OATdb Archive

2012 - 2013

Admissions, Undergraduate

Goal
Processing Admissions Documents
Undergraduate Admissions processes undergraduate applications, high school transcripts, test scores, and college transcripts for transfer students.


Objective
Timely Processing Of Admissions Documents
Undergraduate Admissions will process applications and accompanying documents so as to communicate an admissions decision quickly.

KPI
Processing Time
Processing time is dependent on seasonal application rates. Our goal is to have applications and related documents processed within 7-10 business days.

Result
Processing Time
Our processing time is currently 3-5 business days.  At this time we are scanning received documents within 2 days of receipt.  Although we have put some additional measures in place, we will not know how well everything works until we hit our peak application/transcript receipt period which runs from November through February.

Action
Actions For Processing Time
The addition of two Admission Analyst positions has allowed us to spread out the work across more staff and to use our more experienced Analysts for testing and improvements.  Also, adjusting the student work schedules to ensure scanning and indexing of documents is continuous allows those processes to keep up with the amount of paperwork being received.  We are currently scanning and indexing documents the day they are received or the following day.

Goal
Develop An Admissions Transfer Center
A resource center to assist transfer students.


Objective
Assist Transfer Students
A resource center to assist transfer students in their transition into Sam Houston State University.


KPI
Tracking Calls And Visitors
This can be evaluated by tracking the number of calls and visitors.


Result
Development Of Transfer Center
The hiring of staff and students for the Transfer Center has been completed.  The Transfer Center renovations were completed and the staff and students had moved into their new offices.  We were in the process of working with various Transfer groups or organizations as well as working on new ideas for Transfer students.  Due to space limitations, the Transfer Center had to be closed down.  It is no longer feasible to track visitors into the Transfer Center or calls to Tranfer Counselors because we no longer have the center and one of our Transfer Counselors has been relocated to The Woodlands Center.

Action
Additions And Improvements For Transfer Center
We will continue to work with Community College Counselors and Advisors, prospective Transfer Students and their parents, and current Transfer students to assist them with the process and to improve the service and contacts for them on campus, however we will remove this Goal/Objective from our assessment.

Goal
Award HS Relations Scholarships Earlier
Awarding scholarships earlier will allow is to use this as a recruiting tool.


Objective
Award Scholarships In Jan/Feb
To award scholarships in January/February so they can serve as a recruiting tool.


KPI
Scholarships Awarded
Having awards completed by end of February.


Result
High School Relations Scholarship Award Timeline
The notification of the earlier dates to high school counselors and prospective applicants was a success, however the intial awards were not completed until the third week of March.  This was not due to lack of communication or advertisement of the scholarship but was a direct reslut of a signicant increase in the number of applicants and the lag in our processing time.

Action
Award High School Relations Scholarships Earlier
The action here is on the processing side.  With the addition of two Analyst positions,  the adjustments to our student work schedules, and the possibility of some of the Banner IT projects being completed by November (particulary the payment being processed through TouchNet and the electronic high school transcripts loading electronically rather that being input), we can keep our processing time to within 10 business days and thus award by the end of February.


Update to previous cycle's plan for continuous improvement Undergraduate Admissions was successful in implementing the three objectives, 1. Timely Processing of Admissions Documents, 2. Develop an Admissions Transfer Center, and 3. Award High School Relations Scholarships earlier.  We have put some or are in the process of putting some new measures in place that should continue to improve objective one and three.  Due to space limitations on our campus, the Transfer Center has been shut down and the staff have been shifted to other locations in the same role.

Plan for continuous improvement Plan for Continuous Improvement

 

  • Timely Processing of Admission Documents      
The Banner Admissions Team meets weekly to update the status of current tickets (formerly work orders) to ensure that we are progressing and to adjust priorities based on changing needs.

We are currently working with IT on a very aggressive timeline that should streamline many of the processes and not only improve our efficiency but also allow us to provide a higher level of customer service.  This would include processing payments through Touch Net (allowing us to take Visa payments), loading high school transcripts (Trex) electronically (rather than receiving the Trex transcript, printing it out and then entering it into Banner), and loading electronic college transcripts (EDI) electronically (rather than receiving the EDI transcript, printing it out and then entering it into Banner).

We are also in the process of trying to purchase TES (Transcript Evaluation System) from College Source.  This is a service that simplifies the evaluation process by providing course equivalencies for courses from almost 5,000 colleges/universities from over 72,000 catalogs.  This should not only speed our processing time but should also improve the consistency and drastically reduce the need for reevaluations.

 

  • Develop and Admissions Transfer Center
The staff were hired, trained and the Transfer Center was opened, however it has since been closed

Although we will continue to actively recruit transfer students and continuously make efforts to improve our service to transfer students, we have retired this goal/objective.

 

  • Award High School Relations Scholarships Earlier
The steps that were put into place to award the scholarships In January or February were effective, however we were unable to do so because our processing time was lagging behind.  We feel we have taken the necessary steps to make the jump this year to award within our goals for 2012-2013. 

Our counselors have already begun preparing lists of prospective scholarship candidates for the Fall 2014 semester and will begin requesting documents over the next three weeks.