San Francisco State Guarantees Admission to SF Public School Students

High schoolers in the San Francisco Unified School District and San Francisco City College students applying to college are now guaranteed admission to San Francisco State University.

On Thursday, the University and City College announced a partnership with the San Francisco Unified School District that guarantees admissions to high school seniors who meet certain eligibility requirements — benefitting both students and the University, which has suffered from declining enrollment.

The loss of students caused SFSU to announce a financial emergency in 2024. SFSU president Lynn Mahoney said that the school was expecting “significant reductions in the 2025–26 budget.”

Katie Lynch, who manages enrollment for SFSU, said guaranteed admissions could help keep the University afloat.

“We are deploying a number of strategies, one of them being the guaranteed admissions with San Francisco Unified and City College of San Francisco to help mitigate the loss of enrollment that we’re seeing and to bolster our relationship with our San Francisco residents as the institution of choice for them,” she said.

Now, the University will send all eligible students in San Francisco a postcard in the mail with the words, “Congratulations, You’re In!”

The new partnership is part of a larger movement to increase state college enrollment in California.

Last year, the California State University system announced a direct admissions pilot program with Riverside County in which about 12,000 high school seniors will be offered admission to a CSU for the fall 2025 term.

Earlier this month, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SB 640, which expanded the program throughout California and allows every high school student to be admitted automatically if they have the grades to get in. The law takes effect in January, with full statewide participation starting for fall 2027 applicants.

To qualify, high school students must have a GPA of at least 2.5 and City College students must have a GPA of 2.0, among other requirements. Students still need to formally apply and pay the $70 application fee after they receive the offer.

“While we don’t know exactly how many students this will yield, we do think that year over year this will build greater momentum with enrolling San Francisco Unified and City College students,” Lynch said.

“I think it is going to reduce barriers for several hundred students who aren’t taking advantage of the educational wealth of the city,” said San Francisco State President Lynn Mahoney.

Kimberlee Messina, chancellor of City College of San Francisco, said she sees the new program as a way to reduce barriers for students looking to attend college.

“This partnership is demystifying all of the complications of higher education for our San Francisco students,” she said.