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of a Minnesota state
legislator and her husband

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in June in state education
news. With the start of the

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new academic year.
Estimates show freshman

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enrollment is up at
universities of Wisconsin

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schools this fall. That's
after six branch campuses

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closed or stopped in-person
classes in the last three

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years, according to the UW.
New student enrollment is

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up a total of 3%, with
eight campuses seeing

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increases at or above 5%.
Overall enrollment at the

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UW stands at more than
164,000 students. System

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President Jay Rothman says
the new Direct Admit

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program is attracting new
students. Under the program,

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qualified high school
juniors get direct

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admission based on grades
and coursework. UW-Madison,

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Eau Claire and La Crosse do
not participate. But

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Wisconsin high school
applicants ranking in the

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top 5% are guaranteed
admission to UW-Madison

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under a different program.
UW-Madison Professor of

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Education Taylor Odle
conducts national research

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on direct admission
programs. He joins us now.

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Thanks for being here.
>> Thanks so much for the

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invitation.
see your research in action

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like this?
>> I think that's every

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researcher's dream. We we
work a lot. We work with a

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lot of data, talk to a lot
of policymakers. And the

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ultimate goal at the end of
the day is that what we do

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matters. And that's also
true of the Wisconsin idea

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that we care about here at
UW-Madison, that the

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insights that we produce
actually make their hands

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into or make their way into
the hands of policymakers

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and into the lives of
people who live across the

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state.
Rothman says our Direct

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Admit program is driving
new enrollment. Why do

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these programs work?
>> They work because we

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make it easier for people
to take us up on our offers

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of admission. The pathway
to getting into college.

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And this doesn't have
anything to do with

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eliminating or reducing
standards of admission. It

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has to do with simplifying
the pathway. And so we know

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that students and families
have to navigate a lot of

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complex red tape, applying
sending transcripts, taking

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tests, getting letters of
Rec, etc. etc. And so if we

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implement programs like
their way through that red

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tape and say, hey, we know
that you're admissible.

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Tell us when you want to
come to campus because we

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want you to be here.
Surprisingly, more people

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show up on campus when we
make it easier for them to

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do so.
>> And yet, not all people

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who get that letter that
say you've been directly

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admitted to, you know, one
of these schools across the

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state and roll, why
wouldn't they?

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There are myriad reasons of
why people choose to go to

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college, and also why they
choose not to go to college.

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And so getting admitted,
getting that letter,

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piece of the puzzle. But we
also know there are other

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things that impact whether
or not people come to

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college, principally
whether or not they can

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afford it. But also there
are a variety of other

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factors. You may be a
single parent. You may also

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be working while while
learning and supporting

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your parents, doing some
other engagement with the

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community as well. And so
it's just one piece of the

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puzzle, but it seems like
that piece has been

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important for getting more
students to show up on

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campus.
>> A similar program that

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you developed in Tennessee
also has a personalized

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financial aid estimates
feature attached to it. How

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important a piece is that
for students and families?

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That piece in Tennessee.
>> We think it's critical

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because it changes the
message from there's a spot

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for you on campus to
there's a spot for you on

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campus, and there are
resources to help you

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afford it. So it pushes
people further down the

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college going pathway by
letting them know what

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their options are for where
they can go, but also what

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their options are for how
they can pay for it.

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Students and families often
face this kind of big,

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amorphous number of how
much does it really cost?

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And they have to complete
things like the Fafsa and

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hear from their campus
about how much it's going

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to cost at the end of the
day. And so if we can

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provide a little bit more
of that information up

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front, we hope that it
helps kind of create a

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snowball effect, if you
will. They're more likely

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to file that Fafsa, more
likely to engage with the

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campus so they have a
>> Is that something that

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could attach to the
Wisconsin program as well?

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>> Absolutely, yes. So
we're actually using

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exists on these students,
such as their GPA, much

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like Direct Admit Wisconsin.
They guarantee does here to

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know whether or not
students would be eligible

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for merit based financial
aid. Some other states,

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like the state of
Washington, are actually

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using K-12 records on free
and reduced price lunch,

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and also students
participation in Snap and

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TANF and other things to
actually pre award them

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need based financial aid.
So there's some bubbling of

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this across the country and
we'd love to see it in

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Wisconsin for sure.
declining enrollments have

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schools for decades. How
meaningful can Direct Admit

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programs be toward pulling
as many new students in,

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even as demographics work
against that?

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>> They can be critical
because, as you mentioned,

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demographics are also
student who shows up on

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campus today isn't
necessarily look like the

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student who showed up on
campus 30 years ago. Many

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students who are showing up,
whether they're students

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who weren't originally born
in the US or students of

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color, students from very
rural backgrounds, students

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from low income families,
of barriers in navigating

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that college application
admissions in many ways is

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designed for them. It
eliminates those barriers

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completely and says, hey,
you've done a really great

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job academically. There is
a place for you on campus.

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And I think this is why,
and I'm happy to see this

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system attributing a lot of
these enrollment increases

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programs like this, because
they're kind of common

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sense, I think, all around.
>> So J. Rothman also notes

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that the new enrollment
numbers show there are

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significant declines in
international students, as

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we would have expected up
to 15% nationwide. I don't

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know where we square with
that right at this moment,

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but what kind of losses
that to campus communities?

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>> It's a large loss, right?
So in the student

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interpersonal aspect of not
being engaged or not being

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exposed to students of
varying cultural or ethnic

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or religious backgrounds,
which is a hallmark, I

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think, of the college
experience. It's also

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critically important for
our institutions. We are

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facing lagging and slow
support from the state.

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We're facing reductions
from the federal government

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in funds for research
dollars. And now students,

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particular international
students who pay out of

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state tuition. And so we're
in a particularly hard

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place. And so losing this
population not only has an

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academic loss for campuses,
but a financial one as well.