National Trends in College Admissions

Student Enrollment in Kansas

In the last five years, the postsecondary education system in Kansas and nationwide has seen a decline in enrollment.

According to data from Kansas Higher Education Statistics, since fall 2018, Kansas has seen a net 10.7 percent decrease in enrollment systemwide. State institutions have seen a 7.1 percent decrease in enrollment, community colleges have seen a 17.3 percent decrease, and technical colleges have seen 0.4 percent decrease. The enrollment drop-off began in 2021, likely due to effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Among all postsecondary education institutions, technical schools have maintained the most consistent enrollment numbers over the last 5 years, with 7,103 students in 2018 and 7,075 student in fall 2023.

Direct Admissions versus Guaranteed Admissions

“Direct admissions” and “guaranteed admissions” are terms that can be used interchangeably; however, direct admissions proactively offer admission without a student having to fill out an application. Direct admissions do not require the student to submit fees, test scores, or recommendation letters before admission is granted.

Guaranteed admissions require the student to submit an application and possibly other supplemental documents, but the student will automatically be accepted if they meet certain academic criteria.

Guaranteed Admissions

The state educational institutions in Kansas use guaranteed admission or “Qualified Admission” criteria when admitting undergraduate students. Under KSA 76-717 and the State Board of Regents policy 88-29c-5, Kansas residents under the age of 21 are guaranteed admission to one of the six state universities if they meet certain GPA and ACT or SAT requirements and graduate from an accredited Kansas high school. (See more: https://www.kansasregents.org/academic_affairs/qualified_admissions)

Direct Admissions

Other States

In 2015, Idaho became the first state to implement a statewide direct admissions program. This program proactively admits every graduating high school senior in Idaho to state colleges without application. This process is reliant on Idaho’s education system reporting universal SAT testing and state longitudinal data in order for the postsecondary system to make a determination on whether to offer admission.

The 2021 Minnesota Legislature funded a direct admission pilot program that offers automatic conditional admissions into Minnesota public and private colleges. Minnesota high school students are admitted based on their academic performance during their junior year. The pilot program was launched during the 2022-23 school year. According to the Minnesota Office of Higher Education, 1,947 students participated in the program, which represents 28 percent of the 12th-grade students enrolled in participating high schools.

Benefits of Direct Admissions

Advocates for direct admissions programs argue that implementation would be low-cost and could provide benefits, including, but not limited to:

• Eliminating the difficulty for students navigating the application process;
• Increasing efficiency by reducing administrative burden;
• Increasing enrollment at local universities; and
• Expanding access to higher education, which:
• Addresses demographic gaps in educational attainment; and
• Improves social and economic mobility for marginalized groups.