Please note that this transcript was auto-generated. We apologize for any minor errors in spelling or grammar.

Julie Shields-Rutyna: [00:00:00] We’ll be recording it and we will send you the recording and the slides tomorrow. So with that, um, I guess I’ll just introduce, uh, we’re so happy to have our panelists here with us, Andrea and I, this morning we have Christina Berardi from Salva Regina University, Christine Bryan from UMass Lowell. And Meredith Lombardi from the Common App and they are experts in this in this topic or let’s say they have a lot of experience with this topic and I’m so happy to lead this conversation today.

So Meredith, I’ll turn it over to you.

Meredith Lombardi: Sounds good. Hi, everyone. I think it’d be great for us to just do quick introductions of each other, um, as we, and then I will kick off, um, to make sure that you all have a foundation about Common App Direct Admissions. Um, Meredith Lombardi, I’m the Director of Education and Training at [00:01:00] Common App.

Um, I’ve been here I think around nine years came over from the high school counseling side. So I was a counselor with DC public schools. And then before that with Fulton County schools in Georgia, and, uh, I get the pleasure of being the liaison between common app and the counseling community. Um, so I’m sure you all have seen me at some point and if not, hopefully then you will feel connected with me after today’s conversation.

Um, Christine, do you want to go next?

Christine Bryan: Sure, uh, welcome guys for a Tuesday that feels like a Monday. Uh, I’m fighting a bit of a cold, so I’m mainlining tea. So if my voice gets a little scratchy or weird, just bear with me. I am the Director of Admissions at UMass Lowell. I’ve been at UMass Lowell since 2002.

I’m excited to have you all here. And this is our second year with the Direct Entry Program.

Christina Berardi: Christina. Hi everyone. Thank you so much for having me. My name is Christina Berardi. I also often go by Tina. Um, [00:02:00] I work at South A. Regina University and, uh, our beautiful historic Oceanside campus in Newport, Rhode Island.

Um, you can see it a little bit behind me, but if you can’t, Picture it or envision it. Um, we were actually just filming some episodes of the Gilded Age there a few weeks ago. So that gives you an idea of what our offices look like. Um, we I’ve worked there now for nine years. Absolutely love it. Before that I’ve worked at two other, uh, very different institutions.

Um, so So we’re really passionate, especially about how we communicate, um, to our prospective students and families and how we can better do that to help serve them.

Meredith Lombardi: All right, Andrea, if you want to advance the slide. And again. All right. As Julie mentioned earlier, if I share anything or any questions pop into your mind, please put them in the Q& A. We really have built in the majority of time [00:03:00] today to answer questions that you all have. Maybe you’re getting them from your students or from families, um, or you’re just, um, have questions yourself.

So yes, please put your questions in so that we can, um, have a good dialogue. Starting the foundation of this conversation, making sure that you all are familiar with Common App as a mission driven non profit organization. Our membership is made up of colleges and universities. So if Getting to have UMass Lowell and Salve Regina in this conversation is so nice to bring that perspective here to connect with you all.

Um, we do have a vision to be, um, the trusted source for students to access, afford, and attain post secondary opportunities. Um, and we set a moonshot goal as part of our next chapter work, uh, a little over a year ago, and that is to, um, close our equity gap in students pursuing post secondary opportunities.

So direct admissions is really aligned with that Moonshot goal. [00:04:00] We do provide this online application that you all are probably very familiar with, especially after November 1st, which is one of the biggest volume days that Common App students have. Sees and has seen over the last several years. Uh, we support over 1 million students each year applying through Common App.

A third of them, uh, are identified as first generation, um, and we now have, uh, over 1100 colleges that use Common App, um, as part of their, uh, first year or transfer application. So

as far as common app direct admissions, um, this is our way of trying to simplify and, uh. I’ll flip the script on college admissions specific to this part of common app. Um, it is specific to first generation or students who are lower middle income. Um, that really, again, aligns with our moonshot goal. I’m going to walk through kind of the, how it works behind the scenes, [00:05:00] but students are GPA, um, and then we are connecting them with institutions who have opted in to participate in direct admissions.

I will share links with you, uh, and also you’ll get a copy of these slides so that you’ll have access to these links as well. But the, a great place to start on our website is commonapp. org slash direct admissions, and that will get you to all the other things you need to know.

All right, so, uh, we’re gonna, we’re gonna try this out because we’re not going to do an official poll, uh, but if you want to put in the Q& A, have you had a student who’s received a direct admissions offer? That can be this year or it can be last year. Uh, you’ll need to put it in Q& A, so you can either say yes or no or unsure.

Uh, it’s just a great way for us to get a sense. And I’ll, uh, I’m just going to give it a second so I can see. Oh,[00:06:00]

okay. I love seeing all these yeses. I don’t know if I’m only seeing yeses and the no’s aren’t writing in. Um,

Julie Shields-Rutyna: I think you’re only seeing yeses, Meredith.

Meredith Lombardi: But yeah, and Michelle, I see your comment didn’t know this is second year. I’m going to give a little history on it so you’ll probably be surprised when you when you see that.

