‘Planting a seed:’ Indiana colleges to send pre-admission letters

This fall, high school seniors will know their chances of getting into certain Indiana colleges before they even apply.

With the “Indiana Pre-Admissions: Your Path to College” initiative from the Indiana Commission for Higher Education, students will receive letters from colleges indicating how their grades stack up to admissions standards. Those letters will either indicate they are pre-admitted, meaning at their current academic standing they likely have what it takes to get into that college, or the letters will indicate what mark they need to meet if they’ve fallen short.

Students don’t have to submit an application to receive pre-admission letters. Almost 80% of Indiana colleges will participate in the pre-admissions program for the upcoming high school senior class, including Franklin College, the University of Indianapolis, Ivy Tech Community College and IUPUI, among others, according to state documents about the program.

At UIndy, which has a 78% acceptance rate, students who have at least a 2.7 GPA will likely get a pre-acceptance letter. With admissions at the school becoming test-optional, meaning students don’t have to submit ACT or SAT scores to be admitted, it makes the criteria for pre-admitting a student more straightforward, said Kate Coffman, the college’s associate vice president for university marketing and enrollment strategy.

Staff members from the Indiana Commission for Higher Education reached out to college leaders in the spring about participating in the program, she said.

“Only about 56% of our high school grads are attending college, and our goal as a state is to have over 60% of working adults with a degree,” Coffman said. “We want to make sure college is accessible for all our high school graduates. This gives them a better understanding of which colleges would accept them and the criteria they need.”

The college doesn’t charge an application fee, so if students get a pre-admission letter, it will encourage them to apply even if they are low on funds. Students who are pre-admitted won’t necessarily be admitted, and vice versa, as there are many factors that go into whether or not a student ends up being selected, Coffman said.

“The main things we’re looking at are the classes you took in high school, making sure the curriculum prepared you for college-level coursework,” she said. “In the letter, they’re told they’d be admitted as long as they have the GPA eligible to be admitted, but there is an asterisk. We do indicate they would have to meet the curriculum standards. If they’re not on track to get a Core 40 (diploma) even if they have the GPA, we’d have to assess if they’re a good fit for the university.”

The college has a rolling admission deadline, meaning students don’t have to apply by a specific date, but Coffman said high school seniors should apply before May to receive an admissions decision in time for orientation.

Franklin College officials have not decided on a specific GPA or SAT score yet, although they plan to use both when setting pre-admission criteria after not requiring SAT scores for admission during much of the COVID-19 pandemic, said Andrew Hendricks, interim vice president of enrollment and marketing.

All Indiana high school juniors are required to take the SAT. Franklin College officials still haven’t decided whether or not they’ll require SAT scores during the actual admission process.

“We will be going to the SAT for pre-admission and will be reevaluating if we continue to be test-optional. The majority of students at Franklin College are Indiana students. With the fact they’ll be taking the SAT, it makes sense to use it as a tool to evaluate, it gives us a better understanding,” Hendricks said. “It’s a benefit to look at the perseverance of a student and their aptitude at the same time.”

Franklin College admits about 73% of applicants and the pre-admission process will also help admissions officers adjust criteria if necessary so the admissions process remains fair to applicants, he said.

“We’re still talking about where we’ll land. Our goal is to not to make it so high it excludes people, our goal is to make it as reasonable as possible, to give a balance between not only students we know will be successful in college, but at the same time we want to make sure we’re giving a wide breadth of access to students,” Hendricks said. “We can learn more about students and if we should raise our lower our admissions numbers.”

As with UIndy, students can apply to Franklin College free of charge. During the actual admissions process, college officials will look at additional factors, such as application essays, extracurricular activities and interviews to determine if a student is a good fit. Franklin College has a rolling application deadline, but students should apply by Nov. 1 if they want to be considered for special scholarships such as the full-tuition Ben Franklin scholarships, Hendricks said.

Students can apply to both Franklin College and UIndy on the Common App, which is an online application website that prospective students can use to apply to over 1,000 colleges.

With the pre-admissions program, students who might not think they can get into college will have greater assurance about where they can realistically go, Hendricks said.

“What’s intriguing is the simple fact that this program will get the names of colleges in front of many students as well as some students who may not think they would go to college,” he said. “The idea is, it starts to plant a seed in their head that they are capable of going and it may not be as difficult a path as some of them believed.”