Admissions

The Human Side of Admissions: It’s Here to Stay

Mar 31, 2017

“I’m a single father and pharmacy is my dream. Applying for pharmacy school alone is stressful, as the application process is gruesome and tedious. I wouldn’t have made it through if it wasn’t for [Liaison’s Customer Service Representative] Kerry,” shared a recent applicant who used PharmCAS, the Liaison-powered Centralized Application Service (CASTM) for pharmacy school applicants.

“I had the pleasure of assistance from Matt, who stayed on the telephone with me and took me through the steps of uploading my info. He even uploaded my reference letter to the application because I did not have a clue how to do that!” shared another CAS user as she completed the last steps of her application.

And another: “I appreciated [Liaison’s customer service representative’s] patient assistance with my inquiry given how worried and panic-stricken I was. She made sense of everything I needed to accomplish without making me feel inadequate for asking. A process such as this is often frustrating and challenging, especially when you have a deadline to meet and you’re 6,000 miles away, attempting to make some career and life changing decisions.”

The technology that powers Liaison’s admissions and enrollment marketing technology is powerful. It streamlines processes, increasing efficiency to promote higher returns on invested time and energy. But it’s only one part of the admissions process.

Our user-facing CAS and UniCAS platforms, and the WebAdMIT administrative backend that powers them, minimize the tediousness of manual tasks by taking them on for admissions officers. They help get more done, quickly, and with higher quality outcomes. Our Enrollment Marketing Platform (EMP) automates recruitment marketing, simplifying day-to-day management of multi-channel campaigns. With EMP, admissions officers can focus their energy on authentically engaging the students that best fit their institutions.

But, similar to how our technology alone can’t replace the dedicated members of our service team who are core to Liaison’s solutions, admissions technology will never replace the human side of the admissions process. Our most recent blog posts offered a glimpse into this. George Wolf, vice president for enrollment management at Siena Heights University, shared the important part that admissions officers play in minimizing unrealistic expectations to set students and their families up for success. Dr. Katherine Ruger, assistant dean at Michigan State University, shared a case where only an experienced admissions officer’s advice could possibly reroute a future doctor on the right path to the career of her dreams.

The reality of admissions may be constantly changing, but our respective roles are quite clearly established. Students must continue to dedicate substantial time and effort to ensuring that the information contained on their applications puts their best foot forward. Admissions officers need to focus their efforts on finding, engaging and recruiting the students that best fit their institutions. It’s up to Liaison to provide the technology and services that allow these important stakeholders to focus on their roles so more people can realize their career dreams, taking advantage of the opportunities presented by higher education. That’s a role that we’re excited to continue to fill for many more decades.

Get in touch today to find out how Liaison can serve you. 

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Over the last three decades, Liaison has helped over 40,000 programs on more than 1,200 campuses more effectively manage admissions through its Centralized Application Service (CAS™) technology and complementary application processing and support services. The higher education technology leader supports its partner institutions’ total enrollment goals by pairing CAS with its Enrollment Marketing (EM) platform as well as the recently acquired TargetX (CRM) and advanced analytics software Othot.