With spring around the corner many seniors are thinking about college. Leaning away from traditional applications, NC College Connect is a program that automatically accepts seniors who meet certain course requirements. This program offers direct college admission to seniors with a weighted GPA of 2.8 or higher. With this program being a new addition to the application process, many students do not know about it. It is specifically for North Carolina students and 62,000 North Carolinians have been helped through this program. Students are offered direct admission to select colleges participating in this program at the end of their junior year.
They must maintain this admitted GPA throughout their senior year. The course requirements that must be met are a minimum of four mathematics, four units in language, three units in science, two units in social studies and two additional academic units of various options. Some independent colleges have additional requirements for a student to qualify for direct admission. After filling out a simple safety form online, students will receive a letter in the mail of the colleges that have accepted them.
“I wish I had known about this program sooner. I would have looked into it if I knew about it earlier and it could have helped me with applying,” senior Gabby Pruitt said.
NC College Connect is connected to colleges around North Carolina. (CFNC) It is a free service that helps students plan, apply, and pay for college. If a student does not qualify for direct admission through NC College Connect, they can still pursue higher education by looking into CFNC.
“I directly got into some colleges through College Connect, but not the ones I was set on. It didn’t do a lot for me. I used Common App to get into the ones I had more interest in,” senior Bella Ray said.
Some students also get into colleges without the traditional route by applying through Common App. They have a direct admissions program that automatically admits eligible first generation, low or middle income students. Based on students’ app information, some colleges will send offers before students officially apply to any.
“I used College Connect and got into a lot of colleges I had interest in. I got into App State, the University of Charlotte, Lees-McCrae and a lot more. I’m going to App State and this program made the process a lot easier,” senior Will Allaire said.
This program is connected to 58 colleges. Widely known ones are App State, Eastern Carolina University, Western Carolina University and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. With this new program, many North Carolina students have a lot less to worry about when applying to colleges. Upcoming seniors will be able to skip the lengthy process of traditional applications with this beneficial program.
