You Can Get into College Without Even Applying

In recent years, colleges and universities in the U.S. have seen a dramatic decline in enrollment. To help offset this trend, a number of colleges offer an option for direct admissions, which allows soon-to-be high school grads to be accepted into a college before having to submit an application.

Mary Churchill, a scholar of higher education administration at Boston University and contributor for Inside Higher Ed, recently how direct admissions works and why it’s here to stay.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Direct admissions is a fairly new option in college admissions. In essence, it allows colleges to make offers of admission, often with financial aid, to students without requiring them to first submit a traditional college application. In many ways, direct admissions works like a pre-approved mortgage.

“A student first creates and posts a profile, including information like grades, test scores, location, interests and other college-relevant information,” Michael T. Nietzel, a senior contributor at Forbes, explains. “Participating colleges then evaluate those individual profiles and extend admission offers without requiring students to go through the hassle of obtaining letters of recommendation, writing an essay, and filling out application forms.”

WHAT’S THE BENEFIT?

For students, the benefit of direct admissions is a simple and less stressful path to college admission.

“Applying to college can take a lot of money and time and requires students to figure out the college application process, which can sometimes be complex,” Churchill says. “The fear of rejection also discourages some people from applying. With direct admissions, this fear of rejection is removed because qualified students receive an acceptance letter from a college without needing to apply.”

For colleges, direct admissions offers direct access to top students they want to accept.

“Often the most desirable students are top scholars, people from a particular geographic area or some combination of demographic attributes, like racial or ethnic background and family economic status,” Churchill says. “This enables colleges to more strategically reach more of the students they want to enroll than they would if they only did high school visits and college fairs or direct marketing to students. In addition, the college has an opportunity to reach potential students who are from more demographically diverse backgrounds than their usual applicants.”

THE FUTURE OF COLLEGE ADMISSIONS

Churchill argues that direct admissions will likely become the future of college admissions—at least for nonselective colleges.

“Direct admissions is a relatively inexpensive way for an individual college, or an entire state, to make college opportunities more clearly available to more students,” Churchill says. “Colleges can get the attention of their ideal student populations. As direct admissions becomes more common, colleges—especially community colleges—will likely need additional staff and money to handle the large-scale influx of admissions.”

Sources: Inside Higher Ed, Gates Foundation, Forbes

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