St. Thomas Aquinas College has joined Common App’s direct admissions program, which provides over 200,000 first-generation and low-income students who are interested in attending college with proactive admissions offers. Common App’s direct admissions program also includes tailored outreach and resources to families, and to counselors who have students receiving a direct admissions offer.
“St. Thomas Aquinas College is excited to partner with Common App on the direct admissions program. As a leader on social mobility, we believe that this program positively promotes opportunity to more students and we look forward to leading this important initiative,” stated Mike DiBartolomeo, Ed.D., Vice President for Enrollment Management at the College.
“We are excited for St. Thomas Aquinas College to join our direct admissions program, where even more students will now know that they are worthy and wanted on a college campus,” said Jenny Rickard, President & CEO of Common App. “Overall, direct admissions is about changing the narrative of a college education from one of scarcity to one of opportunity, by ensuring students know that college opportunity is an abundant resource — and one that’s available to them.”
Common App has piloted a direct admissions program since 2021, offering admission to students who created a Common App account and provided enough academic information, but had not yet completed all of their open applications. The latest iteration of the pilot offered admission to 33,000 students at 14 participating institutions, and over 800 students accepted the offer. Results showed the impacts of the intervention were strongest for Black or African American, Latinx, and first-generation students.
About St. Thomas Aquinas College
St. Thomas Aquinas College is an independent liberal arts college located on 76 acres in Rockland County, NY, providing education at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The College’s diverse student body of approximately 2,000 full and part-time students can choose from over 100 majors, minors, and specializations across four Schools: Arts & Social Sciences, Business, Education, and STEM. The College is recognized by U.S. News & World Report in the Top-Tier for Regional Universities, and by Colleges of Distinction in its New York edition for Business, Education, and Career Development. The College is also recognized as a Yellow Ribbon Program institution. St. Thomas Aquinas College is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools; its School of Education is accredited by the Association for Advancing Quality in Educator Preparation (AAQEP), and its School of Business is accredited by the International Accreditation Council for Business Education (IACBE). For more information, visit www.stac.edu.