Um, but I have to say truly when we do this poll and other spaces, um, historically. The majority of counselors have said no, um, or unsure. And so for me to see so many people saying yes, and again, I know the no’s aren’t writing in, um, but, uh, it’s, it’s really nice to see that, um, people are becoming more familiar with it and that you’re getting more students who are receiving these offers.

All right. All right. So, um, here’s a little history. Uh, so it actually has been going on at Common App now since 2020. [00:07:00] And we piloted it for three years, um, to try and figure out what, um, you know, what could we do, what was working. Um, so it really started in 2020 with three institutions and then over time moved to 13 institutions.

Um, and you can see how The number of students impacted grew from 3000 students to 33, 000 students, but it was a very manual process to identify students, to get lists of students, to send out emails to students, and nothing was in the actual Common App application. So then we’ll fast forward to the next year.

Um, I’m so glad that the, uh, that this, uh, animation is working. Um, so last year we launched the full program, um, and so any college could indicate if they were interested in participating in direct admissions. Um, and that’s where you had both, um, Christina and Christine say that their institutions participated last year.

Um, so they were part of that [00:08:00] first full launch year. So in addition to the 71 colleges, we also, um, are supporting Connecticut’s, uh, automatic admission program. So that jump in having the full program we had, um, last year over 1 million students. No, that’s not true. Over 400, 000 students receive 1. 3 million offers from those 71 colleges.

We were able to do some more automation with the email campaign. We were able to, um, get some notifications in the application, uh, but it was still not, uh, Um, as student friendly as it could be, uh, there were still some manual parts. So our goals as we went into this year is we wanted to increase the number of of participating colleges.

We wanted to make it a more streamlined process for students, um, and we wanted to match students more frequently. Um, it was again, manual last year, points in time when we were offering direct admissions. Um, and this year we have moved to a, um, [00:09:00] regular, uh, offers of admission. So if you want to click one more.

All right. So this year we have 117 colleges participating plus the state of Connecticut. We’re able to do these in app notifications. Automate the emails, um, automate the waving of the application fee, and also, um, alert students and remove some, um, application requirements that we’re calling perks. So let’s see the next slide.

Okay, so here’s the view of the, um, the participants across states. So in Massachusetts, you have these 10 participating institutions, but what’s different this year, and what’s so important for you all, is that Up until last year, institutions could only recruit or were only offering admissions offers of direct admission to students in their state.

This year, institutions can choose if they want to do just in their state, if they want to pick particular states or particular [00:10:00] regions, if they want to offer to students across the, um, The United States. So that’ll be a really interesting thing for Tina and Christine to talk about when they’re giving their perspective.

Um, obviously, it’s all a Regina, not in Massachusetts. So that’s a good example. Um, so actually it’s, um, I want to make sure I get the number right. 60 percent of those participating colleges are actually offering your students or maybe offering your students, um, across state lines. Um, 80 percent of the students are 80 percent of the colleges are also offering these perks, which we’ll talk about like waving some application requirements.

And again, there are no application fees. So, um, they are, um, all the fees are waived through direct admissions.

All right. So in terms of how it’s working, so a college will indicate to common app that they want to participate in common app direct admissions. They are giving to us. [00:11:00] what their eligibility criteria are, um, if they want to offer any perks, like waiving any of those application requirements, um, or if they have any special financial aid, um, or guaranteed financial, um, assistance.

And then they’re letting us know if there’s any requirements or stipulations. So we’ll also talk about that from the college perspective, like there are any major exceptions as part of direct admissions. On the student side, students are entering some basic information. Um, so if they’re giving us their GPA and then the scale and whether it’s weighted or unweighted.

letting us know where they are in the United States. So permanent home address, uh, citizenship as it relates to, um, being in the U. S. Uh, and then, um, common fee waiver response, their parent education level, which helps identify if they’re first generation. Uh, these are different pieces. They don’t all have to be, um, to [00:12:00] identify a student, but one factor or another can be how a student is identified through those two pieces.

Then we’re providing these direct admissions offers. So again, they’re being offered regularly throughout the cycle. Um, we kicked off in, uh. September and we will go through May. Again, fees are automatically waived. Students are going to be able to view, learn, and act on those offers directly in their Common App account.

They will continue to get notifications if there are new offers that come in. And just this reminder that It is a direct admissions, uh, offer, but they are conditional based on review from the institutions. So again, another good thing for, uh, Christine and Tina to talk about what that looks like on their end.

Uh, biggest part for your students to get started is they need to have a common app account. If they don’t have the common app account, they can’t get matched with direct admissions offers. Um, so having that [00:13:00] account, they do not have to fill out everything, but the biggest things are. where they live, because that identifies which schools would be offering them direct admissions offers, um, having their GPA information in there, uh, answering the common app fee waiver question and having the parent information as it relates to first gen status.

All right. Um, this just shows you an example that students are getting notified, um, both within the application as well as email. Um, it is not, um, They’re not receiving a ton of email from common app. That’s something that we take very seriously to not be seen as someone spamming students. Um, but when they get their first matching, they will get an email.

