Admissions process turns entirely paperless

As part of a University-wide effort to conserve paper and utilize modern technology, the Office of Undergraduate Admissions has announced their "paperless" application process for the 2008-2009 application season.

Admissions directors spent much of the summer collaborating with Applications Online, a for-profit, Baltimore based business run by two Hopkins alumni, in order to begin offering a 100 percent online application and application reading process this fall.

According to John Latting, dean of Undergraduate Admissions, nearly 90 percent of students who applied to Hopkins last year applied online. Under the old system, each application had to be printed out and distributed to admissions readers.

"We had someone whose entire job was to print out hard copies so that people could read them ... It was certainly not the most efficient way to proceed. To keep the information in the medium in which we receive it is really more efficient," Latting said.

Hopkins has offered the Common Application Online and the JHU Online Application for several years, but starting this year, Hopkins will also be offering the Universal College Application.

Unlike in previous years, admissions counselors will now be reading each application online, and the few paper applications that are submitted will be scanned into the University's computer system.

Latting said that the change means that he can employ admissions readers from other parts of the country, without risk of losing or misplacing an application.

"We have one reader whose fiancé lives in Boulder, Colo. Now, he is able to go to Boulder and read from there, without any concern about security ... With paper applications, the risk of losing a suitcase, losing an application was way too high," he said.

The changes were also made in order to expedite what has traditionally been a long and tedious process of organizing applications, inputting data and manually calculating GPA updates - a process that meant that Regular Decision readings couldn't begin until mid-January.

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.

"[I used to feel] a sort of epiphany in being able to touch the application and feel connected to a student. [Now that we're] switching to online reading, there is a hesitation, the concern that you'll lose that, but you just need to find a new way to continue the relationship with the applicant."

Creasy, who reads approximately 1,200 applications in a given year, described his approach to application reading.

"Every application I open is a conversation - this student sat down and wrote about who they are, and I think it's my responsibility to find out if they are a good fit for Hopkins. People think [the admissions decision] is a function of numbers, but at the end of the day you just want to find the right person for Hopkins."

One of the best things about the new system, Creasy said, is the ability to work collaboratively. As the entire system is online, counselors can simultaneously view an application from different locations, allowing for a more holistic and shared process.

Additionally, the process is customizable for each admissions officer. Pace and his colleagues worked to customize the program in a way that would satisfy the majority of admissions employees. Creasy praised the program's ability to organize applicants by last name, intended major, high school and location. He explained that though he prefers reading alphabetically, the new program allows him to search for students with intended majors declared in the humanities, when alphabetical reading yielded a stack of engineers and science majors.

Aside from expediting the admissions process and helping with the organization of data, this new system will hopefully be a more "green" application process, according to Latting.

The Office of Undergraduate Admissions recently released an online statement to prospective students that declares its intentions for the new system.

"As Johns Hopkins University continues to implement sustainable, green practices, the Office of Undergraduate Admissions invites you to use this convenient online application to save paper, electricity, gas and time," the statement read.

Latting said that the process is not perfect yet, but the additional decision-making time and implications of sustainability have already proven to be "luxuries" in the process.

"Other institutions don't have this technology yet. With additional information available, we can now make better, more informed decisions about applications," Latting said.