Episode 266: NC College Connect

On this episode, we’re discussing the NC College Connect Program: a groundbreaking initiative offering direct college admission to eligible high school seniors across the state for the 2025–2026 school year! To help us better understand the program before the January 2 application deadline, we’re joined by representatives from NCDPI, The UNC System, and the State Education Assistance Authority.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:13

Welcome to Education Matters, presented by the Public School Forum of North Carolina. I'm your host, Amos Fodchuk. Today we're discussing the North Carolina College Connect Program, a groundbreaking initiative offering direct college admission to eligible high school seniors across the state for the 2025-26 school year. Here to help us better understand the program before the January 2nd application deadline are Sneha Shaw Coltrane, Senior Director of the Office of Advanced Learning and Gifted Education at the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. Alex Granados, Associate Director of Communications for the State Education Assistance Authority. And Patty Harris, Senior Director for Student Access Initiatives of the University of North Carolina system. Folks, thank you so much for joining us. Let's dive in. I'm going to open this question to everyone. What is the North Carolina College Connect program and what obstacles does the program aim to address?

SPEAKER_02 1:17

Great start. NC College Connect is North Carolina's direct admissions program aimed at simplifying the admissions process by notifying students at the start of their senior year of their post-secondary opportunities. And with NC College Connect, students don't have to write essays, they don't have to get recommendation letters. Again, they learn up front of the colleges and universities, public and private, and their local community college that they have been directly admitted into. And so this provides students and families with more time to make those informed decisions about the best fit institutions for their students and about their next step. And so as we look ahead and we think about workforce needs, anticipated high school graduation rates, NC College Connect serves as an integral role in ensuring our state remains a leader in this ever-evolving climate.

SPEAKER_01 2:16

And I'll add, Patty, that it's also about helping students see themselves as college ready. So often, students feel like that is an obstacle or a goal that they cannot reach. And what we know is that so many of our North Carolina colleges and universities are opening their arms to welcome students who are prepared and to work with them as they continue to thrive with their post-secondary plans.

SPEAKER_03 2:46

Alex, I I can't ask for a better welcoming committee than what Patty and Sneha have offered. So maybe I'll ask you to elaborate a little bit more on the nuts and bolts. How does NC College Connect work? Who's eligible? What are the key criteria for direct admission? What institutions are participating?

SPEAKER_00 3:05

Sure. Well, like Patty said, the goal here, what we want, is to make this simpler for students. I mean, we, you know, applying to college can be a very overwhelming thing, and we want this to be as easy as possible. And so we try to keep the requirements fairly simple. So if you have a weighted GPA of 2.8 or higher, you qualify with some caveats. You have to meet your the state graduation requirements. Um some individual institutions may have uh some other course requirements, but generally speaking, 2.8 or higher, you can participate in the program. And uh right now we have um, I believe 11 of the 17 UNC system schools participating, I believe uh 27 of the private institutions and all 58 of the community colleges. So we have a wide swath of the higher education spectrum that students are getting access to through this program. But, you know, I think the the key is, you know, I think Patty and Snahall were probably really good, motivated students when they were in high school. I was a very nervous, uh overwhelmed student who was new to this college thing and didn't have anybody to really walk me through it. And so a program like this would have been amazing to have, you know, back in the late 90s. So I'm a little jealous of of the students today who get to take advantage of this and ease into their higher education life with a a little bit more comfort.

SPEAKER_01 4:29

And the other additional piece is that we are so fortunate in North Carolina to have incredible partners across our state because our high school graduation requirements, with the caveat of taking um a fourth-level mathematics course, align with UNC system minimum admission requirements. And so those courses automatically help prepare our students to be ready for their college experience with their success in high school. And what our colleges are saying is that if students work hard, K-12, hey, we're willing to take you, we're willing to work with you and to continue to thrive. And that's the beauty of this program is that it simplifies it, it helps first gen students like myself, a child of an immigrant who did not have family, who understood the college, um, the whole college uh application process. And also for those that may not see themselves as college ready or may not be as motivated, like Alex said. But it really is helping us say, look, your high school experience matters. And luckily, we're able to do it through the data systems that we already have in place. So we can work with our um transcript partners at CFI and NCSEAA and get that ready for them. And then all a student has to do is say, claim my spot, and then off they go to their college and university.

