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By Dave Alderson

Prospective students are given a cutting-edge, visually appealing, and highly interactive experience when they use the new admissions Web application, thanks to a fresh application of technology. Over the course of the last few months, the three campus admissions offices—Undergraduate Admissions, the Graduate School, and International Education—combined operations in both functional and technical areas to better meet prospective students’ needs. The result was the new Web application, known as the Common Web Application.

On the functional side, a new unit was formed called Enrollment Services Office (ESO). This unit improved efficiency by combining staff and operations from the three offices. This application is the first visible system in support of the new unit, and is part of the campus’s “SIS eCRM” initiative, our customer-focused Web-based enhancement of the Student Information System.

As the name implies, the Common Web Application (CWA) combines the current seven applications into one, while still allowing for uniqueness where necessary. In fact, the CWA’s look can be completely changed by applying a “skin.” The skin alters the color scheme, graphics, and style and gives OIT the ability to brand the CWA under different units such as Shady Grove, Undergraduate Admissions, Graduate Admissions, and even individual departments, without changing the underlying code.

The CWA is also integrated into Admission’s document imaging system, which was released last year under the SIS eCRM initiative. The combination of the two creates a high level of efficiency in processing Web applications. Unlike paper applications that must be scanned, indexed, and data entered, Web applications pass through the system automatically without the need for human intervention. The cost ratio of processing a paper application to that of a Web application is between 3:1 and 5:1. Considering that tens of thousands of applications are processed every year, the savings from switching to a Web-based system are significant for the university.

The CWA went live for graduate students in early December 2003
(https://was-1.umd.edu/admissions/Entry.jsp). The next two phases planned are a June rollout for all undergraduates and an August rollout for Shady Grove. The goal is to have the CWA available to all prospective students for the 2005 admission cycle.