SPRINGFIELD — Illinois Senate Democrats voiced their support Thursday for a bill that would create a program to streamline high school students’ college application processes, reducing fees and making higher education more affordable.
An initiative of Gov. JB Pritzker, the direct admission program is described as a “one-stop shop” for students that would bypass all college application fees.
Sen. Christopher Belt, D-Swansea, spoke at a news conference in the Statehouse, calling the bill “a critical step we’re taking to make higher education more accessible to students across Illinois.”
“The college admissions process can be a daunting experience, high school seniors and community college transfer students already have enough on their plates,” he said. “The last thing that they need is a complicated application process filled with extra fees, paperwork and delays.”
Senate Bill 2448 would allow all high school juniors and seniors and community college students to enroll in the program. The bill would allow the Illinois Board of Higher Education to send students a single notification containing all of their admission offers. And students would be able to accept an offer and enroll at the Illinois university they choose through the direct admission program.
The bill is still awaiting passage in the Senate.
Students would have to “opt-in” to take part in the program and provide their contact information and GPAs to the Illinois Student Assistance Commission. The commission would then apply admission criteria from each university to find out which universities the student qualifies for admission at.
Belt praised the program’s time- and cost-saving efficiencies, as students who use the direct admission program wouldn’t have to individually apply to every Illinois college, and they wouldn’t be subject to the standard college application fees at each.
“This means that they won’t have to go through the repeated application process and pay application fees,” he said. “Instead, they’ll be able to focus on what matters most, their education and their future.”
All public universities would take part in this program except the University of Illinois Chicago and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Those universities would offer a “pre-screened outreach,” where they would directly invite students to apply.
“We have so many bright, talented young people right here in Illinois, and we want them to stay here,” Belt said. “We want them to pursue their education in our state, to get jobs here, raise their families here, and contribute to the growth and prosperity of our communities.”
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
