By Amanda Albright | Bloomberg
Wingate University told thousands of high schoolers some good news: They were already accepted into the class of 2030, and they’d be receiving $24,000 of scholarships. No application required.
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The private college outside of Charlotte, North Carolina, with some 2,600 undergraduates, is one of hundreds of universities that are admitting students who haven’t even applied. While some colleges have been using the tactic — called direct admissions — for years, many more are now trying it out, as they fight for a shrinking pool of prospective undergraduates.
The Common App, a nonprofit that lets individuals apply to multiple institutions, started a direct admissions pilot in 2021 before launching as a full-scale program in 2023-24 with 70 schools. That jumped to 119 the following year, and most recently included 215 universities.
For the fall semester, Wingate — which has a listed tuition of roughly $44,000 a year — made such offers to 20,000 students and is set to enroll 500 undergraduates through that tactic. That’s over 50% of its freshmen class and more than eight times the number of direct-admits who accepted in 2023 during its first year trying the approach.
“It’s almost becoming a default requirement for institutions that are not at the highest tier of selectivity,” said Rob Bielby, managing director at Huron, a consulting firm that specializes in higher ed. “As we see these programs grow, specific geographies are going to have students be admitted to dozens, if not hundreds, of institutions.”
As the number of high school seniors declines, more schools are shifting tactics and moving away from an ivory tower mentality to navigate the demographic cliff. Having a low admissions rate has long been a source of pride for colleges, but more schools are embracing an all-are-welcome approach as students become harder to recruit.
Roughly 400 private, not-for-profit four-year institutions have admissions rates of at least 80%, according to the most recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics.
“The college search process is already so stressful,” said Eva Baucom, vice president of enrollment management at Wingate. “In our minds, they’ve already done a lot of the hard work. They’ve proven that they meet our admissions criteria. So why make students jump through additional hoops and more stress if we can avoid that?”
Universities across the country are trying to reach students who may not have heard of the institution or have ties to it. But it’s not enough to just juice applications — colleges need prospects to actually enroll and become tuition-paying attendees. They have to balance spending on efforts to boost applications with making sure students see a vibrant campus and choose to attend.
“It’s like chasing the unicorn, where everybody’s competing for that same group of students,” said Chip Edmonds, president of Lycoming College in Pennsylvania. The school, where tuition is roughly $52,000 a year, plans to offer direct admissions through the Common App this year.
Major college services like the Common App and Niche, a college search and enrollment website, incorporate direct admissions for colleges that want to participate. Public university systems are also implementing it, including California State University, which is expanding its direct-admit program beginning with those applying for fall 2027.
Advocates say the strategy encourages more diverse applicants, like first-generation students, by removing barriers to entry and boosting awareness of the often-generous scholarships available at private institutions.
Like Uber
For years, colleges have been extending offers to students who didn’t apply. But now it’s been formalized at “scale” with large college-application platforms, according to Huron’s Bielby, who advises universities on enrollment strategy and recruitment. The most effective direct admissions programs target students who are likely to attend, such as those at a nearby high school, he said.
Niche began offering a direct admissions tool on the website in 2023. It’s seen an 85% increase in colleges participating since then as of the 2025-26 cycle.
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Luke Skurman, chief executive officer of Niche, said students today are used to “pressing a button and having an Uber or Uber Eats arrive instantaneously,” and he wanted to make college applications as seamless as that.
Based on details from their Niche profiles, students can be immediately offered entry and a scholarship that the company says averages $17,500 per year.
“The student receives an upfront offer with an upfront scholarship, and it’s very fast and immediate,” Skurman said. “It gives a lot of students this feeling like, ‘Wow, a college wants me, this feels possible now.’”
Private colleges make up a growing share of the roughly 160 institutions that offered direct admissions on Niche as of 2025-26, and the schools pay the company to use that service. This week, more than 60 institutions will start making offers to students on the site for the 2026-27 cycle, with more schools slated to participate in the coming weeks, according to Niche.
Three-fourths of participants on the Common App’s direct admissions platform are private institutions. The tool targets first-generation and low- and middle-income students so they feel welcomed by the college, according to Jackson Sternberg, a spokesperson for the website.
Thousands of offers
Nazareth University near Rochester, New York is using direct admissions in part to reach those outside of the state where competition for students is particularly intense. Through Niche, the university has set its sights on large markets in Texas, Florida and California. Through the Common App, it focuses on reaching first-generation students.
The school can extend 40,000 direct admissions offers each year through platforms like the Common App and Niche, said Danielle Bucci, vice president for strategic enrollment, marketing and communications. Students then are invited to fill out a form of intent with details about themselves to finalize their application, she said.
Nazareth, with a listed tuition of about $44,000 a year, already gives out guaranteed merit scholarships ranging from $20,000 to $25,000 depending on GPA. Direct admissions didn’t change its approach to scholarships, but instead let the school show the funding available to students earlier in the process, Bucci said.
With private institutions, the sticker price is often far higher than what students end up paying. A survey released in 2026 found the tuition discount had reached 57% for first-time students.
In Pennsylvania, another competitive market for higher ed, Lycoming recorded an 18% jump in applications for the 2025-26 enrollment cycle in part due to implementing direct admissions. Edmonds, president of the institution, said he wants to have a large pool of applicants, while also making sure that the campus experience is still positive for those who visit, given that’s what might ultimately sway them. Lycoming, for its part, is investing in sprucing up campus housing through a recent bond deal.
North Carolina in 2024 launched a statewide program called NC College Connect to simplify the college application process for high school seniors with a 2.8 GPA. Both private and public universities participate.
Wingate uses NC College Connect as well as the Common App, Niche and its own internal system to extend offers to students. The school’s tuition after scholarships and aid is comparable to in-state public universities in North Carolina, Baucom said.
“It’s an important part of our strategy to maintain and grow enrollment where we can, but more than that, it’s just part of our mission here,” she said. “We are so much about access, opportunity – direct admissions is just what I think is one of the best ways to help achieve that.”