And then if there’s a reason that they would match, um, later on. For example, um, Salve Regina has not launched yet with their direct admissions, and so when they do launch, students who [00:14:00] qualify, maybe they have already received some direct admissions offers, they’ll get a new email saying you have a new, um, match, uh, through Common App Direct Admissions.

Alright, so in terms of accepting, students do have to submit the Common App to the college, so your students might get, uh, Um, and they may then do their research and say, I’m interested in these two institutions. So then they submit to those two institutions, um, and then the institutions will follow up with your students, um, once they have done their, um, review to make sure that the student information aligns with, um, the transcript or other information.

Um, Like anything with admissions, uh, accepting the offer or submitting that application does not mean that the student is saying I’m committing to enroll at that institution. So students still have that, um, ability to, um, make [00:15:00] their decisions after they get their financial aid packages. All right, again, tons of links that you will get later, um, starting off at common app.

org slash direct admissions is the great place to start, but we do have a blog post and FAQ that have the full list of 117 colleges plus Connecticut. Um, we have a really great resource that we came out with this year specifically for the counseling community, and that is the direct admissions offer details by college.

So it’s set up as an FAQ within our recommender solution center. Where you can use it to look up any of the colleges and see what their perks are. So what are they actually waiving? Are they waiving the Common App essay for students? Are they waiving counselor letters of recommendation? Or teacher evaluations?

Or letters of rec? What are the major exceptions? So here, you know, I’ve got the view of UMass Lowell. Um, are there other conditions that they want students to [00:16:00] know about? So super helpful resource for you as you are supporting students who are getting these offers from different institutions. Um, we also did a, a, a.

Uh, webinar in early September that really went through like the views and the screens within the application, so you will get access to that as well if you were not able to join that, or just want to see more of like what does it actually look like, um, screenshot by screenshot, uh, within the application.

And I think that that is me. Um, I don’t know who I’m passing it to. I don’t know who wants to go next. Do

Christine Bryan: you want me to do it, Tina, or do you wanna do it? Go ahead, Christine. All right. So again, Christine from UMass l Um, so this is our, I’ll kind of give an overview of our experience. So this year is our second year doing it.

Um, last year. It rolled out in November 15th. So, um, it was after [00:17:00] our early action deadline. So this year is kind of a whole new. new year with it rolling out in September. And one of the reasons we wanted to partner with Common App is we are a 40 percent first gen institution committed to the students in the state of Massachusetts and really wanted to make students across the state aware of UMass Lowell specifically.

Um, I think sometimes everybody knows the flagship UMass Amherst, but as the further away you get from Lowell, everybody’s not as familiar with it. And, um, well, One of our other, you know, dedications is there’s a lot of reports out there that first generation students usually don’t apply early action. And so this is another way we thought to encourage those students to apply early action.

Last year we had about 3700 students apply or first gen students apply early action compared to 2000 regular decision. So that’s something we want to see increase Last year we just offered it to students in Massachusetts. And I think what it showed launching launching after early action. One deadline was we saw urban areas where we tend to be very popular continue to receive [00:18:00] applications Lowell and Lawrence.

But we saw a really big bump of applications in the city of Worcester in the city of Lynn and so I think if we can offer students some more of those access points I think that’s. a great thing. We do waive, um, letters of recommendation and essays for students. In addition, um, our nursing program is not included.

We certainly do have students apply. Um, this year we had over 400 students apply for nursing through direct entry, so we will do the best we can. They’ll still be considered for nursing, but they don’t have the guaranteed entry into that program. Also, our art and music programs, um, That evaluation is done outside of our office.

I am not qualified to judge someone’s music or art abilities and so we kind of push that through. So we do try to admit as many students as possible. I think a few lessons learned last year were sometimes, um, a lot of this is based on the student’s GPA. And so sometimes they take that from their transcript and if students moved schools, sometimes their GPA was just on the current school and didn’t include previous [00:19:00] institutions.

This year we I expanded the program. We are offering it throughout New England and New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, and we chose those states because we do offer some scholarships or tuition discounts for some students in those states, and believe that for students who are lower middle income, it still is a feasible option.

That being said, um, we’ve received over about 2, 000 applications from Massachusetts, again, um, and we’re considering, um, Um, and we’re continuing to see them from those urban areas we saw before. Um, so it’s really, we found the program to be beneficial. Um, and that’s kind of my brief overview. Happy to answer any questions and I’ll turn it over to Tina.

Christina Berardi: Awesome. Um, thank you so much. Uh, so, uh, South Bay Virginia University, you know, being in Rhode Island, uh, last year, uh, we, We’re able to participate, but because it was limited just to our state, those were going out again November 15th, as Christine mentioned, [00:20:00] just to students in the state of Rhode Island.

So, we knew that when we had the option to open it up, we would want to do that, Rhode Island being so small and knowing that Um, there were so many students who we would hope would consider salve in these other areas. So this year, um, we are launching our direct admission offers again on November 15th, um, to keep it consistent with last year, but also, um, because that still gives our students a lot of time to be able to apply to Salve.

