Office of Higher Education reports gains from Direct Admissions Minnesota; FAFSA completion and in‑state enrollment climb

The Minnesota Office of Higher Education (OHE) told the Senate Higher Education Committee on Jan. 31, 2025, that its Direct Admissions Minnesota program expanded statewide and is associated with measurable gains in financial aid completion and early college enrollment indicators.

OHE Assistant Commissioner Wendy Robinson said the program, now in its third cohort, reached 182 participating high schools with an estimated 31,172 seniors in the current year and partners with 55 colleges and universities. “Direct admissions is designed to bypass that ‘will I get in’ question,” Robinson said. “If you are able to graduate from high school in Minnesota, you have college opportunities. You are college material.”

The program sends students personalized letters listing institutions that have agreed to admit them based on junior‑year academic records. OHE officials said the program removes application fees for students who use the direct admission pathway, provides outreach about college options and financial aid, and coordinates with K‑12 counselors to boost completion of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Robinson said the program is intended to be broad — including public, private, two‑year and four‑year institutions — and intentionally does not limit student choice.

OHE director of government relations Nikki Oliver said staff will provide committee members with requested demographic breakdowns for the agency’s Get Ready (GEAR UP) program and other outreach efforts. “We do have the demographic breakdowns… staff is going to pull the most recent data and we’ll send that to you later,” Oliver said.

Aaron Salzick, the agency’s direct admissions coordinator, gave a status report on the current cohort and operational metrics. He said the agency had received 47,629 proactive admission requests from students, representing 7,314 unduplicated students, and reported a median of four institutions selected per student. “The median actually was 4,” Salzick said; “almost 20% of students selected only 1 institution via direct admissions.”

OHE highlighted several outcome measures: FAFSA completion rates rose among students at direct admissions high schools compared with prior years. Agency presenters emphasized that disaggregated results vary by subgroup. Officials said participation of students eligible for free or reduced‑price lunch increased: the share of that eligible group engaging in the program rose from 21% in the pilot year to 40% in the second cohort, and overall participation among free and reduced‑price lunch students was roughly equal to the share of such students in participating schools.

Presenters also flagged an area of concern: American Indian and Alaska Native students. Robinson said the number of American Indian students counted in the program grew from 99 in year one to 579 in year two and to 902 in the current year, and that FAFSA completion for this group declined in the second year even as the denominator increased. “We’re gonna continue to drill down into that data,” Robinson said, noting that apples‑to‑apples comparisons are difficult when cohort composition changes.

Robinson and Salzick described process and technology improvements intended to reduce the administrative lift for high school staff. Salzick said the agency has been adding integrations with student information systems and expects four of five major systems to support direct admissions capabilities in the coming year. He said the program aims to reach every Minnesota county within four years.

OHE described outside funding and partnerships supporting the work: a Lumina Foundation “Connect College” grant to expand high school participation and counselor convenings, federal GEAR UP funding for the Get Ready program that serves roughly 7,500 low‑income students across 14 lead schools and 28 additional partner schools, and ongoing FAFSA outreach including Ready, Set, FAFSA virtual sessions that drew more than 1,300 registrations in October and 939 in January.

Committee members asked about access for homeschooled students, counselor workload and best practices. Salzick said the agency has had conversations with homeschool consortiums but that the program’s tiering process typically requires a neutral certifying reviewer (often a school counselor) and that OHE is exploring options. Robinson and Salzick recommended schools distribute letters early in the senior year, involve parents, and treat letter distribution as a coordinated event to encourage participation.

OHE said a full Direct Admissions Minnesota report will be released soon; the committee received a preview of performance results during the hearing.