Direct Admission Programs That All Schools Can Implement
McDonogh School (MD) and St. Andrew's Episcopal School (MD) are finding new ways to deliver financial value, reduce college admissions anxiety, and strengthen their value proposition to families.
Imagine being the parent of a high school junior and learning that your child is already on track to qualify for admission to several excellent colleges, with merit scholarships that could total $100,000 or more over four years. Instead of waiting until spring of senior year to learn where your child will be admitted and what scholarship support might be available, you'll have a much clearer picture of several potential college options.
Now imagine learning that these opportunities exist because your child's independent school has established direct partnerships with colleges and universities.
That's what's happening at two Maryland independent schools, and I think their experiences offer another compelling example of how entrepreneurial school leaders are finding creative ways to add value to the investment families make in an independent school education.
McDonogh School and St. Andrew's Episcopal School have developed direct admission partnerships with colleges and universities that offer guaranteed admission, often with substantial merit scholarships, to students who meet established academic requirements.
McDonogh School Direct Admission Partners
St. Andrew’s College Partnerships
These arrangements don't replace the traditional college admissions process. Students still need to satisfy the colleges' requirements and complete the necessary application steps, and not every student will ultimately choose to attend a participating institution. But the partnerships offer something potentially valuable: greater certainty, more choices, and meaningful financial opportunities.
They also show something I believe independent schools need to embrace more enthusiastically: a willingness to build new relationships and challenge traditional assumptions about how schools can create value for families.
What Is Direct Admission?
Direct admission isn't entirely new. Colleges have long explored ways to simplify their admissions processes and identify qualified students earlier. The approach being developed at McDonogh and St. Andrew's involves formal agreements between the independent schools and participating colleges, with each college establishing its own academic criteria. These typically include a minimum GPA, certain coursework, and sometimes additional requirements such as campus visits, interviews, or application deadlines.
Students who meet those criteria and fulfill the agreement's application requirements are guaranteed admission, and many agreements also provide guaranteed minimum merit scholarships.
Consider several examples from McDonogh's published agreements. Gettysburg College guarantees admission to qualifying McDonogh students and a minimum merit scholarship of $44,000 annually, or $176,000 over four years. Susquehanna University offers qualifying students a renewable $40,000 annual merit scholarship, potentially totaling $160,000. Goucher College offers a minimum $32,000 annual scholarship, while Loyola University Maryland offers $25,000 annually. McDonogh currently lists 12 direct admission partners, representing a variety of colleges and universities. Clearly, this is just the beginning, as Kevin Costa notes he is in conversation with several other universities about similar agreements.
St. Andrew's has established agreements with eight institutions, including Gettysburg, Whitman, Loyola University of Maryland, Catholic University, University of Denver, Washington College, and Wofford College. Like McDonogh's arrangements, these partnerships offer qualifying students admission opportunities and merit scholarship commitments, though the specific terms vary by institution.
These are meaningful opportunities for families who have already made substantial investments in their children's education. Of course, merit scholarships must be understood in the context of a college's published tuition and other costs. A $40,000 annual scholarship does not necessarily mean a family is saving $40,000 compared with what it might pay at another institution, and families still need to evaluate the actual net cost of attendance.
Nevertheless, these arrangements provide a tangible additional benefit, and establishing them doesn't require the independent school to build a new facility, hire additional faculty, or fundamentally change its academic program. Instead, they require initiative, relationships, and an entrepreneurial mindset.
It Started With a Conversation
One of the most interesting things I learned from Kevin Costa, McDonogh's Senior Director of Mission Integration and Partnerships, was how simply the school's direct admission program began.
Costa was visiting Susquehanna University to learn about an environmental science program when a conversation with the university's enrollment leadership turned to an existing direct admission arrangement with another high school. Under that agreement, students who met certain academic criteria were guaranteed admission and received merit scholarships. Costa immediately recognized McDonogh's potential, and after Susquehanna shared a model agreement, the two institutions established their own partnership.
Rather than stopping there, Costa began contacting other colleges, particularly institutions where McDonogh students had previously enrolled and been successful. He explained the concept and asked whether they might be interested in similar arrangements. Some were enthusiastic from the outset, others initially declined, and a few reconsidered after further conversations. What began as an interesting discovery during a college visit gradually became a growing network of direct admission partnerships.
I find this story compelling because it shows how meaningful innovation can start without an elaborate strategic plan or major new investment. Costa saw an opportunity, recognized how it might benefit McDonogh families, and pursued it. He then continued looking for ways to expand the opportunity.
That's entrepreneurial thinking in action.
From One School to Another
St. Andrew's became interested in these opportunities while exploring dual enrollment partnerships that would let students earn college credit through courses taught by their own teachers. Jeff Depelteau, the school's Director of Enrollment Management, and Lorraine Martinez Hanley, Assistant Head for Academics and Professional Growth, visited McDonogh to learn about Costa's work. During that visit, Costa described McDonogh's direct admission efforts, and Depelteau immediately began considering which colleges might welcome stronger relationships with St. Andrew's students.
He recalled making a list of institutions that had been good destinations for St. Andrew's graduates but might not currently enroll many of its students. He then began reaching out to college enrollment leaders to explore potential partnerships.