SPEAKER_03 5:55

That sounds amazing. It sounds too easy to be true. I I am gonna withhold my skepticism and I want to know because we're recording this on December 10th. Um, this episode will air soon thereafter. And so uh I try to be organized, but I can I can self-affiliate with my fellow procrastinating friends. If the application deadline is January 2nd, I I want to ask a question on behalf of those who are just learning about this program or maybe haven't gotten to the head that to the early start that they were hoping for. Do eligible students need to submit regular applications, essays, recommendation letters? It is like there's a lot to do between now and January 2nd. Do you have good news for us? After the break, we'll continue our discussion of the North Carolina College Connect program.

SPEAKER_01 7:07

So the great news is that all they have to do is access their student portal at cfnc.org and literally press a button and do a simplified application. No essays, no letters of recommendation, nothing except filling that form out and sending your transcript. Your admissions is already there. So imagine that your early application, instead of having to fill out all of those other pieces, list of activities, et cetera, you don't have to do it. January 2nd at 11:50 that night, closes at midnight, 1159, but at 11:50, you could go in and claim your spot at as many universities and colleges as you are interested in claiming, and then decide later where are you committing and enrolling into? So it really is that easy. A lot of our students say, can this really be true? It's too good to be true. It usually takes about 10 minutes for us to convince families and students, but it is because our college and universities say, you are prepared. Now, if there is a student who misses that or did not directly get directly admitted, that other traditional application is still possible. And we want to encourage all of our students to consider that option as well.

SPEAKER_03 8:27

That sounds great.

SPEAKER_02 8:45

This sums it up, this takes care of it. As we said, you are admitted. And so adding to that to your point, I mean, we've heard that out in the field. Like if I submit my NC College Connect form, and if I submit through the institution, I have a better chance of being seen. We've done the work for you. It's already there, and students have done the work. So they just have to submit one, one time their NC College Connect form, and they are admitted.

SPEAKER_03 9:12

Okay, Patty, I'm not letting you off the hook this easily. Let's talk money. Let's talk money. Because that's the other key question here. If it's easy to sign up, then how do we pay for it? Um, can you speak to the types of financial aid programs that are available for participating students?

SPEAKER_02 9:29

Absolutely, and you're absolutely right. In this day and time, that's what everybody, that's what's on everyone's mind. How am I going to afford the next step in sending my kid or my student going off to college? And the blessing of being in North Carolina is that we truly make our institutions and education affordable. The Next MC Scholarship and the Need-Based Scholarship provide need-based aid to eligible students and families to attend our public and private universities. And that's state funding. So that's our tax dollars at work, ensuring that our students have access to our institutions. And for families making $80,000 or less, the next MC Scholarship provides at least $3,000 towards our community colleges and at least $5,000 to our 16 North Carolina public institutions. And for many of them, that covers tuition fees entirely. Talk about a deal that is huge in today's economy. And so then we couple that with our NC Promise institutions, where the state has reduced tuition costs for in-state students to $500 a semester. I mean, as Alex said earlier, I wish I were a student in today's time because I think as we are thinking about access to our institutions, North Carolina truly is leading the way and making sure that we're not just doing these programs to make the admissions process easier, but we're also thinking about our students and families' pockets and making sure that they can afford a degree in our state.

SPEAKER_03 11:07

Thank you so much, Patty. That is so helpful. Thank you, Patty. Sneha, quick hitter here. How does the NC College Connect align with the Achieving Educational Excellence Plan?

SPEAKER_01 11:19

As you know, Superintendent Green and our State Board of Education has an incredibly ambitious strategic plan to become best in the nation by 2030. And we feel like North Carolina College Connect fits beautifully with the strategic plan. Not only is it a direct action in Pillar One, which really is our entire mission, which is preparing our students for the next phase of life. This fits with that, even if necessary, if college may not be the next step for some of our students. The preparation that we want our students to do is to have the option, right? So when they graduate, they have options, whether it be going to the workplace or whether going to further higher ed or the military, whatever their plan is. The other piece that it fits so nicely with is the idea of pillar three, which is really enhancing our community partnerships. This initiative would not have been possible without our partners at the UNC System Office, North Carolina Community College System, North Carolina Independent College Universities, Alex and the folks at NCSCAA, CFI, Office of the Governor, and so many more who've all come together to say this is what our state needs. And this is what we need in our public sectors for all of us to come together and be focused on our children. And then really look to pillar six, which is about leading transformative change. This is truly transformative change. How do we work together to do things really differently, but yet support our students and their path for success in their future? So it's a perfect match and one of the highlights of the plan.

