OUS creates automatic admissions
High school students meeting certain criteria are guaranteed acceptance at one OUS school
Joce DeWitt
Issue date: 3/10/11 Section: News
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"Automatic admissions has been developing for two years but it became official last week when the board approved it," said Assistant Vice Chancellor for Student Success Initiatives Joe Holliday. "It was developed to more or less respond to the new Oregon Diploma in a positive way, proficiency is a much better indicator on college readiness."
According to the Oregon Department of Education, the Oregon Diploma is comprised of new requirements designed to better prepare each student for success in college, work and citizenship.
"The Oregon Diploma is a set of essential skills that students demonstrate proficiency in," Holliday said. "They have to take a standardized test in specific essential skills, including math, writing, reading and science."
The automatic admissions policy was created to recognize students who exceed Oregon Diploma standards and make the college application process a more personal and valuable experience.
"The university system adopted the policy as a way to give credit to those students in Oregon completing the new Oregon diploma," said Blake Vawter of the Oregon State University Office of Admissions.
The Oregon Diploma specifically requires that students express an aptitude for the essential skills defined by ODE, which include reading and comprehension, clear and accurate writing and applied mathematics. Beyond those essential skills, students who obtain the Oregon Diploma must also undergo certain credit requirements.
While the standard requirements in reading, writing and math will be set in place by June of 2014, students who excel in all three core areas will be eligible for automatic admission into at least one university by 2012.
The current admission policies that serve all eight of the Oregon University System schools will remain relevant as automatic admissions are put into effect next February.
The new policy won't replace the admission requirements particular to each campus, but will provide high school students with another opportunity to gain acceptance into an OUS school.
The new options comes as positive news to high school seniors who are not confident in their standardized testing abilities when it comes time to apply to the colleges of their choice.
"It gives students the option to submit an SAT, ACT or OAKS score and meet a certain proficiency in skills that are on that test," Vawter said of the process. "It's just an additional way for a student to demonstrate proficiency."
According to Vawter, in order to gain acceptance students must fulfill the campus requirements of their colleges of interest.
Seniors who meet the Oregon Diploma requirements will only be expected to complete a single application that will be sent to their OUS first-choice schools. Thus, the time it takes for a high school senior to learn whether or not they were accepted their choice would decrease noticeably.
"Students need to have a complete application to their first-choice school by Feb. 1," Holliday said. "We're pretty confident that we'll let them know by the end of February. That's what we're shooting for, but we need to do it first."
The automatic admissions policy does not guarantee qualifying students admittance into their first-choice school, however. There are multiple factors, like campus capacity, that may prevent a student from getting admittance to their optimum university.
"Automatic admission guarantees admission to at least one of them," Vawter said. "A student could apply to OSU but if for some reason they don't meet campus requirements, there is 'writer's refusal.' Their information will be provided to other institutions."
With the addition of automatic admissions, the higher education board is altering the college application process from one that is presently characterized as solely mechanical to personal.
"Every university still uses comprehensive review for every student, so if a student doesn't have a great SAT score, if they don't have the required 3.4 GPA, the campus will still have the comprehensive review, which means looking at the whole student," Holliday said.
Though the new policy has the potential to affect thousands of students and all of the OUS schools, OSU is not projected to change dramatically as a result.
"We don't anticipate it affecting our current enrollment pattern a whole lot," Vawter said.
Describing Oregon State as an OUS leader, Holliday explained that the criteria used for students seeking acceptance resembles the measurements of automatic admissions.
"OSU is the leader because it uses the insight resume," Holliday said. "It looks at grade point average, test scores but also student potential, activities and community work."
Because the higher education board is taking on the responsibility of finding an OUS school for students who meet the conditions, their ultimate goal can be described as keeping eligible students in Oregon.
"Our nervousness is that the wrong message will be sent," Holliday said. "With automatic admissions, we are sending a message to high-achieving students that there is a place for them in OUS."
Joce DeWitt, staff writer
737-2231, news@dailybarometer.com
The new options comes as positive news to high school seniors who are not confident in their standardized testing abilities when it comes time to apply to the colleges of their choice.
"It gives students the option to submit an SAT, ACT or OAKS score and meet a certain proficiency in skills that are on that test," Vawter said of the process. "It's just an additional way for a student to demonstrate proficiency."
According to Vawter, in order to gain acceptance students must fulfill the campus requirements of their colleges of interest.
Seniors who meet the Oregon Diploma requirements will only be expected to complete a single application that will be sent to their OUS first-choice schools. Thus, the time it takes for a high school senior to learn whether or not they were accepted their choice would decrease noticeably.
"Students need to have a complete application to their first-choice school by Feb. 1," Holliday said. "We're pretty confident that we'll let them know by the end of February. That's what we're shooting for, but we need to do it first."
The automatic admissions policy does not guarantee qualifying students admittance into their first-choice school, however. There are multiple factors, like campus capacity, that may prevent a student from getting admittance to their optimum university.
"Automatic admission guarantees admission to at least one of them," Vawter said. "A student could apply to OSU but if for some reason they don't meet campus requirements, there is 'writer's refusal.' Their information will be provided to other institutions."
With the addition of automatic admissions, the higher education board is altering the college application process from one that is presently characterized as solely mechanical to personal.
"Every university still uses comprehensive review for every student, so if a student doesn't have a great SAT score, if they don't have the required 3.4 GPA, the campus will still have the comprehensive review, which means looking at the whole student," Holliday said.
Though the new policy has the potential to affect thousands of students and all of the OUS schools, OSU is not projected to change dramatically as a result.
"We don't anticipate it affecting our current enrollment pattern a whole lot," Vawter said.
Describing Oregon State as an OUS leader, Holliday explained that the criteria used for students seeking acceptance resembles the measurements of automatic admissions.
"OSU is the leader because it uses the insight resume," Holliday said. "It looks at grade point average, test scores but also student potential, activities and community work."
Because the higher education board is taking on the responsibility of finding an OUS school for students who meet the conditions, their ultimate goal can be described as keeping eligible students in Oregon.
"Our nervousness is that the wrong message will be sent," Holliday said. "With automatic admissions, we are sending a message to high-achieving students that there is a place for them in OUS."
Joce DeWitt, staff writer
737-2231, news@dailybarometer.com
