Making applying to college a lot easier

What if we just erase that gap between high school and higher education? What if we made applying to university as easy as transitioning from ninth to tenth grade?

Those were questions asked by freshman Senator Christopher Cabaldon (D-West Sacramento) and the inspiration for Senate Bill 640.

Before being elected to the Senate, Cabaldon was mayor of West Sacramento for two decades, making him one of the longest-serving mayors of the city.

In his tenure as mayor, West Sacramento became “the first city in the nation to implement universal preschool, college savings accounts for all kindergarteners, paid internships for high school students in college-and-career pathways, free community college and automatic college admission letters to every local graduating senior,” according to Cabaldon’s Senate biography.

Given his policy emphasis on education, his authoring of SB 640 comes as no surprise.

SB 640 will establish the “CSU Direct Admission Program,” essentially a more streamlined approach for high school students applying to universities.

Under this bill, high school students who meet the following criteria: a 2.5 GPA and fulfillment of the A-G requirements, would get automatic admission into the 16 California State Universities that are a part of the CSU Direct Admission Program.

The bill also increases the timeline for eligible community college students to be admitted to the CSUs in the Direct Admission Program. Community college students would now have 3 years instead of 2, to complete an Associate Degree for Transfer.

This comes at no cost or additional work to students other than passing their classes. Their local educational agencies would be in charge of submitting their A-G course paperwork and other relevant data to CaliforniaColleges.edu, where the CSU would pull from to send their physical admission letters.

The universities included in the program are the following: CSU Channel Islands, CSU Bakersfield, Chico State, CSU Dominguez Hills, Cal State East Bay, Fresno State, Cal Poly Humboldt, Cal State LA, CSU Northridge, Sacramento State, Cal State San Bernardino, San Francisco State, Cal State San Marcos, Sonoma State, Cal State Monterey Bay and Stanislaus State.

Impacted CSUs such as Cal Poly Pomona, San Jose State, CSU Long Beach, San Diego State, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and CSU Fullerton are not included in the program and require additional application procedures and fees.

SB 640 comes at the perfect time for the CSU, which has struggled greatly in recent years with low enrollment and having 3% of the system’s budget deferred to fiscal year 2026-27, according to Sacramento State’s budget information.

The bill does many things that the CSU is “excited about,” said April Grommo, Assistant Vice Chancellor of Strategic Enrollment Management for the CSU.

In addition to streamlining the enrollment process, the program would direct prospective students to universities that are in need.

“They already have the faculty, they already have the counselors, they already have the staff on campus waiting for students,” Cabaldon said, adding “This is an example of where the government can achieve really, really significant breakthroughs without it costing a billion dollars.”

The CSU is unique in that it is “the nation’s largest public four-year university in the system, and California’s most powerful socioeconomic mobility force,” Grommo said.

“We serve over half a million students across all walks of life, and so to expand access to public higher education the CSU launched this pilot program last year, and so we’re really looking to expand and strengthen our effort statewide,” she said.

The pilot program Grommo referenced was a 2024 initiative in which the CSU partnered with Riverside County to give all eligible students at every public high school in Riverside County direct admission to 10 CSUs, according to the CSU press release.

“This is an example of where the government can achieve really, really significant breakthroughs without it costing a billion dollars.”

An interesting component of the bill is that all prospective students will get a physical letter in the mail congratulating them on their admission.

To Cabaldon, a physical letter represents not only a student’s hard work, but, also the sacrifices their family members have made along the way.

“So you would get a letter of admission directly before the application period opens up,” Cabaldon said. “And part of the reason for that is that we’re hoping that you will go to one of these universities [CSUs], but also that we trigger in you recognition that you are university material.”

Since students would be receiving these letters in the fall season, they still have time to apply to other universities they are interested in. There is no requirement to attend the CSUs.

“For me, part of the beauty of the bill is it costs basically nothing,” Cabaldon said. “It’ll cost the postage, yeah, but it will save students a lot of money in the applications.”

Having a population of almost 40 million people, spanning all ages, races, ethnicities, religions and more, California’s educational landscape is a mirror of that diversity.

With more students of color, first-generation students and students from low-income families, equity is not just a priority, but a defining feature and “one of our strengths of our higher ed system,” said Su Jin Jez, CEO of California Competes: Higher Education for a Strong Economy, a nonpartisan research and policy organization.

“Having a higher education is so beneficial, both for the individual but also for the general population,” Jez said.

Having more college graduates strengthens an economy, drives new innovation, results in higher salaries which means more spending and more tax revenue and reduces pressure on state budgets since college graduates are less likely to need public assistance, according to Jez.

Higher education, Jez said, “remains one of the strongest predictors of upward mobility.”

SB 640 was signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Oct. 6 and will be implemented fall 2026 for the 2027-28 academic year.

Acsah Lemma is an intern with Capitol Weekly’s Public Policy Journalism Internship program.