Tech customizes on-line admissions process

The college admissions process can prove to be a daunting and confusing task for any high school student. However, future Tech students may not have to undergo such an ordeal if the Office of Undergraduate Admissions’s newest project is a success.

“It’s live! It has been up for two weeks,” said Director of Admissions Ingrid Hayes, referring to the new undergraduate admissions website, www.admissions. gatech.edu.

The new website is built around information like campus life, admissions, housing, profiles, message boards and chatrooms. Instead of having information scattered throughout Tech’s main website, information will be consolidated and take prospective students directly to relevant information.

The change comes as part of Tech’s continuous review of the application process.

“We have always been interested in trying to be more personalized,” Hayes said. “Georgia Tech is a fairly large school and we get lots of applications. So, we are always looking for ways to have a more personal interaction with the students.”

Hayes said the project of creating the website was ready to be implemented this past summer.

“It looked like we really would be able to pull together the information...in time for the fall season,” Hayes said.

The site personalizes information for individual students. For example, instead of sending information about certain programs to all applicants, students can log in and input their interests. This gives Tech the ability to target specific students who showed interest in one aspect of the school or another.

In addition, “as you advance through the [application] process, you get access to more features, more things. So the process gets more and more personalized,” Hayes said.

Currently, all capabilities are in place with the exception of chatrooms. In the future, Admissions hopes to add BuzzPort capabilities.

The new website and its features were created by Connexxia LLC, a company which specializes in a personal admissions system that tracks a student’s progress throughout the process. The system also collects statistical data on students and relays it back to the school. Schools in turn can use this data to better present information or improve areas where students showed concern.

This system allows for the application process to continue to evolve and cater more and more to student and school needs, Hayes said.

Cost and time were the main factors that influenced the decision to use Connexxia.

“They have it ready to go, as opposed to the months...it might have taken [Tech] to develop something as dynamic and robust as this particular product,” Hayes said.

“There are people on campus who can do lots of different components, but to have...a one-stop shop...is going to be the most cost-effective and also efficient.”

"[Connexxia employees] are very good. They have had some success with some other schools,” Hayes said. Connexxia’s other clients include Duke University, the University of North Carolina Charlotte and Northwestern College.

Student reaction to the new website has been mixed. Some think this change was necessary, while others think it will prove useless.

“I think it would have been useful,” freshman Brent Page said. “It is more organized now compared to the pages when I was applying.”

Varun Gandhi, however, disagreed. “The site is useless for current students. The money could have gone towards better Calc. 2 and CS TAs.”

Although the website is geared towards prospective students, Hayes said she believes there are benefits for current students in terms of meeting new people.

“I think the best way is by helping us recruit...strong students like [current students]. It will bring more of those students into the process and give them an opportunity to interact with [current students]...in a more personal way.”

This interaction is achieved through the profiles section and the message board. In the profiles section, current students can post their profiles for prospective students to see in order to provide an opportunity for people with similar interests to get to know each other.

On the message boards, prospective students can ask current students about dorms, professor accessibility, class size and other campus life aspects that incoming freshmen would want to know about.

Hayes said she hopes that a more personal and dynamic admissions process will help recruit better qualified students while simultaneously cutting back on cost.

“The college admissions decision is a very important one for students and we want to able to offer as much information for that student to make the correct decision. Hopefully we will get lots of interest and increased prospects in applications,” Hayes said.