letters before they apply, usually during the fall of their senior year of high school. Direct admissions decisions typically hinge on GPA only. Students may have to submit supplementary application materials to finalize and accept their offers, but the process doesn’t require application fees, teacher recommendations, standardized test scores or endless essays. It’s a streamlined route to college, which students can leverage in addition to (or instead of) the regular and early decision processes.
“The goal is really just to break down barriers for students, because students are worried. College is scary and foreign, and so the idea is to try and alleviate some of those anxieties and fears that students may have about, ‘am I going to be admitted to a school?’,” says Jessica Eby, Apply Idaho program manager at the Idaho State Board of Education.
Idaho became the first state to offer direct college admissions in 2015. Since then, a handful of states have rolled out their own programs, and experts say that number is poised to increase in coming years. Third-party providers Common App and Niche recently introduced their own direct admissions programs, opening the college pathway to students regardless of their geographical location.
“This is an incredibly low- to no-risk opportunity for [students], it will not cost them anything to participate, they can apply to the schools on their list with no application fee. It doesn’t bind them to do anything, it doesn’t limit them to doing anything,” says Wendy Robinson, the assistant commissioner for programs, policies and grants at the Minnesota Office of Higher Education.
For state-based direct admissions programs, your participating high school will generally send your GPA and information to colleges; for third-party programs, you’ll need to set up a profile with your GPA and other basic information.
Direct admissions doesn’t automatically lead to more financial aid, but it can make it easier for students to apply to multiple schools, allowing families to compare colleges’ financial aid offers and make an informed decision about paying for college. (Make sure to submit the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to qualify for a financial aid offer, including federal student loans, grants, work-study and scholarships.)
“Apply to a community college, apply to a public four-year school, apply to a private school, and see what your financial picture looks like at all three institutions, so that you can make the best choice for you and your family,” Robinson says.
States with direct admissions
Some states already offer direct admissions or plan to in the upcoming year. Those states include:
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Connecticut: Launched in 2022-23.
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Georgia: Began in fall 2023.
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Hawaii: Launched in 2020-21.
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Idaho: Launched in 2015.
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Illinois. Pilot will begin in 2025.
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Indiana: Launched in fall 2023.
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Minnesota: Pilot started in fall 2022, program fully launched in fall 2023.
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Wisconsin: Launched in December 2024.
State-based direct admissions models vary. For example, Idaho promises to admit every public high school senior in the state to at least six in-state schools, which may include public and private options. Wisconsin’s program only includes the public University of Wisconsin system.
Other states like Texas and Tennessee offer “guaranteed admissions” programs, which pledge your admission to certain universities if you rank highly in your graduating class. The terms are sometimes used interchangeably, but there’s a slight difference: Unlike direct admissions, guaranteed admissions doesn’t proactively offer your admission upfront and it still requires you to submit a full application, which may involve essays, standardized test scores, recommendations and fees.
Direct admissions is poised to expand in the coming years. Minnesota aims to open the process to about 32,000 students in the upcoming year, accounting for nearly 50% of the state’s graduating class — and at least eight states have approached Minnesota with questions about starting their own direct admissions programs, Robinson says.
“I think in the next two or three years, there’s going to be an explosion of states that are doing this,” Robinson says.
If your state doesn’t offer direct admissions
For students in states without direct admissions programs or those who want to go to an out-of-state school, companies like Niche and Common App present another route.
Niche, a commercial platform for families to research K-12 schools and colleges, works with colleges to set up minimum GPAs for direct admissions. Students set up free Niche profiles, then receive relevant direct admissions offers on their dashboard. The offer will include financial information, like automatic scholarships and actual tuition estimates. (Students should still fill out the FAFSA for more financial aid, including federal loans and grants.) To accept a college’s offer, a student will be navigated to the next steps, like paying an enrollment deposit and providing an official high school transcript.
“For a long time, there’s been so much friction and difficulty applying to college, and this generation, Gen Z, is used to pressing a button, having Uber show up at their house, having a meal delivered to their door, they like things now and instantaneously. They don’t want to wait six to nine months to get a result,” says Niche CEO Luke Skurman.
So far, Niche has sent at least one offer to nearly 930,000 students for college enrollment in the fall, the company says. Ninety-one colleges participated in the 2023-24 recruitment cycle, and Niche aims to include at least 100 colleges for the upcoming year. Its direct admissions process for the 2024-25 recruitment cycle begins Aug. 6.
Common App, a non-profit that represents more than 1,000 colleges and universities, launched its own direct admissions program in the 2023-24 school year. It specifically targets students from low- and middle-income backgrounds who qualify for Common App fee waivers.
Participating colleges set admission requirements like a minimum GPA, then Common App finds students who qualify through information they’ve put into their Common App profile. The organization emails selected students with at least one non-binding direct admissions offer. Students may then finalize the application.
Seventy colleges and universities participated in the first year of Common App’s direct admissions program, leading to offers for over 300,000 students across 28 states, according to a December 2023 Common App blog post.
