Illinois lawmakers just passed a bill creating a “direct admission” program to simplify the college application process. WNIJ’s Peter Medlin spoke with Jose Garcia from the Illinois Board of Higher Education for the details…
Peter Medlin (PM): “What is 'direct admissions?' What would this new law do?”
Jose Garcia (JG): “'Direct admissions' is a new and exciting program that will allow students to be, as the name of the program suggests, directly admitted into colleges and universities across the state. The only requirement for admission will be students’ Grade Point Average (GPA). They will need to meet the GPA requirement that each institution sets.”
PM: “Each institution gets to set their own standards for GPA, but they're only looking at GPA? They're not weighing other factors like test scores or anything else?”
JG: “That's right. Each institution, each public university, will set their GPA requirement. Students will not need to provide any essays, no letters of recommendation, and application fees will also be waived. So, in other words, this is a free program.”
PM: “The state does have a direct admissions program now through Common App. Can you talk a little bit about what the difference is between what we have now and what this new law would do?”
JG: “Right now, students have to take the initiative and open a Common App account and profile and include their GPA. What the bill does, and how the program will transform is, students will not need to take the initiative. Instead, it will be us [the state]. We will have the students' GPA by students opting in, and then they will receive notifications, without them having to apply, that they have been directly admitted to the universities at which they meet the GPA requirement.”
PM: “This is for high schoolers and also community college students looking to transfer to a four-year school?”
JG: “Right. So, if you are a community college student who has completed 30 credit hours and you are eligible to transfer to a public university, you will be able to do so through this program.”
PM: “Is GPA weighted the same? Across the board, universities are setting a standard no matter what high school [students attend]?”
JG: “Yes, for high school students, whatever GPA requirements the universities set will be the same. We understand that certain high schools weigh GPA differently, and so we [the state] will do the work on the back end to make sure that, however the school weighs GPA, it correlates with the GPA requirement that the university sets.”
PM: “This direct admission program includes all of the state’s public universities and community colleges, except for two: the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Illinois at Chicago. Why not those two?”
JG: “The University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign will reach out through a campaign to students who meet certain criteria to encourage them to apply.”
PM: “Is there a specific point on the calendar when students would find out exactly how many and which universities and colleges they were directly admitted to?”
JG: “No, students will find out throughout the course of the year. Now, I should clarify that for the high school class of 2026, which are the rising seniors, those students must create a Common App account and profile and enter biographical information and GPA to participate in the program. The high school class of 2027, which are rising juniors, beginning this school year, they will be able to opt in to the program, and that will allow GPA to be shared on the back end with us [the state] so that we're able to do the matches with the universities that they're eligible for direct admissions.”
Editor’s note: this interview was edited for brevity & clarity
