Rochester Public Schools piloting new college admissions program

ROCHESTER, Minn. (KTTC) – Rochester Public Schools is looking to give students a little nudge toward pursuing post-secondary education.

It’s part of an initiative called Direct Admission Minnesota. It’s a new state pilot program designed to make sure all high school students know that they have options for education and training after high school through Minnesota’s colleges.

How it works is the senior will receive a letter or email showing which participating colleges they have met the admissions criteria to, based on their 11th grade transcript. The student will then be asked to pick to which colleges they would like to be directly admitted.

So instead of having to fill out applications and pay application fees, students who qualify will automatically be admitted and have the fee waived.

RPS school leaders say they hope this helps reduce the anxiety surrounding college admissions.

“This is actually a super interesting nudge that the state is saying, and the higher ed institutions are saying to a kid before they even apply. You’re in. There’s some good research that says that will meaningfully increase the number of kids who will say, “Oh, I’m in,” RPS superintendent Kent Pekel said.

There are more than 120 high schools participating along with 55 public and private colleges and universities. Some of the Southeast Minnesota schools include Rochester Community and Technical College, Winona State, Minnesota State College Southeast, Riverland and University of Minnesota-Rochester.

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