At B.C. Rain High School in Mobile, the news didn’t come all at once. Students trickled into the counselors’ office to say the words counselors Niki Dailey and Demetria Smith will never forget: I got in.
For some, it was the first time they’d ever seen proof that college could be within reach. Dailey said one student sat on her office couch, astonished, telling her he never thought he would get accepted anywhere.
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Every single senior at B.C. Rain – 145 students – completed a profile through Alabama’s new Direct Admission Initiative, making the school the only one of Mobile County’s 12 high schools to reach 100% participation in the first round.
The result: $31.7 million in scholarship offers for the Class of 2026 — a record for the school, which historically has had one of the lowest college-going rates in the county.
Last year, only 39% of Rain’s graduates enrolled in any postsecondary education, compared with 50% in Mobile County and 57% statewide, according to the Alabama Commission on Higher Education.
“In the history of Rain,” Dailey said, “we’ve never seen anything like this.”
One student received $831,000 in scholarship offers. Others are comparing totals “like they’re competing,” Dailey said.
What happened at B.C. Rain reflects a larger shift unfolding across Alabama.
The Direct Admission Initiative, launched by the nonprofit Alabama Possible, automatically connects high school seniors with colleges that match their academic profiles — no essays, no application fees and no fear of wholesale rejection.
Statewide, more than 20,000 seniors — nearly half of Alabama’s graduating class — have participated so far, far surpassing the expectations of Chandra Scott, Alabama Possible’s executive director.
“I literally told everyone, if we had five to 8,000 students participate in the first year, it’s a win,” Scott said. “And we have almost reached 50% of the graduating class.”
Seniors statewide have collectively received 145,741 admission and scholarship offers, totaling $4.4 billion, including $2.2 billion associated with 108,000 offers from in-state colleges and another $2.2 billion tied to 37,000 offers from out-of-state institutions.
“Every student who completed a profile got at least one offer of admission,” Scott said, but not all students received scholarship offers.
Seniors across Mobile County school district as a whole received $618 million in scholarship offers and more than 20,000 offers of admission.
Making the ‘first step’
Scott said the high participation rate in the initiative rejects the narrative that today’s young people are unmotivated.
“Students aren’t lazy,” she said. “They’ve felt defeated. When you feel defeated, it’s hard to make the first step. And then when you do make the first step and get a rejection letter, you’re done.”
Through direct admission, she said, students who once doubted their place in college are instead receiving messages that say “you belong here.”
Counselors Dailey and Smith saw that shift firsthand.
They learned about the initiative in September and had barely two weeks to act. They rallied their students through homerooms, small-group sessions and made it a competition.
“We told our kids, we’re in a competition with other high schools in the district, and we’re going to win,” Smith said. “They took it and they ran with it.”
When the acceptance offers came in, the joy was palpable.
“They were like, ‘Oh my gosh, we got accepted! We got accepted!’” Smith said. The counselors started pulling up the scholarship dollar amounts and were wowed. “We were blown away.”
So were their students. “Especially the ones that didn’t think that they would be accepted anywhere, or had no plan to go into college, for them to come and to see their offers — it was wonderful,” Smith continued.
For a school where college has not always been a visible next step, the change has been profound.
“It’s given them hope,” Dailey said. “Their confidence has gotten much, much better. They’re saying, ‘I can do this.’”
Now, the counselors are shifting from celebration to strategy. Smith said they’re helping students log back into the portal, answer college-specific questions, and formally accept their offers — most of which are due by Dec. 5.
Dailey said those conversations include practical advice about comparing options.
“They know this is a big decision, and you have to look at the finances – how much they’re offering you, how much you have to pay, the location, and even if the college has your intended major,” she said. “We definitely want their parents to be involved in that decision.”
The cost of attending college can be in the tens of thousands of dollars, and scholarship offers likely won’t cover it all.
They’re also reminding seniors that the offers only matter if they graduate.
“We keep it real with them,” Dailey said. “We tell them that all of this is irrelevant if you don’t do what you have to do to complete high school.
“You have to get out of here first.”
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Trisha Powell Crain and originally published by Alabama Daily News.
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