What I find particularly encouraging is that both schools approached these conversations as partnerships rather than transactions. The colleges set their own academic requirements, and neither independent school is asking an institution to compromise its standards or admit students who aren't academically prepared. Instead, the schools are exploring opportunities to formalize relationships that benefit both institutions.
For colleges seeking to enroll well-prepared students, the appeal is understandable. For independent schools looking to create additional value for families, the potential is equally clear.
What Is Peace of Mind Worth?
The financial benefits of these arrangements are easy to understand, but during my conversation with Depelteau, he raised another dimension that I hadn't initially considered as carefully: the emotional value.
Anyone who has worked with high school students and their families knows how stressful the college admissions process can be. Students worry about whether they'll be admitted, parents worry about affordability, and families spend months navigating applications, decisions, scholarship offers, and uncertainty.
Depelteau, who previously worked in college counseling, described the extraordinary relief students experience when they receive their first college acceptance. Even when it isn't their first-choice college, that acceptance changes something. They know someone wants them, and they have a place to go.
Now imagine a student entering the college search process already knowing that several colleges have established pathways to admission, provided the student maintains the required academic standing and completes the necessary steps. Imagine also knowing the minimum scholarship those colleges will offer.
The college search doesn't end there, and it shouldn't. Students should continue exploring institutions that best match their interests, aspirations, and needs. But the process begins from a different place. Rather than approaching college admissions from a place of uncertainty, students can start with the reassurance that they already have attractive options.
Martinez Hanley similarly described how these partnerships were helping lower anxiety for students and families, including those who might ultimately choose colleges outside the program.
We frequently discuss the value of independent school college counseling in terms of personalized attention, smaller caseloads, and successful matriculation outcomes. Those things matter enormously, but what if a school could also give families greater predictability in the process?
That's a different kind of value proposition.
Creating Value Instead of Simply Defending Tuition
I've written before about the importance of independent schools demonstrating return on investment beyond their college matriculation lists, and I believe this is becoming increasingly important.
Families have more educational choices than ever before. Tuition keeps climbing, and even families who can afford independent schools are asking increasingly pointed questions about what they get in return. For too long, our response has often been to explain the virtues of what we've always done: outstanding teachers, small classes, individual attention, exceptional college counseling, and a strong school community.
Those are enormously valuable characteristics, but many independent schools have promoted them for decades. What are we doing to create additional value?
Costa explained that McDonogh operates in an increasingly competitive Baltimore independent school market, where some schools have responded to enrollment pressures by offering tuition discounts. Rather than pursuing that approach, McDonogh has been exploring ways to strengthen its value proposition through distinctive programs and partnerships.
He said he wants the school to think about the longer arc of a student's education, beyond high school graduation and into college and even professional life. I think that's a particularly important shift in perspective. What if schools stopped thinking about their responsibility to students as ending at graduation and began identifying opportunities to strengthen the pathways that follow?
A direct admission agreement is one example. It doesn't guarantee that families will choose an independent school or that current families will remain enrolled, but it gives schools another meaningful way to demonstrate that their educational investment can produce benefits well beyond the years students spend on campus. Sometimes those benefits can even be measured in dollars.
An Entrepreneurial Culture Matters More Than the Program
As with the dual enrollment programs these schools have developed, I don't believe every independent school needs to establish direct admission partnerships. Some schools may not have the right college relationships, others may serve students whose college aspirations make these agreements less relevant, and colleges' willingness to participate will vary considerably.
That's not the larger lesson.
What impresses me about McDonogh and St. Andrew's is the entrepreneurial culture that enabled these programs to emerge.
Costa's role at McDonogh is particularly interesting. As Senior Director of Mission Integration and Partnerships, he spends considerable time developing external relationships and exploring opportunities that might strengthen the school's distinctive value. He described thinking entrepreneurially about McDonogh while emphasizing that any initiative must remain true to the school's mission.
At St. Andrew's, Depelteau and Martinez Hanley have shown a similar willingness to look beyond the school's traditional operations and consider how college relationships might create new opportunities. Rather than waiting for a strategic planning process or an outside consultant to identify an initiative, they're having conversations, asking questions, and pursuing possibilities.
I would argue that this kind of thinking needs to become much more common in independent schools. Too often, we organize our administrative teams around managing the programs and responsibilities we already have. Academic leaders focus on curriculum, enrollment leaders on recruitment and retention, and college counselors on guiding students through the application process. Each does important work, but who identifies opportunities that don't fit neatly within one of those departments?
Who is looking beyond the school gates for partnerships that might create new value? And perhaps most importantly, does the school's administrative culture encourage people to pursue promising ideas, even when those ideas challenge the way things have traditionally been done?
We don't need every school to develop a direct admission program. We need more schools willing to ask the questions that led McDonogh and St. Andrew's to develop theirs.
In an increasingly competitive market, staying true to our educational missions and becoming more entrepreneurial aren't opposing goals. In fact, I suspect the schools that thrive in the years ahead will be those that learn to do both particularly well.
Additional Resources: An Education Beyond: Dual Credit and Direct Admissions - The Purpose of School Podcast