SPEAKER_03 13:02

A true measure of a strategic plan is one that is practical and that finds its way positively into the world. And I can't envision a more purposeful or practical or ambitious vision than that, Sneha. So thank you so much for sharing that.

SPEAKER_01 13:17

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 13:18

After the break, we'll wrap up our conversation on the North Carolina College Connect program. Sneha, before the break, um we had a we had a strong conversation about NC College Connect and and its many features. So I'd like to bring us back into conversation with this question. Alex, what role can CFNC play in helping students understand and accept their direct admission offers? Are there resources for helping students make informed decisions about where to enroll after being admitted?

SPEAKER_00 14:09

Yes, absolutely. I appreciate you asking that question. It doves dovetails nicely with the uh the question about college readiness. So CFNC is a free service of North Carolina that helps students plan, apply, and pay for college. So with College Connect, we got apply out of the way. Now we can plan and figure out how to pay. So this is your avenue to explore that next NC scholarship that Patty was talking about, or the need-based scholarship for private school students. Uh, you can get information about the FAFSA, which is the financial aid form you need to fill out to get access to those scholarships. So you can go to our FAFSA 101 page and learn all about that and what you need and what you should expect. You know, just because you're accepted to a school doesn't mean it's a good fit for you. So we have a college search function that allows you to look at different colleges in the state and try to figure out what the best fit and match for you is. You know, is the college you're choosing, does it have all the courses you need for the major you want? Uh does it have the atmosphere you're looking for? Uh does it have the the students with with the kind of academic motivation that you're looking for? You know, all of these are important questions when you're choosing in college, and these are all things you can find out on uh CFNC. So, I mean it's kind of your your one-stop shop for for figuring out what your next steps are after high school. Um and I just want to throw out a quick correction because I undersold the uh the private colleges in North Carolina. I said 27 were participating. It's 29, it's even better. So I just want to make sure I'm clear with that for our for our partners at the uh private colleges and universities.

SPEAKER_03 15:47

Thank you. Well corrected, Alex. Well corrected. Patty, I got one for you here. How has the shift toward test optional admissions changed the way colleges evaluate readiness without relying as heavily on standardized tests?

SPEAKER_02 16:02

That is a really great question, and I'm glad that you asked, Amos, because we know that um and research tells us that a high school GPA is a stronger predictor of college success than test scores, um, which has greatly influenced the shift toward test optional and served as the foundation for our direct admissions program in C College Connect. And so test optional policies also strengthen our pathways to all of our institutions. Um, and in addition to that, our institutions value a holistic review of all of its applicants, such as with course rigor, uh, grade trends, um, minimum course requirements. And again, as as Sneha has mentioned, which greatly aligns already to our uh graduation requirements. And we know that students work hard and they want to present their best selves beyond a test score, and our institutions do a really great job at uh learning about and recognizing the whole student. Our institutions also want to make sure students are successful once they arrive on their campuses. And so, in policy, uh, by leading with that GPA requirement of a 2.8, which is evidence of a sustained academic uh performance over time, uh, we are recognizing the students' hard work. But also for students that have below that 2.8, the test score does serve as a supplement. So having that option definitely balances out but ensures that again, the student is viewed holistically. Um, and lastly, again, I just can't harp on this enough in echoing uh Snaha's sentiments, though. It the alignment between our public high school graduation requirements and the requirements of admissions to our institutions shows you policy at work because it really emphasizes that hard work is already taking place on the K-12 uh area, and our institutions are recognizing that and aligned to that.

SPEAKER_01 17:53

And if I can add, what I love about the test optional is that for some students, um, our school environment may not have been able to fit to be the best environment for that student. Um and that test may show us their potential in ways the GPA in the school didn't for whatever reason, um reasons outside of sometimes the schoolhouse. And so the good news is by using that as supplemental, um that really helps to even catch more students that can be college ready. And that's what we want here in North Carolina.