Um, but uh, also we know that. Many students, um, who really intended to apply anyway, um, might apply in that early action, one round, or even early decision. And we really wanted to be able to reach out to students who maybe haven’t considered Salve. Um, maybe they know about us, But the perception of a private, um, institution, um, is something that wasn’t necessarily [00:21:00] on their radar.

So we’re excited to be able to launch these this year, not only in Rhode Island again, but also to Massachusetts, um, and Connecticut, um, which I’m sure is why I was selected for this webinar. Um, uh, and, uh, very similar, um, we do offer some perks for these students. Um, obviously they have that application fee waiver.

They also are able to waive their letters of recommendation. Um, as part of this process, um, and, uh, we do guarantee a minimum merit scholarship of 10, 000 per year for these students. Um, that said, um, we know that only gets them a very small part of the way towards being able to afford private education.

And so we do evaluate all of these students, um, for additional. Um, merit based as well as need based awards. So the majority of these students are being awarded, um, much larger awards through our process. Um, and we [00:22:00] do have some, uh, great funding, um, both through our OCHRE scholarship as well as, um, a brand new, um, Uh, National Science Foundation million dollar grant that we received this year to fully fund eight students in the STEM Fields this year and eight students next year.

Um, so we’re very excited to be able to Offer that opportunity to select students as well So it really all starts with applying and again I love this program because it does help some students to know that Salve is Is a viable option for them. Um, and to be able to take us up on that. Um, we also are not able to include our nursing program as part of direct admissions.

Um, so same process they can still apply. They can still use the fee waiver. They can select nursing. We’re still happy to consider them for it. And we did admit some students to that major from this program last year. We’re we do need to be able to [00:23:00] evaluate. Their courses and make sure they’re really ready to hit the ground running and prepared, especially for those math and science classes that they’re going to enter as soon as they hit the ground.

It’s all day. Um, we, um, we’re excited, you know, with the students we’ve received last year through this and, you know, hoping That that continues. Um, very similar to Christine, not every student who applies this way does end up being admitted. Um, and I think that’s the biggest, you know, question and confusion, uh, for students and families around this.

Um, primarily for us, that was, we did have some students who didn’t complete their applications. So they never ultimately send us that high school transcript or they might have even withdrawn and told us that they had other plans already for the fall, which is great. We also had a few students who Maybe didn’t enter that GPA, um, accurately when they filled out their common app account, um, or might [00:24:00] be in classes that are not college prep level or higher.

Um, so some of their courses maybe not, you know, Quite ready yet for the academic experience at Salve, sort of with the supports that we have available for them. Um, and then of course some applicants to that nursing program. Um, but certainly, uh, the majority of students being admitted, um, through this program and certainly admitted at a higher rate than our, uh, you know, traditional applicant.

Um, Meredith, I happy to hand it back over to you. Um, and please let us know what else we can help answer.

Meredith Lombardi: Thanks. I actually think I’m handing it back over to Julie and Andrea because I know that they, um, wanted to ask some questions or may have questions or want to encourage everyone here to ask questions.

I can take at least the first question that I’m seeing in the chat, um, from Violetta, which is, do you only target first [00:25:00] gen and low income students? Um, for direct admissions offers and for Common App that is, yes, that is aligned with our moonshot. Um, they don’t have to be first generation and low income, but we are looking at either if they are first generation or low or middle income, um, in order to be flagged for direct admissions within Common App.

Andrea Keenan: Thanks, Meredith. Um, we. I just want to encourage the, you know, the 30 some of you that are currently on this webinar to drop more questions in the Q& A. Um, we left lots of time precisely for that purpose. So we’d love to see more of your questions come up. Um, we do have some pre prepared questions just from different counselors we’ve talked to.

Um, so I guess I’ll just launch with the first one and, um, any of you feel free to, to take it. This is more general, um, to kind of. Start us off with the Q and a portion and just would love to hear from you. Just what you’ve [00:26:00] heard from families, from your offices, just general pros and cons of this program.

Um, knowing that most of the, um, attendees here are high school counselors and we’ll be guiding young people to hopefully, you know, pursue this opportunity.

Christina Berardi: I’m happy to jump in with one first. So certainly a big pro of this and what we hear from students is that they are often getting these from schools or institutions that they hadn’t originally considered and that they maybe didn’t know, um, as much about or didn’t know about the admissions, uh, sort of criteria for these schools.

And, um, I think a lot of students are hesitant to apply to schools if they don’t feel confident that they may be admitted. Um, and I do think that is a huge benefit. Um, and certainly You know, we I had [00:27:00] a student. Um, we work very closely with Rogers High School, which is in Newport right in our town. Um, we had a student come in through that pathways program with Rogers, showing us their direct admissions letter and email and saying, Look at this.

Look at all these schools. Um, they were incredibly excited. And it’s certainly open their eyes to some additional opportunities that could be right for them. So that’s definitely the, you know, the, I think the best part of this program. Um, you know, last year, and even going into this year, especially when some students heard about this program, they would sometimes call our office.

Um, and say, Can I get a direct admissions offer? Um, and unfortunately, that’s not how it works. I think there’s, um, you know, some confusion around that. Um, the schools don’t necessarily select the students who are getting these offers. Um, [00:28:00] we are selecting that criteria. Um, but it really is limited to those students who are, Um, first gen or lower middle income, um, who are ultimately going to receive these offers.

