On Monday, as the campus starts making its official offers of admission for fall quarter 2004, thousands of hopeful undergraduate applicants will have a fast new way to find out whether they've been admitted and an easier way to reserve a spot for themselves at UC Davis.
Augmenting paper-based mailings, a campus Web site myadmissions.ucdavis.edu will now inform applicants of their admission status.
At the new MyAdmissions site, applicants who have been accepted will see a photo of the Mrak Hall walkway and a big "Congratulations" message on a page that is designed to help them make the decision to come to UC Davis.
The page offers customized links for students to resources like financial aid, and Regents Scholars or Educational Opportunity programs. There also is information directed specifically to transfer students, as well as links to campus events, and faculty and student profiles. "It should get admitted students excited about attending UC Davis," said Leslie Campbell, director of Undergraduate Admissions and Outreach Services, which sponsored development of the site.
This year, almost 39,050 high-school seniors and prospective transfer students applied to study at UC Davis. The campus will extend offers of admission to fewer than 17,000 freshmen and fewer than 4,300 transfer students. Historically, a little more than a quarter of the students who are accepted ultimately do enroll.
After admitted students decide to attend UC Davis, MyAdmissions brings their entire pre-enrollment process online, from declaring their Statement of Intent, to registering and paying their $100 deposit, to signing up for housing.
Getting connected early
MyAdmissions brings newly admitted students in synch with the campus early.
"Admitted students can now do everything online before they reach campus," said Tom Hinds, project manager for MyAdmissions. "All the pre-enrollment transactions are gathered together. This site allows new students to stay organized online."
Students can sign up for a Kerberos ID, and a messaging system allows campus representatives to begin communicating with them from the moment they first log in. Users also can update their address information right away. And once they have declared their intent to register, they are immediately required to sign up for a campus e-mail address.
Campbell sees the immediate e-mail sign up as campus advantage. "You can communicate with new students right away using their campus e-mail address," she says. "This year we had a large increase in problems with (non-UC Davis) applicant e-mail addresses because of bounce-backs and spam filters, so this eliminates those headaches at the point of admission. This is a good step for the campus."
The new messaging system, built off of the messaging technology in my.ucdavis.edu, offers the campus another tool for communicating with applicants and newly admitted students. The system can be used for recruiting, notifications or simply to request a transcript from a student. It allows the campus to send a message to individuals or targeted groups, and messages are posted on both MyAdmissions and MyUCDavis.
"Our first message went out to transfer applicants," Campbell says. "It informed them that they could sign up for a campus housing waiting list even before they were admitted."
The new Web site project was initiated by in mid-2003. Factors spurring Undergraduate Admissions and Outreach Services to move ahead included: The success of the university's electronic application process, studies showing the high percentage of young people online, potential cost savings from not producing the traditional admissions packet, and decisions by other UC campuses to bring their pre-enrollment transactions online.
Student Affairs, Information and Edu-cational Technology, and Public Communi-cations have been key partners in the project, Campbell said. "We have received support and guidance from Judy Sakaki and John Bruno on down to the programmers, creative people and others who have really worked hard to make this happen. We wanted a site that was functional and gave students considering UC Davis a favorable impression of the campus. We think MyAdmissions achieves both goals."
Part of a total package
In look and function, MyAdmissions complements the existing undergraduate admissions recruitment site, why.ucdavis.edu. There is a link to MyAdmissions on every page of the WhyUCDavis site; and MyAdmissions links to WhyUCDavis for its campus information pages.
The admissions process is not going completely electronic, however. Admitted students will still receive a congratulations letter and a glossy brochure that encourages them to imagine life at UC Davis. And students who do not have Internet access can call to request a paper version of the admissions packet.
"Will paper ever completely go away? I doubt it," Campbell said.