An education initiative aimed at streamlining the college admissions process was announced Thursday Sept. 10, with the formation of s partnership offering automatic admission to an area college, without the need for an application or fee.
“We have formed the Northern Wasatch Collegiate Coalition, and that's a partnership between Weber State University, Davis Technical College, and Ogden-Weber Technical College,” said Weber State University President Brad Mortenson during the announcement. “We’re working with our four school district partners in our region to launch a direct admissions program.”
Superintendent Dr. Dan Linford of the Davis School District praised the initiative for its potential to inspire students.
“In public education, our mission is to make dreams come true,” Linford said. “For years, my entire career, we’ve been telling kids about this party [college] that we want them to attend… It’s a game changer to have the hosts of the party send them an invitation. And that’s what’s happening today.”
The program will result in 10,000 high school seniors from Weber, Davis, Ogden and Morgan counties receiving letters of admission to the three participating institutions. The initiative aims to remove barriers for students who may feel uncertain about their ability to attend college.
“Students who maybe wondered if they were college material or who were scared about filling out college admissions applications, that's no longer a barrier to them. There's also no fee involved,” Mortenson said. “We think that this will provide great promise to our students in our region to take advantage of that guarantee that college is really available to everyone.”
Linford also shared a personal anecdote about his own experience with Weber State, stating that he wasn’t initially planning to attend college.
“I didn’t know I was heading to college until about two weeks after I graduated from high school… Weber State let me in. I was on academic probation… But it was a game-changer. It was a life-changer,” he said. “I never would have in a million years thought that college was for me.”
In addition to the direct admissions program, the NWCC is launching two additional initiatives to help students transition more smoothly into higher education. The first, called Jump Start, allows students enrolled in certificate programs at technical colleges to take core general education courses through Weber State University at the same tuition rate they pay at their technical colleges—$95 per credit hour.
“That's a lot less than what they would pay once they came to the university,” Mortenson said. “Jump Start will really help students who are in the technical college who know they want to go on to get an associate or a bachelor’s degree get an affordable leg up on that opportunity.”
The second program, Tech Transfer, enables students who complete their technical certificates to transfer up to 21 general education elective credits toward an associate or bachelor's degree at Weber State.
“That is a huge cost savings to those students,” Mortenson said. “They don't have to pay to take those credits and elective courses over again.”
For more information, visit weber.edu/nwcc.