Direct Admissions: Increasing Access to Post-Secondary Education through Proactive Admissions
Direct Admissions is a system developed and piloted recently in the US that defaults graduating high school students into post-secondary admittance by data-matching their profiles (transcripts, standardized test scores, and prerequisites) with institutions’ preset eligibility criteria. As applicant and institutional interest in direct admissions has increased significantly in recent (post-pandemic) years, demand is growing for direct admissions service providers.
This new report provides a brief overview of the background, research, and implementation of direct admissions in the US. While direct admissions remains a new and largely experimental approach to admissions, it shows promise in making higher education more accessible, particularly for systemically marginalized and historically underserved students.