University of Maryland, College Park: Dramatic Improvements in Admissions Response Time

The University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP), is the flagship campus for one of the nation’s premier public research institutions. UMCP’s emphasis on creating an innovative learning environment and attracting top-quality faculty caused freshman class admissions applications to increase 47% from 17,000 in 1998 to 25,000 in 2003. To sustain this rapid growth, UMCP implemented Optix to drive admissions automation.

Optix: Opportunity

Admissions staff overwhelmed by over 35,000 undergraduate, graduate, and transfer applications
Inefficient manual processes slowed admissions applicant response times and thwarted ability to compete for well qualified students
Cumbersome routing of paper folders to multiple departments involved in admissions decisions
Redundant data entry in multiple tracking systems across campus

Optix: Optimized

89% decrease in application processing time – from four weeks to 72 hours
Seamless integration with in-house Student Information System (SIS) which allows cross-system data transfer
Ready, electronic access to all application materials by any authorized user campus-wide immediately after indexing
Automatic indexing of documents received via the Web with no manual intervention required
Customized workflows speed application routing to all involved departments