By james art 
California State University is piloting a direct admissions program at ten of its 23 campuses.
California State University, the nation’s largest public university system, will pilot its first direct-admission program for high school seniors, effective for the fall 2025 semester.
CSU has partnered with the Riverside County Office of Education to offer a direct admissions pilot project for ten universities in CSU’s 23-campus system. Eligible graduates from every public high school in Riverside County — estimated at about 12,000 students — will soon receive direct admission to CSU for the fall 2025 term before they even apply.
To be eligible for the offer, Riverside County high school seniors must meet college preparatory courses (AG requirements) required by both California State and UC for admission. Generally, these are college preparatory courses in history/social science, English, mathematics, foreign language, laboratory science, visual and performing arts, and college preparatory faculty. These courses must be passed with a grade of C or better.
Students who meet these requirements will receive a brochure in the mail informing them of their conditional admission. They will then use the CaliforniaColleges.edu platform to select their preferred CSU campuses, with official acceptance letters sent directly from the universities at a later date.
After receiving official acceptance from the university of their choice, students must confirm their intent to enroll by the campus deadline and complete all additional enrollment steps, such as attending orientation, paying tuition and fees, and providing final transcripts, or other documentation.
The 10 CSU campuses involved in direct enrollment in this pilot project are Channel Islands, Chico, East Bay, Humboldt, Maritime Academy, Monterey Bay, San Bernardino, San Francisco, San Marcos and Sonoma.
Students may also apply to other California State University institutions not participating in the pilot and be accepted through the standard process. If a student applies to an affected program or campus, additional admission criteria may be required for certain majors.
More information about the program can be found at www.calstate.edu/rcoe.
“We are excited to provide a direct path to higher education for thousands of high school students throughout Riverside County,” said April Gromo, CSU assistant vice president for strategic enrollment management, as part of the announcement. “We want students to know that the door to college opportunity is open to them and to help alleviate some of the stress and uncertainty surrounding college applications. Riverside County is an excellent location for this first-of-its-kind program for CSU because it is ethnically and economically representative of the diversity of California and many of the students that CSU is so proud to serve.”
Direct — or guaranteed — admission is a rapidly expanding enrollment strategy in which students are offered admission to a college or university — sometimes with financial aid — without first being required to complete a lengthy admissions process. A growing number of states and institutions have experimented with the program in an effort to increase enrollment and student diversity.
Idaho was the first state to do so, launching its program in 2015. In October of this year, Utah introduced its program and the Common Application announced that it is expanding its direct admission program for the 2024-2025 application season to 116 member colleges and universities in 34 states. The universities of Wisconsin, New York and Georgia have also implemented different versions of direct admission.
Niche, one of several private companies now offering a direct admissions platform to partner institutions, has expanded its 2025 Direct Admissions program to more than 100 college and university partners in 33 states, with dozens more expected to join .
Cal State University is testing direct admissions as one strategy to regain the enrollment it has lost over the past few years. Systemwide, enrollment declined by more than 6 percent between 2019 and 2023. While the current year saw a 2 percent increase in enrollment, CSU’s fall 2024 enrollment of about 461,000 students is still well below just short of the 485,550 students who were enrolled in 2020.