When the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine was looking to upgrade its homegrown biomedical science application review and processing system, they started and ended their search with Liaison’s Centralized Application Service (CAS™) for biomedical science programs (BioMedCAS™). The University was familiar with the CAS technology and services thanks to its six years of experience with SOPHAS™, the CAS for schools and programs of public health. “Once BioMedCAS was launched, we knew we wanted to join right away because of how streamlined our admissions process became with SOPHAS,” Associate Director of the Office of Graduate Studies Matthew Brandon explained.
The change was long overdue. “Before BioMedCAS, our admissions process was centered in this outdated system that was designed based approximately ten years prior. The system was not very flexible.”
The Miller School of Medicine were looking for something more streamlined and user friendly. They also wanted to increase their potential applicant pool and make the review process easier on their faculty. “Through the BioMedCAS program, our admissions office and faculty are both seeing time and effort savings,” said Matthew Brandon.
He continued: “Now, our prospective students are met with an application that’s far more intuitive and easier to use than our prior application service. As far as processing goes, BioMedCAS eliminates a lot of the work on our side, and it makes it easier for our various committees to review their applicants.”
The School is looking forward to reviewing its results at the end of the current application cycle, as many CAS participants report increases in awareness of their programs and increases in applications in addition to time saved during the processing and decision making stage.
The experience of transitioning to the CAS was very positive. “The setup process is very easy for administrators who just need to make their own minor customizations and set up their own local statuses [the labels given to applications at various stages of the application process], reports and lists,” Matthew Brandon said. The Miller School of Medicine is pleased with BioMedCAS and the support provided from the Liaison team. “We are able to segment our applications by programs much better than before. This helps us ensure that the faculty see information that is relevant to their specific programs. That’s been very helpful.”
If your biomedical program could benefit from a more streamlined admissions process, learn more about joining BioMedCAS at biomedcas.liaisoncas.org.