SPEAKER_03 18:29

Y'all, I am so grateful that there are talented, committed people like you advocating for uh young people who may or may not have had every opportunity um to decipher what is traditionally a complex and opaque process. And so I am I'm just profoundly grateful to you, I'm profoundly grateful to your organizations for being creative and tenacious in making this real for North Carolina uh learners. And so the last question that we have, and we only have a minute or two left, but I'd love just a quick response from each of you, if I could, around the role that families play in a student's decision to attend college. And how can schools support students whose family especially may not have a college-going experience? Can can we speak to that to take us out of this uh conversation?

SPEAKER_02 19:24

Sure, I'll kick us off. The role of families is so important to the student's next step uh and uh after high school graduation, whether it's as we touched on, helping to pay, um, but if nothing else, especially providing a lot of that emotional and familial support for many of our students and families, a family is the bedrock to the decision on where a student will decide to go. And so we have taken a lot of that into consideration in how we talk about this program, how we engage our audiences across the state. And so, even on the from the UNC system perspective, we want this to seem attainable and making sure that the way that we're talking about this initiative is not just in professional higher education speak, but making it palpable and understandable for everyone across our state. Um, and so really it it is the role of families that play a strong role in helping our students make the decision on their next steps.

SPEAKER_00 20:20

I'll go ahead and go next. So, you know, I think one of the biggest barriers for students in our state wanting to go to college is just being informed. And I think whether it's the family informing the student or the schools informing the parent, the most important thing is for the proper information to get where it needs to go. You know, one of the uh biggest barriers to student students going to college is the cost of college. And our research here at SEAA, we're starting to find that that's being overtaken by fear of student loan debt, is one of the biggest barriers to going to college. But in North Carolina, we have resources that students can use to go to college. You know, as Patty mentioned earlier, the next and C scholarship for students wanting to go to public universities, the need-based scholarship uh for private school students. This is state money that combines in the next and C's case with the federal Pell Grant to give students the aid, they need to go to college. You know, hopefully they won't need to take out any loans. Uh hopefully they can afford to college go to college using this money, but they need to know about it. You know, when I was growing up, scholarships to me were if you got straight A's or you were an athlete, like star athlete. I didn't know there were other resources available, right? But there are. How many people are out there like me and don't know what's at what's available? So we need to make sure that families know, we need to make sure the students know. Because, you know, if they think they can't go to college for financial reasons, they might be wrong.

SPEAKER_01 21:48

Well, and that's what I think we're on the beginning of something really transformative here in North Carolina. We are changing the entire conversation. This year, we had a little bit over 73. Thousand of our students be eligible. That's about 62% of our student population. That's just the start. Because what we want to do is start this conversation earlier with this year's juniors. So next fall, they're not surprised. We want to start the conversations with schools earlier than ever before, with families earlier than ever before, because we have our families to educate and make sure they understand how our colleges and universities are going to support their students, the funding, the mitigation of the barriers of just the application, which can cause fright for some and flight. And so, but also having our educators understand this entire process better. When you launch something statewide, like we really did this year, it takes some time to get momentum. And that's what we want to do is get momentum now. So it becomes part of the dinner table conversation, part of the conversation at bus stops, at pools, at games, at faith-based organizations, at the grocery store, wherever our community is, where our students, our educators, and our parents. Because we want our students to stay here in North Carolina, not only for themselves, but also for our state's wellness. Because North Carolina College Connect is truly an opportunity of a lifetime.

SPEAKER_03 23:22

That's exactly what was in my mind as I as I participated in this conversation with you. SnayHop, Patty, Alex, thank you so much. This truly is transformative. It is life-changing. And it is it is about as easy as you can make it uh to start. And so let's remember January 2nd, 2026, the application deadline. Is this one of those things where you can apply at 11:59 p.m.? Then let's do that. Let's get all the way to almost January 3rd. But yes, um, uh more information will follow. And I can't thank you all enough for joining us today. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01 24:03

Thank you so much for watching.

SPEAKER_03 24:04

Thank you so much, Amos. Thank you for taking time with us to learn and think about education. That's all for today, and we'll see you next week.