IT’S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN, when California 12th graders have finished their college applications and perfected those personal insight question responses and are now eagerly awaiting that prized letter of admission.
But come fall 2026, some high school seniors will have a leg up over the competition: guaranteed admission to select California State University campuses.
Senate Bill 640, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom last October, took effect Jan. 1. The bill not only establishes the CSU Direct Admission Program for eligible California high schoolers, but it also improves current transfer programs for state community college students — two ways that legislators are trying to mitigate declining enrollment rates at several CSU campuses.
To be eligible for the streamlined admissions process at the 16 select CSU schools, students must have a GPA of 2.5 or higher in certain core coursework required by the universities and be on track to graduate.
To see how this bill may affect students in local school districts, high school students and staff from the Mt. Diablo Unified School District (MDUSD) were asked their thoughts on the bill.
Fernando Solis, a 12th grader at Concord High School in Concord, acknowledged the benefit and opportunity the bill affords to students who are disadvantaged, economically or otherwise. He said that, as well as saving students the application costs (CSU applications require a $70 fee), it acts as a safety net.
“It saves money because you just get accepted,” he said. “You’re guaranteed a school, an opportunity.”
Madilynn Todd, an 11th grader at College Park High School in Pleasant Hill, said the bill offers a second chance for students who may want to turn around their mistakes. She hopes this bill will address the lack of motivation students face when they get “stuck.”
“They know their GPA is really low and they can’t figure out how to get out of it, or they’re not motivated to get out of it,” she said.
Getting that direct letter of admission would serve as a boost of encouragement that would motivate a lot of students, Todd said.
“It would motivate me!”
The community college stigma
Todd said she’d also like to see community colleges promoted in a more positive light to students, admitting that some people within her social scene view them with a kind of stigma. She said that they are often seen as a “cop-out” and different from a “real” college.
Similar to Solis, she urged students to have an open mind when it comes to their options after high school. Although her post-high school plans are different for now, she likes having options.
“It is kind of relieving to know that I could go to a CSU if I needed to,” Todd said.
State Sen. Christopher Cabaldon D-Yolo, who authored the bill, cited the powerful incentive a direct letter of admission can hold in a July 2025 hearing in front of the California Assembly Standing Committee on Higher Education.
“It’s not an email, it’s not a tweet,” he said. “It is a hard letter because we want students and their families to have the experience of getting that letter from the college that you open up.”
Declining enrollment rates at some CSU campuses is a problem Cabaldon wanted to address, mentioning Sonoma State in Rohnert Park and the Cal Poly Maritime Academy in Vallejo.
Both campuses have been facing declining first-time undergraduate enrollments. While other CSU campuses have been experiencing surges in applications, these two schools continue to wane. Sonoma State is facing a $24 million budget crunch after enrollment went from about 9,000 students in 2018 to around 5,800 in 2025, according to CalMatters. At Cal Poly Maritime, enrollment dropped 31% between 2016 and 2024, CalMatters reported.
Keeping student options open
Rima Boujaoude is a counselor for high school students at the College Now program, a partnership between the MDUSD and Diablo Valley College. She is highly involved with helping students navigate college and financial aid applications — a process that not only involves helping students complete those steps but also making sure they are informed about how it works and any changes in the process. SB 640 is one of those changes. Boujaoude acknowledged the statewide benefit the bill will have for high school seniors.
Drawing parallels with Cabaldon, Boujaoude recognized that a CSU application can be daunting in itself, even for eligible students — and that a letter guaranteeing them admission can be “very powerful.”
Boujaoude was enthusiastic about the ease students will have in transferring from a two-year school to a four-year school.
“As much as you can tell a student, ‘You’re eligible, let’s apply, you can do this,’ it’s something else to just be like: ‘You are accepted to college.’ It’s more final, more concrete proof that the student is college-ready.”
Rima Boujaoude, high school counselor
“I love that!” she exclaimed, saying that school counselors have been proponents of “TAGing,” or using the Transfer Admission Guarantee offered by the University of California system for community college students. “I always hoped that there would be a CSU semi-equivalent,” she said.
She hopes that this transfer program will help keep student options open.
Boujaoude expressed some concerns regarding the way the CSU system determines eligibility. The bill dictates that eligibility will be ascertained by the CaliforniaColleges.edu website, which collects data on the courses a student has taken and aligns it with the courses needed for admission, essentially transferring student transcripts into the application process.
“I would love if that piece could be fine-tuned, because currently, even some of our high school classes are not appearing correctly, especially the dual enrollment classes, which we all have to do manually,” she said. “That’s probably the greatest opportunity for errors.”
Dual enrollment is when students take college classes in high school to earn credit.
Boujaoude said that “more concrete guidance” from the CSU and UC systems on how to import dual enrollment courses would be helpful, pointing out the rise in these programs.
“There are some courses where, when I call the hotlines, and I read the counselor conference notes, the best answer they can give us is like, ‘Use your best judgment,’” Boujaoude said.
She said that going through so many hoops to get these questions answered is unrealistic, both for counselors and the students they work with.
‘Concrete proof’ of college readiness
As for declining enrollment rates, Boujaoude suggested that CSU campuses reach out to local high school counselors as a sort of bridge to broaden outreach and bolster interest, drawing on her experience at a CSU East Bay counselor conference.
But with this bill, the adults in students’ lives — teachers, parents and counselors — also have more options for how they prepare students for their next steps in life. Boujaoude said so much focus is on pushing kids to apply for schools. Now it can be, OK, you are in. Let’s do this.
“As much as you can tell a student, ‘You’re eligible, let’s apply, you can do this,’ it’s something else to just be like: ‘You are accepted to college.’ It’s more final, more concrete proof that the student is college-ready,” she said.
And while the application itself is pretty straightforward, Boujaoude said there are other barriers. “It’s not a giant hurdle, but there’s something going on in here,” she said, pointing to her head.
It’s a problem that few students can articulate for themselves: the mental hurdle of applying to college, which is especially prevalent with first-generation college-bound students, she said.
Overall, Boujaoude said that she sees this bill as helping the majority of high school students.
“I think getting a letter in the mail provides hope and confidence for the student and their families that they are ready for the next step,” she said. “I think it automatically leads to more openness to trying something that they may not have been willing to try before.”
Mischa Caluma is a 12th grader at Mt. Diablo High School in Concord and a CCYJ reporter. This story originally appeared in CCSpin.