Paperless college application process can streamline decision making

July 17, 2013

We have reached the time of year when parents and students are starting to get in the "back-to-school" mindset. Families will find themselves hitting the stores for new clothes, supplies and for those entering college, dorm room furniture. This is also when high school seniors start the process of filling out applications to the universities they hope to attend the following semester.

Colleges around the country are inundated each year with thousands of applications from prospective students and it can be a time-consuming process to go through each letter. On top of that, there is a major opportunity here to gather raw data that can be used to improve operational efficiency.

That was the takeaway from a recent Information Daily article about the use of a paperless application process to streamline the receipt of applications. It can also open up a new stream of information to improve the campus.

The article cites a survey of higher education professionals by Capita, asking the question, "how do current application submissions compare to previous years?" The answers were all over the board, with 21 percent predicting an increase, 24 percent anticipating a decrease and 55 percent seeing no change. On top of that, 55 percent also admitted to still using paper-based processes to manage student applications. 

By scanning all existing applications and moving to a digital version of this process, universities will be able to more easily access past information, but also speed up the method in which decisions can be made. A document scanning service can become a valuable asset to complete this task.

Tab Service Company is a Chicago based company with over 53 years of experience as a data processing service provider. We provide business with outsourcing solutions for document scanning services, data entry services and mailing/lettershop services. As a SOC2-approved organization, we apply industry-best practices to our approach with clients.