The Office of Admission has begun a new digital reading process for the University's applications. For the first time, the Office of Admission will not print out this year's round of applications, but instead will view them through an online system.
The lack of space was one of the primary factors behind the decision, said Director of Admission Annie Cappuccino. With the rise in applicants the past few years, the admission office has been rapidly running out of space for all of the paper documents, Cappuccino said. Last year, the 20 percent
increase in applications forced the office to temporarily use Alumnae Hall to store information.
"That was really the breaking point for us," said Julia Bengochea, associate director of operations for college admissions. "It made it so clear that the paper process had seen its day."
The transition to a digital reading process started last year. With the efforts of both Dean of Admission Jim Miller '73 and Provost David Kertzer '69 P'95 P'98, the funding was raised for the "expensive proposition" to transition to reading the applications digitally, Cappuccino said.
The office's former file room was renovated into the primary meeting space for both application readers and admission committees. Although the technology now allows readers to view applications wherever there is a computer, the office still "wanted to maintain the committee process," Cappuccino said. The space now houses a large projector, as well as smaller screens for individual readers and scanning machines for paper documents.
Rather than all being printed, the applications are filed into folders online, Bengochea said. The papers that are mailed to the admission office are scanned into the storage system as well.
The new process also required training for the readers, Cappuccino said. Computing and Information Services made the training materials and demonstrated the steps necessary for a successful read. While the main training has already been completed, there will be "refreshers" for application readers throughout the process, she added.
The new application reading process is much more fluid, Bengochea said. The admission office has been working well with the technology, and people have been adapting almost seamlessly, she said.
The readers have already begun using this new technology with the early decision applicants, Cappuccino said. Overall, while there have been "a few glitches here and there," for the most part, everyone has had good things to say about the transition, she said.
"A lot of our colleagues have been reading online for quite a while," Bengochea said. "I think we're going to find that this is the time to do this."