Um, so it’s not something that, that colleges ourselves are able to sort of hand out to specific students. So, um, on my end, that’s sort of like the pro and the con or the confusion that I sometimes hear around the program.

Julie Shields-Rutyna: And Tina, there is a follow up question, um, about the first gen lower middle income.

How can you tell the income level by the Common App?

Christina Berardi: I’m gonna let Meredith take that one because they’re the ones who identify it. That’s great.

Meredith Lombardi: Yeah, um, so what we are doing is we’re either looking at if the student has requested the Common App fee waiver, um, that’s used as a proxy. Um, because they’re basically saying they meet one of the eligibility criteria for a common app fee waiver.

And we can also look [00:29:00] at their zip code, um, for where they reside. Um, and then we can use, um, national data to, that identifies, um, income levels by zip code. Um, and that helps us catch the students who don’t realize that they qualify for a fee waiver. Um, so it’s like a safeguard, uh, in the event that a student might say they’re not eligible for a fee waiver.

But based on where they reside and the zip code, they would become eligible that way. So we’re not looking at specific like how much money do you know what is your income level of your family, but we’re either looking at the common that fee waiver answer or their zip code. Thank you.

Andrea Keenan: There’s another question coming up that I think you might be.

Best suited to, to answer, um, just in regards to just misreporting of, uh, like miss self reporting on the Common App and students who are wanting to pursue this, but are perhaps not reporting correct information. Do you have any data around [00:30:00] that? The, um, counselor here wants to know maybe a percentage of students who are not admitted perhaps, um, because of misreporting, but any info you have would be helpful.

Meredith Lombardi: So we actually don’t have that information because it’s like the handoff to the colleges when they’re doing their review, so it might actually be helpful to ask that question of Christine and Tina of like what they saw last year. So we’re not looking at what did the student report GPA versus what is the counselor reporting in the school report form, or what might come through the transcript.

Um, so. I don’t have the percentage for you, um, but I will happily, if, you know, Tina or Christine, you have any. Anecdotally or anything from last year that would be helpful.

Christina Berardi: Yeah, my numbers are super small. So it’s very easy to To sort of visualize this I had just over a hundred students apply through direct admission last year So remember that was just in the state of Rhode Island um last year We [00:31:00] only had Um, I think that there were three students who fell into this category, and I wouldn’t even call it misreporting, um, because in at least one or maybe two of those situations, it was much more, um, the sort of level of curriculum.

The student was taking not necessarily there. Their GPA or the number that they were noting. On the common app. So we do have, you know, right in our information. It does note that students do need to be at that college prep level in terms of their coursework. Um, and, uh, the, you know, handful of students, um, who we weren’t able to admit because of this, um, you know, one or two might have been, uh, a GPA misreporting, but, um, but one or two also that.

That more that curriculum piece of it that they wouldn’t maybe necessarily [00:32:00] understand or know as they’re applying, but most students who didn’t get admitted again, it was either because they didn’t complete they withdrew or they applied to that nursing program for us.

Christine Bryan: Um, I think, I think for us, one of the interesting pieces to me was, um, we actually had a stronger yield from this population than we did from our, our entire applicant pool.

So I thought that it wasn’t largely, might even not be statistically significant if you were doing that type of thing, but we did have a slightly higher yield. For us, um, we also, if we could not and admit a student directly to UMass Lowell, we do have a pathway program with some of our Massachusetts community colleges.

And so we would always try to offer students that option, um, before kind of doing a straight deny. I think our, our handful of denies was largely based to, like I said, uh, Uh, a student reporting a GPA and maybe they’ve moved high schools and the high schools policies to report only on the courses they take there, which is completely understandable.

And so there was a disconnect. Um, or if a student was [00:33:00] really, really, um, had a, an almost a full curriculum in English as a second language course, just it’s not fair to admit those students who wouldn’t be able to be successful. Um, so I would say. Um, Um, there is an opportunity to say where we weren’t able to admit those students.

Those were the small handful of reasons. Um, but in general, um, most of the students were admitted to university or to our bridge program.

Andrea Keenan: Right. I think I’m a quick follow up, a quick tactical follow up. Marjorie wants to know in general, what is the GPA that would be targeted, knowing that you said it’s not always the only thing you’re looking at.

Christine Bryan: For us, we’re looking for

Christina Berardi: a B or B Um, at Salve, we, um, put that, uh, GPA marker to 3. 5. Or above. Um, so certainly that doesn’t mean that students who aren’t exactly at that 3. 5 wouldn’t be admitted. Um, but that’s who the offers are going out to for Salve.

Andrea Keenan: Tina, I’m going to take [00:34:00] advantage that you were the last to answer.

Someone here wants to ask you in particular, can you briefly go over the perks of Direct Admit for Salve again? I know you mess a little said no essay, no letters of rec.

Christina Berardi: Yeah, so, uh, for us. fee waiver. Um, but then, uh, for these students, we do waive their letters of recommendation. So Salve typically requires to, um, last year we did waive the essay as well, but when we went back and looked at our data, we looked at the applicants from this program, they all submitted the essay to us, um, and I think some of that is because they’re already working on the common apps for other schools.

