In the state of Utah, attending college is no longer an exclusive privilege that can be acquired only by those who have the financial means to do so. As per a news release by Deseret News, “The Utah System of Higher Education will now allow every high school student in Utah admission to at least one of the 16 public higher education institutions in the state, regardless of GPA.”
In addition to recognizing the unspoken circumstances that could have led to the significant plummeting of a student’s GPA, this decision also enables the college admissions process to come forth as a lot more holistic, and acknowledges the diversity of abilities that students bring to the table.
This article by Deseret News also goes on to describe Admit Utah—which is the state’s first simplified and guaranteed admissions initiative. Serving as a central hub for students, families and educators, Admit Utah helps them navigate the otherwise complex college admissions process with the soft light of guarantee shining at the end of the tunnel.
Delving into statistical analysis, the article specifies how there are 16 public universities in Utah, out of which only two have GPA requirements. The other 14 colleges and universities guarantee admission to students regardless of GPA. Emphasizing the long-term benefits of this decision, the article quotes Cyndi Tetro, a member of the Utah Board of Higher Education, who describes how the Admit Utah initiative would increase the accessibility, simplicity and clarity of college education.
“This platform will provide students with even more clarity and simplicity in the college application process, empowering them to pursue their educational aspirations with confidence,” she says. Describing how it is okay to not know where your academic interests lie as an eighteen-year-old, and assuring students that there are resources available to help them navigate this dilemma, the Deseret News article emphasizes how Admit Utah provides students with the needed tools to figure out where their course of study will take them.
However, the positive after-effects of Admit Utah do not end here.
The Deseret News article describes how this initiative also aims to integrate college preparation into Utah’s K-12 education system. This way, the intensity of the college application process will not come as an unexpected punch in the gut, and students would have developed the mental tenacity to cater to its demands over the course of their high school education.
Most significantly, the article promises the warm glimmer of guarantee for each high school student, making a Bachelor’s degree an acquirable reality as opposed to a distant dream.
As a twenty-one-year-old college student from India, I’m well aware of how finances can actually form a firm fence between an individual and their educational ambitions. There’s no greater feeling than sitting at the forefront of a classroom and watching a professor teach you all that he has to offer, and even though I’m a part of the lucky percentage of students who get to experience this on an everyday basis, I do know that for a large portion of young adults, these currency notes may seem to interlock arms and join shoulders, quite literally forming a barrier of bodies between these students and their desire to graduate college.
This barricade might look upon young adults with scowling eyes, and tell them, in the strongest of voices, that college and everything that it brings is out of their reach. However, collaborative efforts such as this one between the Utah Board of Higher Education and the unspoken worries of young adults, respond to this condescending scorn in an assuring voice, commencing conversations of infinite curricular and co-curricular possibility amid these omnipresent belts of financial limitation.
