Michigan offers direct college admissions
A Michigan program automatically admits high school students to 20 state colleges based on their transcripts, eliminating essays and recommendations.
Michigan high school students can now receive direct college admissions offers from 20 public and private institutions in the state. The MI College Match initiative, launched by the nonprofit Michigan College Access Network, began accepting student profiles on Wednesday.
Students will get automatic admissions offers by uploading their transcripts to a free online portal. According to MCAN, they will not need to submit essays or letters of recommendation. Completing a profile should take between 15 and 20 minutes.
How the program works
After students complete their profiles, college admissions officials see anonymized versions. Officials then issue offers based on that information. They can also extend scholarship offers. Students who complete their MI College Match profiles by September 21 will receive acceptance letters by October 5. Participating colleges will send offers to students who create profiles after that deadline on a monthly basis.
Students will not receive rejection notifications on the portal, only offers. MCAN plans to promote the program through its partnership with high school educators and counselors. In the 2025-26 academic year, the nonprofit had 355 K-12 partner sites covering over 49,000 students.
MCAN Executive Director Ryan Fewins-Bliss said direct admissions help students see themselves as college material. "When colleges say, 'We want you here, and you're already admitted,' it changes the entire conversation around postsecondary education," he stated.
Participating colleges
As of August 27, 11 private and nine public colleges have signed on. The public institutions include two University of Michigan campuses, six community colleges, and a tribal college. The University of Michigan's highly selective flagship campus in Ann Arbor is not participating.
| Institution Type | Number Participating |
|---|---|
| Private Colleges | 11 |
| Public Colleges (including 2 UM campuses, 6 community colleges, 1 tribal college) | 9 |
Kalamazoo College, a private liberal arts institution, is one participant. The college said the program will change how some students discover it but won't lower its admissions standards. MI College Match allows Kalamazoo to set its own admission criteria.
"MI College Match lets us introduce ourselves to talented students who might not have pictured themselves here, and to answer the affordability question honestly and early," President Karlyn Crowley said.
A model from Alabama
The Michigan program mirrors a direct admissions initiative that debuted in Alabama last summer. The Alabama Direct Admission Initiative launched in partnership with a local nonprofit, the state government, and the Alabama community college system. More than 18,000 Alabama high school students received over 141,000 admissions offers through the program during the 2025-26 academic year.
Both the Michigan and Alabama programs use student-college matching software created by the education company EAB.
