Senate Passes Legislation To Improve Eligibility For Automatic College Admissions

This week, State Senator James Maroney (D-Milford) voted to change the eligibility requirements for the Connecticut Automatic Admission Program (CAAP) to increase equity and access for students. The bill passed unanimously and now heads to the House.

“This bill makes a simple but effective change, allowing students to know based on their GPAs that they can automatically be approved to attend a number of great Connecticut colleges and universities,” said Sen. Maroney. “I’m glad to have voted for it and hope to see it become law.”

CAAP allows graduating Connecticut high school seniors who meet identified thresholds to be notified of their eligibility for automatic admission to participating colleges and universities. SB 109, passed today, changes the requirement for admission from a minimum class rank percentile to a minimum, unweighted grade point average (GPA).

This legislation seeks to make the pre-qualification threshold more transparent for students by relying on a GPA as opposed to class rank, which is not readily available to students. By using an unweighted GPA, the legislation seeks to make the program more equitable by reducing the importance of heavily weighted Advanced Placement (AP) courses. This is important because lower resourced school districts often have less AP courses available.

According to Connecticut State Colleges & University (CSCU), this year, the total number of CAAP applicants has increased by 70%, and the total number of applicants to the CSCU schools going up by 400%, or 3,259 students.

A student who qualifies is required to complete a simplified, free application for the participating colleges and universities that they wish to attend. The student will automatically receive a letter of acceptance and details about financial aid awarded. Participating universities include:

• Central Connecticut State University
• Eastern Connecticut State University
• Southern Connecticut State University
• Western Connecticut State University
• Mitchell College
• University of Bridgeport
• University of New Haven
• University of Saint Joseph