Spring Break
Admissions process turns entirely paperless
Issue date: 12/4/08
With the new paperless system, reading of applications can begin as soon as the applications are submitted.
"We can now use those weeks [that were spent on organization] to read and think more about the decisions that we are making," Latting said.
Chris Pace, associate director for information technology at Hopkins, said that the of "lag-time" for an application used to be unnecessarily long.
"We decided to make the change because we were reaching a bottleneck in the amount of paper we could move around," Pace said.
Pace said the new system will streamline the process and increase "data reliability." The entire process is now overseen by one program, with little room for human error. The one downside to this new process is the added time it takes for readers to read an application. The new system is a very linear system of reading, according to Pace, and is a hard transition for those counselors who were used to "bringing applications home and laying them out on the kitchen table."
Joshua Reiter, who graduated from Hopkins in 1983, founded Applications Online after a dean at Hopkins offered him the chance to design the JHU Online Application. These school-specific applications, known as signature applications, as well as paper-based applications, are now the way of the past, according to Reiter.
Applications Online, though it does provide many signature applications, focuses on consortium applications - such as the UCA. According to Reiter, these consortium applications and online reading are the "way of the future."
"There's a steep learning curve; it's a much different experience reading online than it is when you can spread out and read at home. You really do have to re-learn how to read and process the information on an application," Admissions Director Daniel Creasy, who reads applications for New England, said of the new system.
Before coming to Hopkins, Creasy read for a school that was entirely online with its application process, so the concept isn't new to him, but he said that he was refreshed when he first came to Hopkins and was able to read paper applications once more.
"We can now use those weeks [that were spent on organization] to read and think more about the decisions that we are making," Latting said.
Chris Pace, associate director for information technology at Hopkins, said that the of "lag-time" for an application used to be unnecessarily long.
"We decided to make the change because we were reaching a bottleneck in the amount of paper we could move around," Pace said.
Pace said the new system will streamline the process and increase "data reliability." The entire process is now overseen by one program, with little room for human error. The one downside to this new process is the added time it takes for readers to read an application. The new system is a very linear system of reading, according to Pace, and is a hard transition for those counselors who were used to "bringing applications home and laying them out on the kitchen table."
Joshua Reiter, who graduated from Hopkins in 1983, founded Applications Online after a dean at Hopkins offered him the chance to design the JHU Online Application. These school-specific applications, known as signature applications, as well as paper-based applications, are now the way of the past, according to Reiter.
Applications Online, though it does provide many signature applications, focuses on consortium applications - such as the UCA. According to Reiter, these consortium applications and online reading are the "way of the future."
"There's a steep learning curve; it's a much different experience reading online than it is when you can spread out and read at home. You really do have to re-learn how to read and process the information on an application," Admissions Director Daniel Creasy, who reads applications for New England, said of the new system.
Before coming to Hopkins, Creasy read for a school that was entirely online with its application process, so the concept isn't new to him, but he said that he was refreshed when he first came to Hopkins and was able to read paper applications once more.
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