Selected Ector County and Midland ISD students will get a surprise next week when they receive a hand-delivered letter from University of Texas Permian Basin telling them they have been admitted to University of Texas Permian Basin.
UTPB announced its Direct Admissions for high school seniors program at a Monday news conference at the university library. The program will provide qualified high school seniors with automatic admission to UTPB. The program aims to celebrate serving students, opening the doors of opportunity and simplifying the college enrollment process, a news release said.
ECISD and MISD seniors with GPAs of at least 2.75 qualify for direct admissions at UTPB. This will benefit more than 1,300 students in both districts, the release said.
This year, 795 ECISD and 539 MISD students will be eligible.
In fall 2023, 156 MISD students were admitted and 99 enrolled and 403 ECISD students were accepted and 178 enrolled.
Students must complete a direct admissions form online. Apply Texas is not needed; send the Office of Admissions your official transcript or bring it to UTPB when the admissions team is on your campus; and watch your email inbox for the link to sign up for new student orientation, the release said.
Senior Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management Becky Spurlock had the idea for Direct Admissions about nine months ago.
“Because if you ask anyone, they’ll tell you how stressful the application process is, the forms, the waiting, the wondering, the figuring it all out and that’s if you have support. What if you’re the first in your family (to go to college) and you’ve never seen the forms or you don’t have the answers to the questions,” Spurlock said.
“It’s so easy to just say this isn’t for me,” she added.
She said she called many of the people in the room to ask about her idea and got “great encouragement” and support for her idea.
Spurlock said they have received the data they need to make admissions decisions directly for the schools so they can directly reach out to students to tell them they qualify for admission.
“You don’t have to apply. You’re already in. You’ve done the work,” she added.
Assistant Vice President for Enrollment Management Teresa Simpson said the letters to students will go out the first week of April. Parents will also get a postcard in the mail.
If students have a 3.0 GPA or above, they will qualify for a merit scholarship. Financial aid is also available as is the Falcon Free scholarship.
Simpson said all students will get information about Falcon Free. If your household income is $100,000 or less, they qualify, a last dollar award that will cover all tuition and fees for students at UTPB.
“We know what a difference a college education can make in somebody’s life over the course of their life, economically, in many other ways, their health and happiness, too,” Spurlock said.
She added that she would like to thank Simpson for all the work she did on the project. Spurlock also thanked others in the room.
ECISD Superintendent Scott Muri thanked UTPB for making the vision of Direct Admissions a reality.
“Thank you for changing lives of the many students in our organization that would never have this opportunity without a brilliant thinking and without innovation,” Muri said.
“It is an honor and a privilege to partner with you all, not only in this endeavor but in the many pieces of work that we do together. On behalf of the seven members of the board of trustees, two of which are here today (Tammy Hawkins and Chris Stanley) … and the 33,700 students that we serve today … Thank you for a grateful school system and a grateful community,” he added.
Muri said he thinks this will increase the number of ECISD students that enroll in college.
“This didn’t happen because you’re a senior. It happened because you’re a senior and you worked hard in high school … I think it’s a win and we will have kids go to college because of this,” he added.
Muri said working in partnership with UTPB they can shepherd students during the summer to make sure they show up on the first day of university.
MISD Superintendent Stephanie Howard, a UTPB graduate, said the mission at her district is to graduate students that are college, career or military ready.
Howard said she has said for years that not all students will go to college, but they want all students to be prepared to go to college if that’s what they want.
“Many times they think they can’t go to college” because they don’t know how to navigate the process, she said.
“They don’t know how to get started filling out the forms and if they haven’t had someone in their family go to college, they don’t even think college is for them. But when they get this Direct Admission and they receive this postcard in the mail then it opens up that possibility for them. In many cases this is about dreams and opportunities,” Howard added.
UTPB President Sandra Woodley said the letter given to students and the postcard to parents will be the first they know of getting admitted to UTPB.
“It’s going to be an exciting opportunity for them to get this oh wow moment,” Woodley said.
She noted that over the next 20 years, more than 38,000 people with a baccalaureate degree will be needed for the workforce.
“We graduate about 1,200, 1,300 students every year. We are not on track to fill that entire workforce gap,” Woodley said.
She added that she wants to thank Odessa College and Midland College.
“It takes all of us to deliver what we need to the community, so I’m thrilled and excited about the opportunity to make it so much easier for the students in the Permian Basin to say yes to college,” Woodley said.
