For many students, the journey to college begins with stress, not excitement. They’re left asking fundamental questions: Do I belong in college? Can I afford it? Where do I even begin?
Applications, transcripts, financial aid forms, advising systems, placement requirements, and enrollment deadlines often exist in separate places, requiring students to navigate a complicated web of processes at one of the most important moments in their lives. For students who are first-generation, from low-income backgrounds, or unsure whether college is for them, that complexity can become more than frustrating. It can become discouraging.
At Lumina Foundation, we believe students deserve better. When admissions systems are designed around students’ needs, they’re more likely to see college as an option, enroll, and succeed.
The transition from high school into college should feel clear, supportive, and full of possibility. Students should be able to focus on imagining their futures, not deciphering disconnected systems. That belief is what drives the Great Admissions Redesign, Lumina’s national initiative to help states, systems, and institutions rethink how students access and navigate postsecondary education.
As this work has expanded across the country, one thing has become increasingly clear: leaders need practical guidance and examples of what effective redesign looks like in practice.
That’s why we’re excited to share the Postsecondary Admissions Redesign Toolkit, developed by our partners at Research for Action.
The toolkit brings together lessons, implementation insights, and emerging practices from institutions and states participating in the Great Admissions Redesign. But perhaps more importantly, it helps establish a common understanding of a fast-moving field that is still defining itself.
What began several years ago as a relatively small number of direct admissions and admissions simplification efforts has rapidly grown into a broader national movement. As more states and systems explore this work, the toolkit offers an important foundation for understanding both the opportunities and the complexities involved in redesigning admissions systems around students.
The toolkit captures an essential phase of this work: the moment when admissions redesign was beginning to take shape as a field. Many of the first cohort projects focused on proving what was possible, testing new approaches, and clarifying the conditions needed to move from a good idea to implementation.
One of the clearest lessons from that first phase is that redesigning admissions requires more than changing an application form or sending a new message to students. It requires careful attention to policy, data, technology, communications, and the people who help students interpret and act on information. The toolkit helps leaders see the full scope of what sits beneath successful admissions redesign, from building cross-sector partnerships to creating clear student-facing messages to engaging counselors and practitioners as trusted messengers.
At the center of all of this is the student experience, and often, the complexity of the process reinforces their doubts about college.
The toolkit highlights a powerful alternative: admissions systems that are proactive, transparent, and student-centered. Systems that reduce friction rather than adding to it. Systems that help students understand their opportunities earlier and more clearly.
Importantly, this work is not just about efficiency. It is about trust, belonging, and confidence.
When students receive clear information, proactive outreach, and coordinated support from trusted adults, the transition to college feels different. Stress is reduced. Uncertainty gives way to clarity. Students begin to see college as an attainable and exciting next step.
The toolkit also reinforces another critical insight: students should not have to repeatedly provide information that educational systems already possess. Modernizing admissions increasingly requires stronger cross-sector data systems, better coordination between K-12 and higher education, and a commitment to designing systems around the learner experience rather than institutional convenience.
What gives us optimism is that this work is no longer happening in isolated pockets. Institutions, systems, and states are learning from one another, building on each other’s ideas, and creating momentum toward a more coordinated and student-centered future.
And ultimately, that future is about more than admissions.
It is about creating systems that affirm students’ potential instead of testing their ability to navigate bureaucracy. It is about replacing uncertainty with clarity, confusion with support, and stress with confidence and possibility.
Because when students feel welcomed into college, they’re far more likely to enroll, persist, and succeed.