They already have that essay in there. Um, and because we’re a very small school because we do evaluate students, um, not just for admission, um, you know, these students already have the direct admission, but also for merit scholarship awards, um, on a full rubric, um, we are [00:35:00] using the information we learn about these students, um, to also determine what that merit scholarship award would be.

So we do find that essay incredibly helpful in that process. process and beneficial to the students. Um, so first we wanted to look at the data, make sure it wasn’t a barrier for students applying. And once we realized that for our students, it was not, um, that we sort of reinstituted that essay. Um, because again, it helps us and it helps the students to maybe qualify for additional.

Merit based scholarship is part of that rubric review. Um, and then again, that guaranteed minimum scholarship that we’re offering. Um, but just to reiterate that many of these students are qualifying for for sums much larger than that.

Christine Bryan: That’s great. Just to support what Christina is saying too, I completely agree.

I’ve been reading apps already this far and probably only five to 10 percent aren’t doing the essay. Um, so I, [00:36:00] I, we’re seeing that exact same thing, even though we have continued to waive it this year.

Andrea Keenan: Thank you both. There’s some great questions coming in, so please keep them coming. Um, you touched upon this, uh, well, both of you just now, but there is a question particularly around, um, aid.

And it’s, it’s, uh, particularly worded around private colleges, but I’d love to hear also from Christine and Meredith, just any other information you might have. But, um, uh, Violetta asks, since some of the direct admit colleges are private and might have a higher tuition than state colleges, how do you work with prospective DA students with deep financial need?

Christina Berardi: So one of the things that I do love about this program is that it really does, once you get to this part of the process, it mimics, you know, what we’re doing for all of our applicants to Salve. So at, you know, every school is going to be different obviously, but at Salve, we do automatically consider [00:37:00] every student For our merit based scholarships.

Um, we do that need blind at salve. Um, so that doesn’t factor in Um that we award those as part of the acceptance packet. So right in their letter of admission And their acceptance packet they learn about that merit award Um, like I mentioned we have a few additional scholarships Um, so that ochre scholarship is one that students, uh first they’re admitted And then they’re offered the opportunity to apply into that.

That one is an additional essay or video essay that they need to submit, which is based around how they would help support Salve’s mission, um, should they be sort of awarded that additional funding. And then that STEM, uh, scholarship that we have, um, they, again, If they meet the criteria for it, um, after they’re admitted, they would be offered the opportunity to interview with our [00:38:00] faculty, which is the deciding factor for that, um, STEM scholarship, um, specifically in that STEM program.

Um, so that’s sort of on the, the merit side of things. Um, in terms of need-based aid, we use the fafsa, um, at Salve. So. For our students. They are. We’re encouraging them actively. We’re working. We’re communicating with them regularly to help get them the support they need to submit that FAFSA. We know that’s been a challenge last year, especially I’m sure it will also be a challenge this year.

Um, but we have already started. we started communicating with families. So that they are sort of ready and prepared for that. And then those additional need based offers. Go out. Shortly after their acceptance. As long as we have that fax of data. So that’s really how we’re working with students. We are a small school.

Like I mentioned, we do one on one appointments with our financial aid. Counselors. So [00:39:00] that. Students can really work through what that all looks like, what that ultimate investment is going to be for them and map that out for four years to make sure that that’s something that they feel confident and ready to take on as part of their college education.

So I’m certainly doing a lot of Sort of support and communication throughout, um, that process. But again, very similar to how that works for any student who’s applying to Salve.

Andrea Keenan: I’m not sure if Christine, from the public side, do you have anything to add just in terms of aid or fulfilling need?

Christine Bryan: Yeah, so I think that, um, the state has actually brought in two fairly strong programs in the past two years that some of these students fall into. And that is, um, the MassGrant Plus, which works with families who have a income less than 85, 000 a year.

And then the Massachusetts Tuition Equity, which is for students [00:40:00] who, um, non citizens who meet certain criteria who can qualify for in state tuition. State award. And so I think those two state programs support this. In addition, all of these students automatically qualify for marinade. Um, we did individual financial aid appointments for these students last year and looking at doing some financial planning webinars for them as well.

So, um, just very similar to what Tina said, providing support, knowledge and education throughout the process.

Andrea Keenan: Thanks so much. Yeah, we have three questions that are similar in the in the way that they’re dealing with just more tactical and, you know, information just next steps how to’s. So the first one is, what is the difference between this and regular admissions, most of my low income students already get a fee waiver.

So would you say the difference or benefit are the quote unquote perks. Thanks.

Meredith Lombardi: Yeah, I’ll, I’ll take that. Um, I think that the, the difference with direct admissions is that the student is already [00:41:00] getting an offer of admission. It removes that fear of rejection because they’ve already been told you are admitted, uh, versus your student applying and waiting for an offer.

About will they get admitted based on their credentials? Um, this is telling them up front before filling out a complete application. You have received an offer of admission at this institution. Um, so giving them that, um, validation is, is a big difference up front. Um, and then there’s, of course, the waving of.

