Illinois Wesleyan University introduces direct admission

Photo courtesy of Illinois Wesleyan University

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Illinois Wesleyan University has started offering direct admission to qualifying seniors at local high schools.

As of Sep. 16, seniors at Bloomington High School, Normal Community High School, Normal Community West High School, University High School and Central Catholic High School now have the chance to automatically be admitted into IWU without having to even apply.

According to Admissions Constituency Relations Liaison Molly Munson, Wesleyan hopes this program will serve the community and expand access to education.

“One of our main purposes is to expand access in the local community,” Munson said. “It brings awareness that they can get into a high quality school like Wesleyan; it streamlines the process.”

Wesleyan’s direct admission began in 2023 as a pilot program with Bloomington High School, which more than doubled the number of BHS students at the university. Now, they’re expanding it to other high schools in the community.

“We were really excited about the results of that program,” Munson said. “There were students who probably didn’t have Illinois Wesleyan on their radar […] and by directly admitting these very good students, that took away the anxiety.”

Direct admission has become a more popular model for colleges nationally, and according to Munson, Wesleyan plans to expand the program further throughout Illinois in the future.

“We’ve been aware of this direction in admissions for several years now nationwide,” Munson said. “We knew that we wanted to provide that opportunity first to students in our own backyard.”