Texas lets students see which colleges would accept them before applying

Texas universities have joined a number of other colleges and universities across 35 states in participating in a program, revolutionizing the normally tedious college application process by allowing students to determine if they will get accepted to a school before even applying.

“Direct admission”, which was piloted in 2021 and formally launched at the end of 2023, aims to streamline the college application process, with schools offering students admission even if they didn’t apply. Notably, not all colleges and universities across the US are part of the program.

Now, Governor Greg Abbott has announced that all Texas public universities, which make up the majority of universities in the state, are taking part in the program too.

“As a father, I understand how confusing and stressful the college application process can be for your family. With the launch of direct admissions, the college application process will be made easier for young students and their families to choose the best Texas college or university for them to lead successful lives in our state,” Abbott said in a press release announcing the change.

“Working together, we will continue to develop a college admissions process that is more efficient and effective for all Texas students and create a brighter future for our great state.”

More than 30 universities in Texas are now participating in the new tool, including its largest public universities, the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University.

“We want to reduce the anxiety and also increase the predictability for students and their families, and this seems like an important way to make the decision-making process easier to navigate,” said Melissa Henderson, chief of staff and executive director of the state agency Texas higher education foundation.

Henderson said this new process informs students and families “earlier in the process about what they can expect and what their options are”.

The move to include Texas in the process is huge considering the state has the second-highest number of college students in the country, with Best Colleges reporting that earlier this year that Texas has 1.56 million college students. Texas A&M University at College Station, now part of the direct admissions program, has the highest enrollment of any four-year college campus in the country and has over 74,000 students.

The direct admissions process works by students entering their high school grade point average, class rank and standardized test scores. Then, in real time, they immediately receive a decision from colleges and universities, who each have set their own parameters for awarding an acceptance offer.

If a student is interested in an offer, they submit a free application. Colleges then verify the information in the application and send the student an official acceptance letter.

Importantly, even if a student doesn’t qualify for immediate admission, they may still get in the old fashioned way – with an admissions office looking over their more traditional and comprehensive application.

The new process isn’t only beneficial for the students, either. Smaller colleges, which could fall under the radar, can now entice students to see if they would be directly admitted by, for example, waiving an essay normally required.

Henderson said Texas hopes to make the application process even more seamless by combining the MyTexasFuture, the website that provides information about a student’s offers for direct admission, with ApplyTexas, the website that students in the state use to actually send an application.

In the next application cycle, Henderson said they hope to include even more information about an offer, including financial aid.

Other application websites like Niche and Common App, the website most widely used by students to apply to colleges every year, have also adopted similar versions of direct admission.

For the 2024-2025 application season, Common App launched its direct admissions program with 117 member colleges and universities.

Nick Sproull, Common App’s senior director of product strategy, cited the “profound fear of rejection” that surrounds the college application process – particularly for “first-generation or low-income students” – as the motivation for the company “to launch our direct admissions pilot”.

Common App first rolled out their piloted versions of direct admission in 2021 with a focus on providing offers from historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) to students across Tennessee, Virginia and Maryland.

Sproull told the Guardian that the dramatic change in the process stemmed from their survey of students who were asked to choose words they would never use to describe the college admissions process.

“Words like ‘simple, logical, joyful’ and ‘equitable’ emerged repeatedly among our constituents,” Sproull said, before adding: “Direct admissions is about changing the narrative of a college education from one of scarcity to one of opportunity by ensuring students know that a college education is absolutely available to them – and that they are worthy and welcome on a college campus.”