And we we’ve admitted you so you don’t need that letter of recommendation or you don’t need to write that essay because we’ve already given you that offer. I think that’s the biggest piece. Um, I also I think that one of the things that, um, yes, to the fee waiver, um, you know, they’ll get the common that fee waiver before they get the direct admission.

Um, I don’t know where I’m going with this, but it kind of relates to the nursing program because this is a question we get a [00:42:00] lot is. The, okay, I know I’m applying for nursing, but I’ve received a direct admission offer. What does this mean for me? Like, am I actually not a direct admissions candidate? Am I a direct admission?

How does that work for me? So I know that, um, Christina and Tina, you, you kind of touched on that, but maybe just like emphasizing again, like the student is still a direct admission, they’ve received the offer of admission to the institution. And then what? Because some, like, we get contacted at Common App of like, can you remove the direct admissions offer because I’m applying for nursing?

And it’s like, no, you still submit your Common App. You’re still being reviewed if you need to have an additional review for a particular major. So I would love for you all to just explain how that works. On the back end, when a student applies for one of those majors, yes, there’s still a direct admissions, but yeah,

Christina Berardi: so in our system, they still have that direct admissions tag, right?

They [00:43:00] still have, uh, you know, that fee waiver, other perks that come along with it, um, that for nursing, we, we’re just going to look at that transcript a lot more closely, especially Especially those math and science grades and curriculum that they’ve been a part of because our nursing program is direct to entry only, it is a situation where we have a number of seats.

Because we’re guaranteeing those clinical rotations for them were, you know, guaranteeing those things that they need through commencement. So we do have a limited number of spots, um, to be able to offer, um, to students in general for our nursing program. So that certainly also factors in, um, that said, um, it should a student not be admitted to nursing, whether because They didn’t, you know, we didn’t feel that they were sort of prepared, uh, for that level of study when they got to Salve or specifically in those, [00:44:00] um, areas of their curriculum, um, or because, you know, of the limited seats, um, we didn’t have space, um, for them in that nursing program.

They would still be offered, um, We reach out to them and ask them if they would like to select a second choice major. Um, so at that point they would then be, uh, you know, direct admitted to that second choice major and have the opportunity to attend Salve under that other program. I

Christine Bryan: would say UMass will very similar. Um, we actually have the second choice major on the application. So two pathways for nursing could be ideally one. Yes. Great. They get it. Uh, last year we enrolled seven nursing students in our program that came through direct entry. And remember it. It came after our largest nursing deadline.

So that’s still pretty impressive. Um, we will then students could either be depending on their application, um, offered admission to their second choice major. [00:45:00] We find in general, most, the majority of students. in nursing are not interested in that. Um, we do have a very, very limited transfer nursing program.

I tell students it’s like winning the lottery. So it’s not a path I traditionally recommend because I don’t think that’s fair for a student. Um, and so we kind of say, if your second choice is psychology and we admit you to that, you should be very happy being a psychology major at UMass. Well, other students may be wait listed if we think there’s a possibility they could come off the wait list.

And those waitlisted nursing students are told if they’d like to come for their second choice major, they can choose that at the onset. So we usually always have about 10 percent of those nursing waitlisted students that say, yeah, absolutely take me off for my second choice. Um, and so there’s, it kind of depends on the avenue, um, of what a student really wants to do and what may make, might make most sense for their curriculum.

So essentially they’re told they’re admitted if they want to be, or some of them just say, you know what, I don’t want to go as a public health major. So yeah, I’m going to put my [00:46:00] chance out on the wait list. So it’s kind of a personal situation for each student.

Meredith Lombardi: Can I ask a follow up question? Uh, do either of your institutions ever go back to the students, um, or last year and ask for, For them to submit something that they didn’t submit as part of the application through direct admissions,

Christine Bryan: the only case where we did it was if we saw one of our kind of attributes is, um, like they should be doing well in their most recent classes.

And so sometimes if we get a transcript and the student is doing well, And I’m going to say horrifically, like life altering bet, like all of a sudden the transcript just takes like straight these apps, we might ask for second term grades, um, just again to ensure the acceptance. But again, that was maybe about five.

Um, I think one of the things we did talk about, we met earlier that I think might be interesting as we talked about this being kind of like a conditional acceptance, um, being that students You still have to [00:47:00] apply, right? They do have to submit their application to us, but, and how there could be some confusion around that.

And we discussed how, when all of our students are admitted, they, in some ways, you could think of it as a conditional acceptance because they do need to successfully graduate from high school to be able to enroll with us. And so, and again, every year, maybe there’s one that, Something happened senior year and they don’t graduate, but I think there sometimes was a panic like what do you mean it’s a conditional acceptance and so we’re just looking for that a student’s going to be successful here.

The thing we want to avoid at all costs is enrolling a student who’s not going to do well here because it’s too expensive and mistake, you know, too expensive for them to come here and really really struggle so I would say that’s. The very rare occasion, um, but it, it can happen depending on, and that could be the student applied August 1, they didn’t have senior grades, they had a 3.

