This month, 200,000 high school seniors will get automatic college acceptance letters — before even applying

In the wake of the Supreme Court’s affirmative action ruling, colleges are looking for new strategies to recruit students from diverse backgrounds, according to Jenny Rickard, CEO of the Common App.

“It’s about removing barriers,” she said. “It’s about equity and access.”

Each year, more than 1 million students — one-third third of whom are first-generation — use the common application to apply to school, research financial aid and scholarships, and connect to college counseling resources, according to the nonprofit organization.

Individual schools and school systems have also rolled out similar initiatives to broaden their reach. Last spring, the State University of New York sent automatic acceptance letters to 125,000 graduating high school students.

Nationwide, enrollment has noticeably lagged since the start of the pandemic, when a significant number of students decided against a four-year degree in favor of joining the workforce or completing a certificate program without the hefty price tag of the more advanced degree.

This fall, undergraduate enrollment grew for the first time since 2020, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center’s latest report.

But gains were not shared across the board. Community colleges notched the biggest increases year over year, the report found, accounting for almost 60% of the increase in undergraduates.

“Students are electing to pursue shorter-term programs,” said Doug Shapiro, executive director of the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. “More 18- to 20-year-olds, especially at four-year institutions, are opting out.”

Not only are fewer students interested in pursuing a four-year degree after high school, but the population of college-age students is also shrinking, a trend referred to as the “enrollment cliff.”

In fact, undergraduate enrollment in the U.S. topped out at…