 UNH is the first college in the nation to use the Matchbox iPad app to evaluate applications of first-year students. by Karen Grava
Director of Media Relations
This fall, UNH became the first college in the country to evaluate applications for undergraduate admissions solely by using an iPad app.
UNH admissions counselors no longer haul around boxes of folders or sort through stacks of student application papers. Instead, this recruiting season they can carry hundreds of applications with them – all on an iPad.
Using an app called Matchbox, the paperless process is more efficient, allows admissions staff to review applications even when they are on the road and presents the materials in a uniform way.
“The information for each prospective student is presented in a comprehensive, highly intuitive fashion,” said Kevin Phillips, associate vice president for enrollment management at UNH. “Efficiency is paramount to us, especially since our admissions officers are working while traveling for weeks at a time attending college fairs and visiting high schools during the recruitment season.”
The iPad app converts all admissions materials, whether the prospective student applies directly using UNH’s applications or the Common Application, into a format useful for the iPad. Supplemental materials such as high school transcripts, recommendation letters and other materials are uploaded to the iPad as well. As a student applies, UNH’s college admissions counselors are able to see when an application is complete, notify the student if something is missing, or review the entire set of materials on the iPad.
UNH, currently recruiting the Class of 2017, has experienced a 70 percent increase in applications over the last five years. The Matchbox app allows UNH to process the applications in a timely way and focus recruitment on the best students, Phillips said.
It also saves reams and reams of paper. “Going paperless has helped us to further our dedication to sustainability,” he said.
So far, a handful of other colleges, such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of California at Los Angeles and the University of Dayton, have adopted iPad electronic application screening, but they are using it only to evaluate graduate applications. UNH is the first college in the nation to adopt it for undergraduate admissions. |
