Texas First-Generation College Applications Surge 72% Amid State Efforts

New data shows that Texas' efforts to expand college readiness and affordability are shepherding more students to apply, advancing the state’s essential goal of graduating 60% of working-age Texans with a higher education credential.

The Common App, considered the most popular U.S. application site for applying throughout the country, recorded that Texans who would be the first in their families to attend college applied at a 72% higher rate than the year previously — a bigger leap than any other state by nearly threefold — with more than 43,000 first-generation Texans who applied.

The increase comes at a time when the state is seeking to meet workforce demands and when trust in higher education is increasingly low. The platform saw a 19% increase for students who are not the first in their families to attend college at about 63,200 applicants.

“Texas in general, is a fast-growing state for applicants across the board,” said Brian Kim, Common Apps' director of data science, research and analytics. “What's interesting about the continuing versus first-generation stats in particular, is that first generation students are increasing at a much more rapid rate.”

First-generation students, as the first in their families who go to college, often face socioeconomic barriers that make a degree harder to access. But having an associates degree expands median earnings 18% higher than workers with a high school degree, and a bachelor’s degree yields a median salary that is 59% higher, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

And the need is evident. The state’s 2025 progress report showed that Texas is still 170,000 annually awarded credentials short of its 550,000 goal, and engaging more first-generation students in the workforce is essential in the state’s economic prosperity, experts say.

“When you look at the current job postings that are out nationally, one out of 11 are headquartered in Texas,” said David Troutman, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s deputy commissioner for academic affairs. "For us to meet this movement of our economic vitality and growth, we have to get Texans the skills they need to get that job so they can realize that as dollars in their pocket.”

The Common App, which allows access to more than 1,000 universities, added the University of Texas and Texas A&M in 2022. Kim said that could be driving more Texans to the platform, but such applicants would only show up in the data if they also applied to a university that was on the platform in 2020, when the data collection started.

Even so, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, the state’s top authority on higher education, saw a slight increase in applicants using its Texas-only Apply Texas website with more than 1.4 million applicants this year, slightly exceeding its average of 1.2 million to 1.4 million, Sarah Keyton, deputy commissioner for administration and operations, said. The state agency’s breakdown of demographics won’t be available until September, she said, but innovative efforts have streamlined accessibility and opportunity.

How is Texas supporting applicants?

In 2023, Texas was one of the first states to establish a personalized, state-run “one-stop shop,” for higher education in the country, Troutman said. The website, MyTexasFuture.org, allows any student to access information about future career paths and degrees, tailored to their grade level. It saves data to make applying easier, he said, and meets students where they are.

Also since 2023, high school students on free or reduced lunch have been able to take dual credit courses through the FAST program for free. The provision, established by 2023’s House Bill 8, allows students to have a “taste of college in a low-risk environment,” Troutman said, and may serve as “momentum” prompting more first-generation students to apply.

“What we've heard from parents and students applying for college is (it’s) really stressful. It’s a major decision,” Troutman said. "Sarah and I are committed to making sure that we're lowering the anxiety of students as they're going through and applying for college.”

Additionally, Direct Admissions, a new feature on the MyTexasFuture website launched last fall by the state, also gives students the option to see exactly what Texas public colleges and universities they will be admitted to after answering questions about their test scores and grade point average, making the process more predictable for students. The Common App also has a direct admissions offering, which Kim said is more “frequently” used by underrepresented students such as first-gen applicants and makes applying seem more attainable.

So far, more than 10,000 students have opted in to Texas' Direct Admissions, said Keyton, and more are expected this year.

“There's some other states that are doing different pieces of what we're doing, and we're certainly in really good dialogue with those states and learning from them, and they're learning from us. But I think Texas is probably unique in the size and scale and number of initiatives that we're combining all together at once,” Keyton said.

What’s next

The success of these programs has incentivized the Texas Legislature to invest more in the coordinating board’s efforts to increase higher education access. A big part of that is affordability, the number one reason students opt out of higher education.

Even with Direct Admissions, many students must pay fees to submit an application. If a student applies to five Texas colleges, that can be up to $375 in application fees, Troutman said.

But thanks to legislative support, Senate Bill 2231 will establish a “free college application week," where during the second week in October any student applying to a Texas public college through Apply Texas will have no application fees. Another bill, SB 2314, requires colleges to show students MyTexasFuture so they are aware of the opportunities.

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board also obtained a “significant increase” in funding that will make financial aid more predictable for students. Starting in 2027, any student in the top 25% who meets need-based criteria will be “guaranteed” a financial aid award, Keyton said.

Beyond the coordinating board, individual systems are spearheading access. UT System, the largest public university system in the state, announced a new investment in its promise program last November where students from households with a combined income of $100,000 or less can attend tuition-free.

Applications and access is key, but it’s not a total fix, experts agreed. Support for first-generation students, which is exempt from Texas’s anti-DEI law, are essential in helping students earn a credential, as first-generation students still graduate at lower rates.

“Access is just the start,” Keyton said. “Let's get them to open that door, and then we have to meet them where they're at and support them in their journey towards a credential value.”

“We're really excited by the the positive outcomes that we've seen so far with these initiatives, but over the next two to three years, as we take those to scale, and as these students move through higher education, there will be even more sort of good news and progress to share that we're excited about,” Keyton said.