Nearly 1,500 high school juniors at Milwaukee Public Schools have already started their college journeys by applying to Milwaukee Area Technical College, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, or both.

The 1,497 juniors completed the free, simple M-Cubed Milwaukee Direct Admit form, a process that takes less than five minutes and requires no essays, no letters of recommendation, no test scores, attachments, or transcripts for the students to send.

Milwaukee Direct Admit effort is part of M-Cubed, a partnership connecting MPS, MATC and UWM to build bridges from K-12 to higher education and transform Milwaukee through education. As one initiative in the partnership, M-Cubed Milwaukee Direct Admit is specifically designed to simplify the college application process.

MPS provides UWM and MATC with transcripts and other needed information directly. And by starting the process early — during junior year instead of senior year — students can focus their senior year on finishing strong, completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and getting registered for college classes.

The 1,497 MPS juniors who applied represent 40.2% of the graduating class — exceeding M-Cubed’s goal of 35% and nearly doubling the 21% who applied last year. Last year’s applicants are now high school seniors and nearly 900 began their senior year with a college acceptance in hand.

Through another M-Cubed initiative — Smart Start — they spent their senior year getting to know one another, registering for classes and getting oriented to college. They can participate in a summer program, and the support continues into their first year at UWM or MATC.

Together, these efforts are aimed at increasing the number of Milwaukee high school students who go on to and succeed in higher education, lifting up the individuals, their families, our community — and building a skilled, diverse workforce.

This article was originally published here.