The University of New Hampshire, Plymouth State and Keene State are making it possible for certain high-school seniors to be automatically accepted even without applying, part of a national trend known as direct admission.

UNH and PSU announced Monday that they would use a private company called Niche to run a pilot direct admission program for high school seniors who are graduating next spring. Niche lists more than 110 colleges and universities across the country that use its program, including three in Massachusetts and two in Maine.

“Students admitted via the Niche program are held to the same standards as any other student we welcome; however, they now have a quicker, more straightforward path to enrollment,” Kimberly DeRego, vice provost of enrollment management at UNH, said in a statement.

Keene State started offering direct admission for the Class of 2025 through the non-profit Common Application, which started testing the admission program in 2021 and now runs it at 116 colleges and universities.

In both programs, students create a profile, including information like grades and test scores, on the relevant website. If parameters set by the college or university are met, that triggers an offer for direct admission without the letters of recommendation, essays and application forms that are traditional to the process. There is no cost to the student to participate. 

Peg Richmond, Keene State’s director of admissions, said the school went with the Common App program because it specifically targets first-generation students and those from lower-income families, meeting the school’s goals for accessibility. Other school-set parameters include geography – Keene State is targeting most of the Northeast – and the student’s desired major. 

“We’re not just casting a huge net. This is targeted at people that might not otherwise (apply),” she said.

As of last month Keene State had sent out 312 notices through the program telling students they were eligible for direct admission, and will be following up to gauge their interest and financial needs as the academic year goes on, she said. 

The idea of admitting students without them having to apply is increasingly popular, having been launched in various forms – sometimes with state oversight, sometimes by individual schools – in a half-dozen states over the past two years. It is particularly of interest to second-tier colleges competing over a shortage of graduating seniors in the United States as well as two-year community colleges, reeling from enrollment declines that started during the pandemic.

Making it easier to apply and be accepted at schools or to transfer among colleges is often seen as an important method for higher education to face its demographic challenge. A task force studying New Hampshire’s higher education system, for example, has recommended that graduating New Hampshire students should automatically be admitted.

The number of graduating high school seniors in the country is forecast to stagnate at around 3.9 million over the next couple of years and then fall by at least 10% over the following decade. The decline is likely to be more drastic in New Hampshire, which has one of the oldest populations in the country.