College Direct Admittance Program Hopes To Double Number of MPS Students
900 Milwaukee school students were accepted to UWM or MATC through the direct admissions program in its first year.
MPS Senior Kilia Mathias has been accepted to several colleges through the Direct Admit program. Photo courtesy of Milwaukee Public Schools
Kilia Mathis dreamed of going to college since she was a little girl. But she wasn’t exactly sure how to get there.
Kilia is good at math and wants to go to school for kinesiology or physical therapy. Now a senior at Milwaukee Public Schools’ MacDowell Montessori School, Kilia has many options ahead of her. And it only took 10 minutes.
She applied to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Milwaukee Area Technical College through Milwaukee Direct Admit, a program of the M-Cubed partnership those campuses have with Milwaukee Public Schools.
She learned about it from her counselor during her junior year.
Kilia was accepted to UW-Milwaukee and MATC through M-Cubed. Through the UW’s Direct Admit Wisconsin program, she was accepted to a handful of other four-year schools.
“Right now, I haven’t decided where to go, but my top two choices are (UW-Milwaukee) or Marquette,” Kilia said. “I would recommend it to anybody who is intrigued about college, because it’s easy to apply. All you need is a student ID.”
In its first year — the 2023-24 school year — nearly 900 MPS juniors were admitted to UW-Milwaukee or MATC through Milwaukee Direct Admit. The program is a streamlined application process that directly sends a students’ high school transcripts to UW-Milwaukee and MATC.
This school year, college access coordinators at the three campuses anticipate at least 1,500 juniors from MPS — or about 35 percent of the class of 2026 — will apply to and attend UW-Milwaukee or MATC.
In a school district where 84 percent of students are considered economically disadvantaged, creating a seamless path to higher education opens up new opportunities for Milwaukee families.
Direct Admit Wisconsin is a similar initiative by the Universities of Wisconsin that offers admission to qualifying high school students to 10 UW campuses: UW-Green Bay, UW-Milwaukee, UW-Oshkosh, UW-Parkside, UW-Platteville, UW-River Falls, UW-Stevens Point, UW-Stout, UW-Superior and UW-Whitewater.
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Gretchen Brown/WPR
MPS college access coordinator Ericca Pollack said about 50 percent of Milwaukee students who enroll in college do so at UW-Milwaukee or MATC.
“We know, unfortunately, many students receive messages that college isn’t the right fit for them,” Pollack said. “We’ve worked diligently through M-Cubed, starting with ninth and 10th grade visiting MATC and (UW-Milwaukee) to try on the college going culture.”
Through the M-Cubed Academic and Career Planning program, 10,000 MPS freshmen and sophomores have toured UW-Milwaukee and MATC.
Marc Young, who leads recruitment and admissions at UW-Milwaukee, said the streamlined application process that connects MPS students with the college takes the stress out of applying, especially for first-generation college applicants.
Milwaukee Direct Admit program hopes to double number of MPS students this year was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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