Issue 01 (September 2026)
A monthly five-minute briefing for college counselors and educators. We select a small number of developments that appear consequential rather than trying to summarize everything happening in admissions.
1. DIRECT ADMISSIONS IS BECOMING A REAL PART OF THE APPLICATION SYSTEM
Common App's Direct Admissions program has expanded to 234 participating institutions for the 2026–27 cycle.
Qualified first-generation and low- and middle-income students can receive non-binding admission offers before submitting an application, using information already entered into Common App.
More than 800,000 students received at least one direct-admission offer during the previous cycle.
For counselors: Students may increasingly encounter colleges through an admission offer rather than the traditional search-and-apply sequence. The counseling question becomes less "Can I get in?" and more "Is this institution actually a good academic, financial, and personal fit?"
Source: Common App.
2. THE 2027–28 FAFSA IS ALREADY IN BETA
The U.S. Department of Education has begun live beta testing of the 2027–28 FAFSA ahead of public availability expected by October 1, 2026.
Early beta participants have already submitted completed applications while technical fixes continue ahead of the wider launch.
For counselors: This belongs on senior-family calendars now. Given recent FAFSA implementation problems, early completion is particularly sensible for families applying to institutions or programs with priority financial-aid deadlines.
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Federal Student Aid.
3. MORE APPLICATIONS — BUT A DIFFERENT INTERNATIONAL PICTURE
Through March 1 of the 2025–26 cycle, approximately 1.43 million first-year applicants had submitted more than 9.4 million applications through returning Common App institutions.
Applicant growth was particularly strong among first-generation students and students from below-median-income ZIP codes.
International applicants, however, were down approximately 9% year over year at that stage of the cycle.
For counselors: National application growth should not be translated into a simple "college is getting harder everywhere" narrative. Domestic and international demand are moving differently, and aggregate numbers conceal considerable variation by institution and applicant market.
Source: Common App.
4. DO NOT ASSUME "TEST OPTIONAL"
Testing policy has become sufficiently fragmented that requirements need to be checked institution by institution.
For current first-year applicants, institutions including Cornell, Harvard, Brown, and MIT require standardized testing, although individual policies and reporting procedures differ.
For counselors: Testing strategy should be established early enough that a student's eventual college list is not unintentionally constrained by a requirement discovered late in the process.
Sources: Individual university admissions policies.
DATAWATCH
234 — Institutions participating in Common App Direct Admissions for 2026–27.
800,000+ — Students receiving at least one Common App direct-admission offer in the previous cycle.
+6% — Year-over-year growth in first-generation Common App applicants through March 1, 2026.
+8% — Growth in applicants from below-median-income ZIP codes during the same period.
–9% — Change in international first-year Common App applicants through March 1, even as domestic applicants increased.
WHAT WE ARE WATCHING
- The first Direct Admissions offers of the 2026–27 cycle
- The October FAFSA launch
- Early-application volume
- Continuing changes in standardized-testing requirements
- How universities adapt admissions and undergraduate education to widespread student use of AI
VELLUM INSTITUTE
Vellum Institute is a small, application-based online institute built around live university-faculty seminars for high-school students, with an optional opportunity to continue into one-on-one research with the same professor.
Every seminar is live. Every cohort is capped at fifteen students.
velluminstitute.org
The Vellum Counselor Brief is intended as a concise professional information resource. Policies and statistics should be linked to primary sources wherever available.