Rather than relying on traditional measures of student performance, new admissions procedures for four-year institutions attempt to describe what students know and can do. Current procedures do not reflect integrated curriculum and applied learning, and they penalize multidisciplinary project and work-based learning program participants. Four states have implemented competency-based admissions policies and procedures. California's Transitions project has designed secondary school instruments reporting student achievement and potential in the language of performance. The University of Wisconsin's Competency-Based Admissions System gives diversely prepared students an alternative method for admission consideration. Oregon's Proficiency-Based Admissions Standards System prepares more students to do college-level work successfully and enables them to make better choices concerning their academic program and subsequent careers. Washington's competency-based admissions plan creates a pathway to college for students taking nontraditional courses. Conclusions about the use of changing admissions for students in a career-oriented curriculum are as follows: (1) considerable time and resources are needed to develop new admissions assessment strategies and materials; (2) vocational-technical educators have seldom participated in these developmental efforts; and (3) the impact of these initiatives on educators is significant. (Contains 31 references.) (YLB)