0, senior grades come out, now they’re a 2. 5. Um, and so we might go, okay, let’s, let’s see what second term is. Maybe something was going on. So I would say that’s the case.

Christina Berardi: Yeah, and I [00:48:00] agree. I think it’s really just, you know, with those students who maybe, um, you know, aren’t, aren’t quite at that GPI threshold, um, that we You know, originally when the offer went out, maybe they were, um, or maybe they misunderstood. And, you know, in those cases, we certainly follow up with students where we’re absolutely looking at these students, um, trying to give them every opportunity.

Um, so if we do reach out, it would be more for clarifying information to make sure that we fully understand their academic journey, their transcript, um, or anything else that they might have been involved in. Um, For our visual performing arts programs, part of the requirements for those do include either audition or portfolio.

So, you know, that that is not a requirement that is waived. So they do need to submit those as well. Again, that’s also to the benefit of the student. Not [00:49:00] only does it help our faculty get to know them as an artist, but it also helps the students. Qualify them for an additional 2000 per year of additional scholarship on top of whatever they’re awarded through the merit, um, awarding process.

Andrea Keenan: Thank you all. Um, we have two questions that, um, are sort of linked. So if it’s okay with you, I’m going to read them both, but because I think they, they sort of touch upon the same arc of work for counselors and students. Um, so Michelle asks, students are still selecting an application type through direct admissions.

What is the timeline to confirm admission once the application application is submitted? Does it vary based on documents received? And then the follow up is. How? How do students take up a school on the direct admissions offer? Where do they indicate that?

Meredith Lombardi: Yep, I can answer both of those. Um, so the, the [00:50:00] first thing is that, um, they do have to meet the college’s application deadlines.

So, um, they, they have to apply through Common App, as in they have to submit the application. Um, so they get a flag in Common App that says that they’ve been offered this direct admissions offer. They then have to, thank you for, for showing things, um. Then they have to submit to that college and they, they would not be able to submit after the college regular decision deadline.

Some colleges are rolling admission, um, but, but some of them have hard deadlines. Uh, and so the students can’t miss those deadlines just because they got a direct admission offer. Um, so they wanna make sure they’re still paying attention to the deadline, they’re submitting their application. Um. And that will then, you know, trigger for the counselors to, um, submit the transcript and any other supporting documents.

Um, but in terms of like taking up the offer, it’s if they haven’t added the college to their list in common app, they’re adding the college to their list. They’re [00:51:00] submitting their application. That is them saying. I want I am interested in this, this school versus again, they may have gotten 10 college offers, but they’re only going to submit to one or two.

Um, so that is that piece. And then, um, I think it was Tina who mentioned on the college side. They do have a flag that shows them which of the students, um, have been flagged for the direct admissions offer. Um, but in terms of extensions. Accepting the offer that’s happening by submitting through Common App.

Um, so timeline wise, they just have to make sure that they don’t miss the, the regular decision deadline for a college. Um, and then it goes through, you know, it’s like the handoff over to the colleges to do their official review to then trigger their process of sending out offers of admission, um, the way that they would normally do for any in student.

Christine Bryan: Yeah, so we can we the students select early action one, two, or regular decision when they apply to us. And so [00:52:00] we evaluate them doing during the full day select for anyone who does select regular decision. We also and I’m sure Tina, they have a similar process that they select regular decision. We have a query that says, um, You know, did you mean to apply early action?

Are you sure? Just because sometimes that happens. Um, and so we always do follow up with students, but if they do pick regular decision, we assume that’s why they want us to read our app, then maybe there’s more grades they want us to see where they applied, you know, a different methodology for a different school and want to hear from them first.

So we do put them through our traditional process.

Christina Berardi: Yes, and very similar. These students do get notified on the same timeline, um, as students who are applying for for these rounds. So again, our offers go out November 15th. Coming up, um, students could apply for early action to at salve, which is a January 5th deadline.

Um, even though that is that’s the common app submit date. Um, they can send supporting materials through the 15th of that month. Um, [00:53:00] and then February 1st. next is our regular decision deadline. Same thing. Submit the common app by then we have until through the 15th of that month to submit supporting materials.

Um those early action to students are notified by February 15th. That’s all day. Um and then regular decision. Students are notified on a rolling basis, but by April 1st at the latest so students will sort of receive their decision. Um, within that appropriate round, um, with the other students who have applied for those, uh, application plans.

Julie Shields-Rutyna: Thank you. And I guess I will say we’re coming upon, uh, 9 30. I didn’t know, Andrea, do you have any burning question? You’re, we’re good. This was, um, this was really terrific. So much good information. Um, and you have, um, you’ll receive these slides, so you’ll have. Emails for Meredith and Tina and Christine.

And then if you go to the next [00:54:00] slide, we just always show the, um, ways to connect with MEFA. Um, and if you have any further questions on this topic, you can see we have a, um, a great team that we, that we can, we can contact and continue this conversation. But, uh, thank you all and thank you to all of you.

who asked, um, asked really terrific questions and participated in the conversation. So I hope everyone has a wonderful day and thanks.

Meredith Lombardi: Thanks everyone. Thank you. Good luck with your day.