The Center for Innovation in College Admission engages in research and design of programs and tools that have potential to reimagine college admission into a more equitable process. Our work has three goals:  

• To redesign structures around the college application process. 

• To advance alternatives for assessing merit and college readiness. 

• To shape the future of a healthy and diverse admission workforce. 

Admissions Success Coaching
The Admissions Success Coaching initiative aims to support a student’s sense of belonging at an institution prior to matriculation — an essential and required change in the college admission process. Read more.

Reimagining College Access (RCA)
Building on the work initiated by the Learning Policy Institute, RCA promotes the understanding and integration of performance assessments into college admission. Read more about it in NACAC’s magazine, The Journal of College Admission.

Character Focus Initiative (CFI)
CFI develops research-based resources and best practices for advancing the identification and consideration of positive character-related attributes in the admission process. Learn more about the Character Focus Initiative.

Start.edu
A collaboration between Slate.org and NACAC, Start.edu offers a recommendation search engine utilizing historical and real-time insights that help students discover colleges and refine their college searches.

Several projects to re-envision aspects of the college admission landscape have laid the groundwork for the development of a dedicated innovation hub, including:

Toward a More Equitable Future for Postsecondary Access
This 2022 report from NACAC and the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) is the result of a months-long project funded by Lumina Foundation that seeks to reimagine college admission and financial aid through an equity lens. The report recommends a series of actions for admission and financial aid practitioners, educational institutions, and state and federal agencies and policymakers. And it urges further, deeper study and examination of issues that create barriers to entry to postsecondary education for traditional-aged and adult students of color, particularly Black students.

Elevate Equity 2023 convening and report
NACAC hosted a convening with institutional leaders — deans or vice-presidents of admission, institutional presidents, and trustees with knowledge of or a liaison responsibility for admission — in Chicago in February 2023. This convening, named Elevate Equity, served as the first point of operationalization of the recommendations from Toward a More Equitable Future for Postsecondary Access.

Centering Students in Equitable Admission Practices committee and report
A committee in 2023 was asked to help NACAC operationalize the recommendations from the NACAC-NASFAA report, Toward a More Equitable Future for Postsecondary Access, that institutions include students in the development of college admission counseling policies and practices, particularly where questions of equity are involved. The committee created a framework for institutions to use in identifying student populations for inclusion, structuring conversations with students, and integrating student recommendations into policy and practice.

Assessing Character in the College Admission Process
This discussion paper honors the legacy of the late David Holmes, co‑founder of the Character Collaborative (now part of NACAC's Character Focus Initiative that's within the Center for Innovation in College Admission), by exploring how character and non‑academic traits — often overlooked by standard admission metrics — can enrich holistic college evaluation. The report underscores that social‑emotional skills like empathy, resilience, and leadership strongly correlate with student success and well‑being, advocating for institutions to thoughtfully incorporate these traits into assessment alongside grades and test scores.