BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – 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.

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 on

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