Illinois lawmakers pass bill to establish direct admissions program

Dive Brief: 

• Illinois lawmakers passed a bill Friday to send high school and community college students direct admissions offers to the state’s public universities depending on their academic performance. 
• Each public university participating in the program will set GPA standards for first-time and transfer students by March 1 annually. The state will then inform students about which colleges will automatically accept them based on that criteria beginning with the 2027-28 academic year. 
• Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker plans to sign the bill, he said in a statement Friday. “It’s a commonsense solution that reflects our commitment to breaking down barriers and expanding opportunity to higher education,” Pritzker said. 

Dive Insight: 

More states have been launching direct admissions programs as a way to lower barriers to college. These initiatives offer admissions to students before they apply, which experts say can give them confidence and prod some learners to enroll who didn’t realize college was an option for them. 

Illinois’ effort will include nine universities: 

• University of Illinois at Springfield. 
• Southern Illinois University. 
• Chicago State University. 
• Eastern Illinois University. 
• Governors State University.
• Illinois State University. 
• Northeastern Illinois University. 
• Northern Illinois University. 
• Western Illinois University. 

Beginning July 1, 2026, the Illinois Student Assistance Commission will use data collected from the state’s school districts to determine which students meet the standards for direct admissions. This information will also be used to identify those students’ local community colleges. 

Students will then receive direct admissions offers from public universities whose criteria they meet, along with their local community colleges. Students at public community colleges who meet the GPA standards and have completed at least 30 transferable credit hours will also receive automatic offers from public universities. 

Students participating in the direct admissions program will have their application fees waived, according to the bill. 

The bill also establishes an outreach campaign to encourage students who meet certain criteria to apply to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Illinois at Chicago, which are not listed as participants in the direct admissions program. However, the bill does not dictate that they guarantee admissions to certain students.

The two lead sponsors of the bill were state Rep. Katie Stuart and state Sen. Christopher Belt, both of whom are Democrats. The measure passed unanimously in the Senate and with overwhelming support in the House. 

“Many of our students experience stress throughout the college application process and we should do what we can to make the college application process less stressful for our high school and community college transfer students,” Stuart said in an April statement, after the House passed the measure. 

The bill comes after Illinois partnered with Common App in January on a direct admissions initiative. Under that program, called One Click College Admit, students can provide their GPA to Common App and receive automatic admission to the eight public universities participating, depending on whether they meet their criteria. 

Other states are pursuing similar initiatives. 

In October, New York launched a program offering automatic admission to at least one public university to the state’s high school seniors who graduate in the top 10% of their classes. The participating colleges include New York’s two flagships — University at Buffalo and Stony Brook University. 

The same month, Utah said it would guarantee graduating high school students with admission to at least one of the state’s universities. The program is meant to streamline the admissions process and give students confidence when they apply. 

The year before, Georgia rolled out a program informing tens of thousands of high school seniors that state universities were holding spots for them. Students still had to apply to those colleges to accept the conditional offers.