Texas Just Launched Direct Admissions. Sorta. Here’s What Students Need to Know.

Texas launched a new direct admissions program where students input their information to learn what schools in the state would admit them.

To participate, students create an account with My Texas Future, opt in to direct admissions, share their academic information, view their acceptances, then begin the application process.

There’s an opportunity for students to share their unweighted GPA, class rank, entrance exam (ACT or SAT) scores, and graduation plan.

The program suggests that students provide all the academic information possible since that can increase their options, but they don’t have to submit something for every category. Students can update their profiles if their information changes.

After students receive the list of Texas colleges and universities that would accept them, they’d go on to complete the ApplyTexas common application to verify their self-reported data and apply for a specific major. Institutions would use this single application to determine what scholarships to provide and programs to offer.

Direct admissions programs in other states typically don’t require students to submit a traditional application, and this additional step has some experts worried the program will hinder the students it aims to help.

The over 30 public colleges and universities participating in this Texas program can be found online and includes at least two historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs).

Texas students will be able to access the program starting at the end of their junior year of high school.

States across the country — including Idaho, Minnesota, Hawaii, Georgia, Indiana, and Wisconsin — have all launched their own versions of direct admissions programs to combat falling college enrollment rates.

But slight variations across states leave some students and experts wondering what “direct admissions” means.

Dr. Jennifer Delaney, professor in the School of Education at the University of California, Berkeley, said removing barriers to admissions is helpful in getting students enrolled in postsecondary programs. She said Texas is a great place to implement direct admissions in part because it has a statewide common application.

“It takes a lot of the risk away for students,” Delaney told BestColleges.

Under traditional admissions systems, students have to guess if they will be admitted or not. Even many qualified students often don’t realize they should apply to selective schools or consider themselves college material. But with direct admissions, a student’s high school achievements guarantee them a spot.

For students, Delaney said direct admissions switches the conversation from thinking about how to best search for schools to what the best fit for them is. It’s a positive signal upfront in the admissions process as opposed to students stressing through it.

“That’s really powerful for students to take that risk and uncertainty away,” Delaney said.

Delaney said that proactive advertising and communication around direct admissions is crucial to its success. She also stressed that states should communicate with trusted adults — such as high school counselors and parents or guardians — in addition to students, so that students have touchpoints to know their options.

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board is working with high school counselors, advisors, and educators to train them on the direct admissions process. It also has provided information toolkits to high schools and partner institutions to share with students.

“With direct admissions, students enter the application process already armed with a list of institutions where they qualify for admission,” a spokesperson from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board told BestColleges in an email.

“The application process is a particularly stressful period in a student’s educational journey, and direct admissions will help reduce anxiety, boost confidence, and encourage Texans who might not otherwise consider college to take the next step.”

Delaney and Dr. Taylor Odle, a professor of educational policy studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, have been studying direct admissions and advising states on best practices for several years now. They’re both fans of the potential but are hesitant about how the Texas program will fare.

“It’s moving in the right direction of trying to automate these college admissions processes,” Odle told BestColleges about the Texas program.

While Odle said the best-performing direct admissions programs put no burden on the students until it’s time to make their enrollment decision, many states like Texas must adopt a partial direct admissions process due to student privacy laws.

Privacy laws, such as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, mean that states don’t have ready access to a student’s information. This necessitates students opting in to sharing that information.

Odle said research from the fields of health economics and social welfare show that opt-in policies result in the people the programs are supposed to help the most not opting in. For direct admissions, the students who are most likely going to opt in probably already have more advantages.

The ethos behind direct admissions is to remove barriers and simplify the process. But by having students opt in, Odle hypothesizes the program won’t support students who weren’t already preparing to go to college.

Delaney said the strengths of other direct admissions programs is that they are proactive, universal, and reduce administrative burdens that stop people from pursuing a postsecondary education. However, still having to fill out an application could sway students from attending college.

“Having to still apply is not simplifying the process,” Delaney said.

Direct admissions has the potential to create equity and efficiency through structural simplification, Odle said. But direct admissions programs also raise a question: If institutions know they are going to admit a student, why still make that student complete a college application?

“It’s good that states are experimenting with simplifications in the admissions process,” Odle said. “But as we do that, we have to keep the foundational components of direct admissions at heart, which are proactive communication, guarantee of admission, and simplification of the steps to ultimately enroll in college.”

As long as those are true, he said, states should expect to see improvements in efficiency and equity in the admissions process.