The college application and admissions process continues to serve as a barrier to equitable college access. College applicants face a gauntlet of unclear and uneven information points, multiple steps toward preparation, varying application and admission requirements, and administrative hurdles—all of which rely heavily upon social and cultural capital.
Previous interventions that simplified or removed barriers to college search and choice reduced these frictions and increased the likelihood of college application and enrollment but did little to close existing equity gaps at scale. Systemic change in college admissions policies and practices is required to reduce persistent inequalities in college access by income, race, and geography. Policies that signal postsecondary opportunities by proactively admitting students to college (i.e., direct admissions) and streamlining the application process with one simple and free form (i.e., common applications) are two innovative ways to reduce barriers to access and increase educational equity.
Background
To enhance policy development and knowledge-sharing among state higher education offices and systems interested in implementing direct admissions, SHEEO convened a learning community of three leading states in August 2021: Hawaii, Idaho, and Minnesota. Participants from these states learned from each other and from researchers how to advance and improve policy solutions. State leaders from Hawaii, Idaho, and Minnesota now serve as resources for other states interested in direct admissions. Since these policies level the playing field and eliminate the need for extensive social and cultural capital in the college application and admissions process, they show promise in improving access and reducing inequalities in college admissions and, consequently, degree attainment.
State Resources
With guidance from researchers and learning community states that have implemented direct admissions, SHEEO includes resources that states have used to inform systemic state-level policy changes that have the potential to reduce inequalities in college access across race, income, and geography.
- University of Hawai’i’s FastPass program website
- Idaho Office of the State Board of Education’s Apply Idaho program and Direct Admissions Dashboard
- Minnesota Office of Higher Education’s 2023 Direct Admissions Implementation Progress Report
Blogs and Reports
- The Impact of the Idaho Direct Admissions Program on Institution Selectivity
- The Link Between Student Lists and Direct Admissions: Pros, Cons, and Policy Implications | by SHEEO | Medium
- Direct Admissions: Reimagining College Applications to Promote Equity
- Complex Applications Create Barriers to College – Some Are Trying to Change That
Past Events
SHEEO hosted four Communities of Practice (CoP) webinars to discuss what states hope to accomplish through their participation, their perceived challenges in advancing their goals, what they hope to gain from the CoP, and to provide a commitment to being active participants in the CoP.
Participants from the SHEEO direct admissions learning community in Minnesota and Idaho, joined by Dr. Taylor Odle, presented at the 2023 SHEEO Policy Conference. The speakers shared an overview of the direct admissions project, including research findings, program implementation and changes, inclusive workgroup processes, and data usage. The slides from the panel can be found here.
Contact Us
For inquiries about the Direct Admissions project, contact John Lane at jlane@sheeo.org or Sakshee Chawla at schawla@sheeo.org.
Further Reading
Academic Research
- You Are Admitted! Early Evidence on Enrollment from Idaho’s Direct Admissions System (2022)
- Closing the Gap: The Effect of Reducing Complexity and Uncertainty in College Pricing on the Choices of Low-Income Students (2021)
- A National-Level Informational Experiment to Promote Enrollment in Selective Colleges (2020)
- Match or Mismatch? Automatic Admissions and College Preferences of Low- and High-Income Students (2018)
- Surprise! You are Accepted to College: An Analysis of Idaho’s Direct Admissions Initiative (2018)
Policy Research
- Direct Admissions: A Promising Low-Cost Policy Innovation to Increase College Access and Equity (Forum on the Future of Public Education, University of Illinois, 2019)
- Expanding College Admissions to all Idaho Seniors (American College Application Week Convening, 2018)
- 50-State Comparison: Does the state have a guaranteed or automatic admissions policy? (Education Commission of the States, 2017)
Direct Admissions in the Press
- Direct Admissions Spreads, State by State (Inside Higher Ed, October 2023)
- An Admission Experiment Succeeds (Inside Higher Ed, November 2016)
- Direct admissions show early success boosting enrollment in Idaho (Higher Ed Dive, February 2022)
- Rethinking the Act of Applying to College (The Chronicle of Higher Education, January 2022)
- Minnesota Bill Authorizing Direct Admission To College Moves Forward (Forbes, April 2021)
- Congratulations! You got into college without even applying (The Washington Post, March 2020)
- State Board opens free college application website (Idaho Ed News, October 2018)
- Good Common-Core Test Scores Get You Accepted to College in This State (Education Week, September 2017)
