In our webinar, “Increasing Efficiencies in the Admissions Management and Recruitment Process,” Chad Oppelt, Assistant Director of Graduate, Online, and Extended Studies at The College of St. Scholastica, discussed how incorporating centralized application services (CAS) into their admissions processes helped their programs recruit and enroll more quality applicants, streamline their admissions processes, and add services that gave admissions staff the opportunity to focus on more strategic enrollment activities.
When Chad was tasked with reducing paperwork and increasing the number of applicants to graduate, online, and extended programs at the College of St. Scholastica, he knew that he needed to take some innovative and creative steps to help reach beyond the school’s regional student base to attract more students. One of the most significant changes he made to address these challenges was the adoption of CAS systems.
Having learned about CAS through webinars like this one, Chad believed that the benefits of CAS matched the goals he was trying to accomplish: reducing paperwork; increasing diversity, quality, and number of applicants to programs; recruiting beyond the regional student base; making faster decisions about which students to enroll; and finding time to spend with applicants to encourage enrollment.
Though he’d faced some concerns in adopting CAS from Deans, Vice Presidents, and the IT department, the benefits of the CASs spoke for themselves. After their initial implementation of PTCAS (the Physical Therapist Centralized Application Service) from the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA), Chad’s department noticed an immediate increase in quantity of applicants, as well as in their geographical and cultural diversity.
With data available from reporting tools in the administrative portal of PTCAS, Chad was able to demonstrate these improvements and convince the school administration to adopt four more CASs: OTCAS (Occupational Therapy Centralized Application Service), NursingCAS (the Centralized Application Service for Nursing Programs), CASPA (Centralized Application Service for Physician Assistants) and ATCAS (Centralized Application Service for Athletic Training Programs).
The new technology facilitated a 100% paperless admissions process; improved the applicant experience with an easy-to-use interface, faster processing time, and speed to decision; and provided data that helped to convince administration to onboard additional CAS programs and assisted with benchmarking. The customer service offered with the CASs also allowed the school to provide an applicant experience that the school didn’t have the resources to offer directly to applicants with their existing staff.
The adoption of CAS also offered the school a great way to market programs and generate very qualified leads. With the ability for schools to communicate with students as soon as they select their programs from the programs list, and the ability to track the communication, schools can ensure that applicants are moving through the process and stay in tune with yield.
With two-thirds of his department’s applications now being processed for free through the CASs, Chad and his team have more time to spend with applicants and students. They’ve improved their processes and saved money that enables them to increase their strategic recruitment activities.
To learn more about the improvements experienced by St. Scholastica as a result of implement CAS, or read the case study.