WINGATE — This month, Wingate University joined Common App’s direct admissions program, which will provide more than 200,000 first-generation and low- and middle-income students who are college-interested with proactive admissions offers. The program also includes outreach and resources to families and counselors who have students receiving a direct admissions offer.
More than 70 colleges are in the program, but Wingate is the only such university in North Carolina. The Common Application helps streamline an essential part of the admissions process by allowing students to apply to multiple colleges at once.
Common App has piloted a direct admissions program since 2021, offering admission to students who created a Common App account and provided enough academic information but had not yet completed the application. The latest iteration of the pilot offered admission to 33,000 students at 14 participating institutions, and more than 800 students accepted the offer. Results showed that the impacts of the intervention were strongest for Black or African American, Latinx, and first-generation students.
“This is one more way that we are breaking down barriers that keep potential students from accessing higher education,” says Dr. Eva Baucom, Wingate’s vice president of enrollment management.
Nearly 48 percent of students entering Wingate this semester aspire to be the first in their families to earn a college degree. About a quarter of the undergraduate student body is Black or African American, and more than 10 percent of students are Hispanic. Wingate is one of the most diverse universities in North Carolina, according to U.S. News & World Report. In state rankings it is second among national private universities, fourth among all private universities and seventh among public and private institutions when it comes to ethnic diversity.
Jenny Rickard, president and CEO of Common App, welcomed Wingate to the direct admissions program, which she says helps more students know that they are “worthy and wanted on a college campus.”
“Overall, direct admissions is about changing the narrative of a college education from one of scarcity to one of opportunity, by ensuring that students know that college opportunity is an abundant resource – and one that’s available to them,” Rickard says.
Learn more about Wingate University at wingate.edu.
