Top N.J. students would automatically get into colleges under plan to stop ‘brain drain’

By Liz Rosenberg | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

A New Jersey lawmaker wants to make admissions to public, four-year colleges automatic for the state’s top high school graduates.

In 13 states, including Texas and Florida, public colleges admit all students who meet an institution’s criteria for class rank, standardized test scores, grade point average or advanced coursework.

In some states, students who graduate from high school in the top 10% of their class are automatically admitted to public colleges.

While grades, scores and rank already play a factor in who gets into New Jersey colleges, a new bill sponsored by state Assemblyman Cody Miller, D-Gloucester, would guarantee admission to one or more state colleges for students who meet “minimum academic merit.”

Under the plan, the minimum standards for automatic admission would vary at New Jersey’s state colleges, which include Rutgers, Rowan, Kean, Montclair State and other universities.

“We’ve ranked among the highest in the nation for net out-migration of college bound students, “ said Miller, referring to what some have called a “brain drain”— when high performing students choose to attend school outside of New Jersey.

“This bill primarily would allow us to keep our students in the state of New Jersey,” he said.

New Jersey loses about 30,000 high school graduates to colleges in other states each year, one of the highest “out-migration” percentages in the nation, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Miller thinks an automatic college admission system could entice top New Jersey students to attend in-state colleges because they will know they’ve gotten in one or more state schools and will not feel the need to apply elsewhere.

He’s also hoping students who qualify will be able to apply to schools without paying an application fee and the whole process will be “seamless.”

Students who do not have the scores or grades to meet a university’s criteria for automatic admission can still be admitted through the traditional admissions process, which would include writing an essay, if required.

The bill also includes an evaluation process that would measure how well a guaranteed admissions system is working for low-income high school graduates and students, like Miller, who are first in their family to attend college. The analysis could lead to important conversations about higher education and an improved system, he said.

Other states have touted automatic admission systems as a way to increase the diversity of students admitted to state colleges.

“Automatic admissions can be an important start to increasing access,” said Catherine Horn, dean of the College of Education at the University of Houston.

“They are not the single solution,” she said.

Texas created its system nearly 30 years ago. Many public colleges in the state automatically admit students in the top 10% of their graduating class.

At the University of Texas at Austin only students who rank in the top 5% of their graduating class are admitted into the school automatically.

New Jersey, according to Horn, should consider what happens after students are automatically admitted. Students’ financial and academic needs will vary.

“In Texas, where institutions invested in those kinds of ways, the geographic and income diversity of enrolled and retained students was enhanced,” Horn said.

Miller, the sponsor of the bill in New Jersey, works in higher education. In addition to being an assemblyman, he is the executive director of advancement and foundation at Rowan College of South Jersey, a two-year public college.

“I think sometimes people operate in silos and we’re not in a position to operate in silos anymore because people are questioning the value of post secondary education,” Miller said.

His bill calls for the state secretary of higher education to collaborate with the state Department of Education and the New Jersey President’s Council to collectively design the automatic admissions system.

One year of state residency, full-time student status and being a first-time applicant would be the only requirements for automatic admission under Miller’s plan. The rest of the system would be determined by a process led by the state’s secretary of higher education.

Miller has been reading up on the other states that offer automatic admissions. Minnesota’s system allows institutions to decide if they want to opt-in and to determine how selective they will be in admitting students. The same type of flexibility could also be available for New Jersey colleges, Miller said.

Miller has also introduced other higher education-related bills, including one that would cap tuition rate hikes at public colleges at 2% and another that would establish a higher education task force. The bills are meant to modernize the state’s public institutions and help more students gain access to them, he said.

The bill on automatic college admission, A5891, was introduced in the state Assembly in June. It has not been scheduled for a hearing and still needs a companion bill to be introduced in the state Senate.

If the bill is approved by both the Assembly and Senate, it will still need to be signed by the governor to become law.

Carl Palmer, president of the New Jersey School Counselor Association, said he hopes experts on the high school side of the admissions process will also be included in conversations about the bill.

Though he’d like to see more details about how the proposed admission system would break down barriers to college access, overall he says the bill ”probably wouldn’t hurt.”

But he’s not sure it will address New Jersey’s brain drain as thousands of top students choose to attend out-of-state colleges each year.

“I always ask a kid, ‘Why did you pick this school?’ or ‘Why did you pick that school?’” Palmer said. “The reasons are infinite.”