Building Gateways Through Admissions Redesign: Spotlight on Washington

Over the last ten years, however, this balance of supply and demand has flipped on its head. College-going rates continue to hover just above 60%, and the American high school graduating class is projected to shrink by 13% over the next 15 years. In response, states, systems, and institutions have begun to reimagine college admissions processes – and all of their component parts. The goal is to directly reduce the burdens they place on students and families. 

In August of 2025, Lumina Foundation announced a second phase of its Great Admissions Redesign challenge, a nationwide grant program investing in the country’s most innovative ideas for transforming admissions. As Lumina solicits a fresh batch of proposals throughout the Fall of 2025, the “Building Gateways” blog series will highlight a handful of voices from the field. Situated in vastly different contexts, squaring up against dozens of unique obstacles, these practitioners are leading a movement to transform college admissions from a gatekeeper to a gateway. 

Spotlight: Washington 

In Washington, the admissions redesign experiment launched in 2021, with a pilot program involving five regional public universities. Over the last five years, the Guaranteed Admissions Program, led by the Washington Council of Presidents, has developed a robust communications strategy by heavily integrating practitioners on the ground. In parallel, legislation passed in 2023 and 2024 seeks to weave guaranteed state financial aid into the equation for Washington’s students and families with the most need. 

HB2214 tasked the Washington Student Achievement Council (WSAC) with establishing proactive, automated communications to families about financial aid and affordability. With support from Lumina Foundation, WSAC conducted a statewide engagement tour to inform the development of a prototype ‘reminder & outreach’ system, which will be piloted in the Spring of 2026. Below, explore reflections from Rathi Sudhakara, Associate Director of Strategy & Partnerships, as she gears up for deployment and data collection in spring 2026.

Last year, you embarked on a listening tour, connecting with dozens of students, parents, and practitioners across the state. Your student and family survey received more than 800 responses. Can you share one or two insights from students that stick in your head – that remind you of your “why”?

One of the shocking insights we learned from students was that unless they were somehow chosen to be in a program or class that specifically addressed postsecondary issues, they were almost never exposed to any postsecondary related information. A random act by a school leader, counselor, or teacher was the only way a student would get any information on college or university. In other words, one had to be in the right place at the right time. 

The second interesting insight that has stuck with me is that even when students got information, it was in bits and pieces. There was no clarity on all the steps that needed to be taken to move from high school to college. So, when they started the process, it overwhelmed them. As one student put it: “A lot of preparing for college is very overwhelming and it seems people expect you to know what you need to do to get ready…”

These insights illuminated the very real issues students face in transitioning from secondary to postsecondary of their choice. Our goal is to build as seamless a transition as possible. Talking to students made it clear that that has to be done with intentionality and careful planning while bringing together diverse stakeholders from students and parents to schools, higher education institutions, and the larger community as well.

Admissions redesign asks high schools, postsecondary institutions, and their partners to embrace new frontiers in collaboration. What are some strategies WSAC deployed to make the case and set the table for such collaboration?

To ensure successful collaboration across partners we approached it in a two-prong manner. We started by getting the leadership buy-in across postsecondary institutions and school districts. We did this by aligning our own strategy with strategies some regions were already building. Or, in some cases, we encouraged stakeholders to recruit leaders from other sectors where a trusting relationship already existed.

The second step was to bring the staff and those who would eventually play an important role in the implementation into the conversations early on. Where possible, WSAC took on the ownership of the work and reduced expectations so as to not overwhelm staff. And where it was critical to allow local leaders to guide us, we followed. Another piece I would highlight that helped with the collaboration was to intentionally nurture open communication channels with WSAC.

Washington is a first-mover in integrating guaranteed financial aid with guaranteed admissions. What are some enabling conditions that you believe set the state up to tread into uncharted waters?

Our state’s financial aid context had already set the stage for an innovation like this. Washington’s need-based state financial aid, WA Grant, has been an entitlement since 2019. Its generosity allows half of families in Washington to get free money for college or training. Building on this was a key piece of legislation that passed in 2024 that allows WSAC to proactively notify students in 10th, 11th, and 12th grades whose families are on SNAP (Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program) that they are guaranteed a full WA Grant (the equivalent of tuition costs at public colleges and universities in Washington). This early commitment will allow students from low-income backgrounds to plan their post high school journey knowing the state has invested in them.

Additionally, Washington’s public baccalaureate institutions have administered the Washington Guaranteed Admissions Program (WAGAP) since 2021. They have built this program in close partnership with school districts and have expanded every year with a reach today of over 50% of the school districts in the state. 

Taken together, it was the perfect opportunity to explore combining the guarantee of financial aid and admissions when applicable.

Your communications strategy will deliver targeted messages through personalized channels, ultimately seeking to transform the college-going identities of students across the state. What kinds of evidence will you be looking for to demonstrate early success?

WSAC plans to roll out consistent messaging across all levels. This means similar language will be used in communications coming from the state, higher education institutions, school districts, as well as community-based partners. We will also have similar messages across mediums – emails, text messages, on webpages and so on. 

For high-school seniors, these targeted messages should incentivize them to file the financial aid form in order to receive additional federal financial aid and institutional scholarships. Evidence of increased FAFSA filing will demonstrate clear success. 

We plan to conduct some surveys and interviews with school counselors, college and career advisors, and other partners in the college access space to get feedback on the messages themselves and to gauge if they are getting more requests from students on financial aid related questions or specifically on this opportunity. This will also help us understand the areas where there is confusion which we can address by iteratively modifying the messages to address those concerns.

School-level staff and community-based organizations are critical to your communications strategy, and ultimately to the effectiveness of your admissions redesign experiment. For states in the early stages of assessing their capacity to engage local practitioners, what advice might you offer?

To be honest, the buy-in and participation from school partners and community-based organizations is something to continually work on. At the outset, anchoring to a north star is very helpful and ensuring that it is communicated clearly from the leadership down to the staff. The continuous work is to assess capacity and enthusiasm at regular intervals and to meet them where they are. We valued everyone’s time and communicated that clearly. 

It was also a learning for us to tailor the project plan to each partner. Sometimes it is helpful to share everything and other times folks want to know just what is relevant for them. Most importantly, school partners and community-based organizations appreciate plug and play resources as much as we can provide them.