New York Launches Top 10% Promise Program
Credit: Newsday LLC / Contributor / Newsday / Getty Images- New York Gov. Kathy Hochul recently announced the launch of the state’s Top 10% Promise Program.
- The program offers high-achieving students direct admission to SUNY colleges and universities.
- Many states have instituted or expanded similar programs since the Supreme Court’s decision banning race-conscious admissions.
- Top 10% programs have experienced varying levels of success in states where affirmative action was banned prior to the SCOTUS ruling.
New York’s governor and higher education leaders are taking steps to address the effects of last year’s U.S. Supreme Court decision banning race-conscious admissions. They’re just not saying so explicitly.
On Oct. 24, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the state’s new Top 10% Promise Program offering direct admission to State University of New York (SUNY) institutions.
The program provides automatic acceptance to high school students whose grade point averages rank them in the top 10% of their class and who meet “specific academic readiness criteria” required by individual SUNY schools.
Initially, nine campuses are participating: University at Albany, University at Buffalo, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, SUNY Geneseo, SUNY New Paltz, SUNY Oneonta, SUNY Polytechnic Institute, Purchase College, and Stony Brook University.
The first cohort under this new plan will enter in fall 2025, meaning students will be selected during the current admissions cycle.
In this first year, 68 school districts, along with individual charter schools, will participate in the program. These districts were chosen because of their “high levels of adversity or enrolling a significant share of students from low-income backgrounds.”Once the program has been fully implemented, students from all school districts will be eligible. The announcement doesn’t specify when that will be.
“Access to higher education has the potential to transform New Yorkers’ lives and change the trajectory of a student’s life,” Hochul said in a statement.
“Offering New York students graduating in the top 10% of their class direct admission to SUNY campuses will help reduce barriers to higher education while ensuring our students can continue their education and pursue their dreams right here in New York state.”
This announcement adds specificity to last January’s original unveiling of the program. As part of her 2024 State of the State address, Hochul mentioned a series of initiatives designed to increase access to the state’s colleges and universities, including this top 10% direct admissions program.
Combatting the Effects of the Affirmative Action Ban
New York’s program comes on the heels of a Supreme Court decision abolishing affirmative action and threatening to reduce access for underrepresented minority students.
Following the SCOTUS ruling, the Education and Justice departments issued a QA document outlining various ways colleges can operate in a post-affirmative action world. Direct admissions was one tactic they recommended.
At least 10 states now have some form of direct admissions, with others likely on the horizon. On a broader scale, in 2023, the Common App expanded its program to include 70 colleges and universities across 28 states. More than 300,000 first-generation and low- and middle-income students received admission offers.
The strategy presumes that high-achieving students from under-resourced communities will gain a greater opportunity to attend college, smoothing the pathway for both lower-income and racial minority students.
But do such programs work? Prior to the SCOTUS ruling, several states — including California, Texas, and Florida — had already banned affirmative action. Universities in those states implemented top 10% plans with varying success.
As an Educational Testing Service report points out, the race-poverty correlation is far from perfect, and the schools that do have double segregation by race and class tend to be the very schools that are the least effective in preparing students for college.
Still, officials in New York position the Promise Program as a way to negate the effects of the SCOTUS decision, even if they’re not exactly putting it in those terms.
“There is a place at SUNY for every New Yorker, and the SUNY Top 10% Promise will make it even easier for our highest-achieving high school students — particularly those from low-income backgrounds — to discover SUNY’s extraordinary value and academic excellence,” SUNY Chancellor John B. King Jr. said in a statement.
“With thanks to Governor Hochul for her leadership, this new direct admission program will advance educational equity and open the doors to higher education even wider.”