LAYTON — If you’re currently a high school senior in Weber, Davis and Morgan counties, congratulations — you’ve been automatically admitted to Weber State University, Davis Technical College and Ogden-Weber Technical College and will be receiving confirmation of this shortly.

During an announcement event Thursday at Northridge High School in Layton, the presidents of the three educational institutions announced the formation of a partnership known as the Northern Wasatch Collegiate Coalition, or NWCC, and that they would be granting automatic admittance to more than 10,000 seniors in the Ogden, Weber, Morgan and Davis school districts along with those attending some area private and charter schools.

“In the next few weeks, 10,000 high school seniors in Weber, Davis and Morgan counties will be receiving letters of admittance to our three institutions … without ever filling out an admissions application or paying an application fee,” WSU President Brad Mortensen said. “This letter will say, ‘You are admitted to our three institutions.’ It streamlines that process a great deal so students who may have wondered if they were college material or who were scared about filling out college admissions applications — that’s no longer a barrier to them.”

Rachel Badali, news coordinator with marketing and communications at WSU, told the Standard-Examiner in an email that the private and charter institutions included at this time are NUAMES (the Northern Utah Academy for Math, Engineering & Science), DaVinci Academy of Science and the Arts, and St. Joseph Catholic High School of Ogden.

Thursday’s announcement comes on the heels of the rollout of the statewide Admit Utah program.

Mortensen told members of the media afterward that the NWCC’s initiative goes a step further.

“Admit Utah, right now, is a site that students can go to to help them have resources about all of the schools that they can get into, but they still have to go on from there, connect to the individual institutions and fill out the admissions applications,” he said. “This takes out that last step. They can go to Admit Utah, but they are already admitted to Weber State, Ogden-Weber Tech and Davis Tech. We ask them to fill out a seven- or eight-question intention to enroll form that’s confirming their name, birthday and preferred contact information. Admit Utah goes from A-P and then we’re going the rest of the way through the end of the alphabet with direct admissions.”

In addition to announcing the admission of students, Mortensen also announced two new programs to help students who might attend one of the two tech schools before moving on to Weber State for an associate or bachelor’s degree.

The first of those programs is called Jump Start.

“For students that are taking their certificate program at a technical college, they can take core general education courses through Weber State University for the same tuition that they pay at a technical college, which is $95 per credit hour,” Mortensen said. “That’s a lot less than what they would pay once they came to the university. Jump Start will really help students who are in technical college — who know they want to go on and get an associate’s or bachelor’s degree — get an affordable leg up on that opportunity.”

He said the second program is known as Tech Transfer, which will allow students who have completed their certificate at one of the participating technical colleges to transfer 21 general education elective credits toward a degree at WSU.

“Again, that is a huge cost savings to those students,” Mortensen said. “They don’t have to pay to take those credits in elective courses over again, and it is also a huge time savings as far as them being able to be quicker at progressing through their degree.”

Mortensen said initiatives like this are especially important as more specialized jobs arrive in the region at a rapid pace.

“Utah is positioned, over the next five to 10 years, to see a big increase in the number of jobs in the workforce that require some type of postsecondary certificate or degree,” he said. “We know we have to entice more of our population to come to college and get a degree in order to meet the workforce needs that we have in the state.”

Also speaking Thursday was Davis Tech President Darin Brush, who said the admittance initiative has two goals.

“We want more high school graduates to access higher education and earn credentials, certificates and degrees,” he said. “Second, for those who delay pursuing higher education, we want them to get started sooner.”

OTECH President James Taggart said there’s a distinct advantage for students who attend these three schools.

“Weber State, Davis Tech and Ogden-Weber Tech have some of the highest return-on-investments anywhere in the state of Utah and the nation,” he said. “A national study completed by Georgetown University evaluated 4,500 institutions across the country. When looking at the data for Utah, it found that Davis Tech, Weber State University and Ogden-Weber Tech have the three highest return-on-investment. That means the out-of-pocket money that you pay versus what you will earn is the highest.”

Davis School District Superintendent Dan Linford used the metaphor of a party to explain the new initiative.

“My entire career, we’ve been telling kids about this party that we want them to attend,” he said. “We’ve been aligning programming to even tell them the party exists and that they should go. Then we align more programming to get them entrance into this party. It’s a game changer to have the hosts of the party send the invitation, and that’s what’s happening today.”

Also on hand was Ogden High School senior Grace Malan.

“Like many students my age, I spent a lot of time planning for my future,” she said. “However, as we all know, applying for colleges can be a long process filled with anxiety and uncertainty. The various factors involved can make higher education feel daunting, if not downright discouraging.”

She said the direct admissions process will be a game changer for students.

“Students just like me have a reason to feel hopeful and excited about our futures,” she said. “This new approach removes significant barriers, making the transition to college much smoother.”

Following the announcement, the three college presidents and Linford presented Malan with her direct admissions packet, making her the first student to receive it.

Mortensen said this isn’t a one-time offer, either.

“We’re committed to this going forward,” he said. “We are hopeful that the rest of the institutions across the state will be joining us next year or in future years to do a similar thing where these students will not only get an admissions letter to our three institutions, but they’ll get an admissions letter to many more across the state.”