Executive Summary
The Minnesota Office of Higher Education (OHE) and Minnesota IT Services (MNIT) transformed Direct Admissions Minnesota into a scalable statewide digital platform that streamlined college admissions for more than 40,000 graduating seniors while reducing administrative burden, strengthening student data security, and expanding access to postsecondary education statewide.
After launching during the 2022-23 school year, Direct Admissions Minnesota quickly exceeded expectations. Rapid growth created operational and scalability challenges as OHE struggled to manage fragmented data systems, manual processes, inconsistent vendor data, and increasing staff workload while maintaining the integrity and equity of the program.
In 2025, OHE partnered with MNIT to design and implement a centralized Direct Admissions platform in just five months. The new system modernized data management, automated workflows, improved reporting capabilities, strengthened security protections for student information, and simplified participation for high
schools and colleges. The scalable platform also positioned the program to expand statewide to all 800+ Minnesota public and charter high schools.
Today, the platform operates more efficiently and provides graduating seniors at participating high schools with clear information about colleges and universities committed to admitting them based on academic performance and projected graduation status. Students can pursue higher education opportunities with greater confidence while schools and colleges spend less time managing manual processes.
