APPLY BY COMPUTER // EDUCATION: These days, high
school seniors can seek admission to colleges and
universities simply using home equipment
DATE 12/05/94
NEWSPAPER THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
SECTION NEWS
EDITION MORNING
PAGE a01
STORY LENGTH 38 INCHES
HEADLINE APPLY BY COMPUTER // EDUCATION: These days, high
school seniors can seek admission to colleges and
universities simply using home equipment.
BYLINE/CREDIT DAN FROOMKIN:The Orange County Register
SUBJECT TERMS EDUCATION:COLLEGES:PLANNING:COMPUTERS:SERVICES:CA
.
No more trying to get the forms to line up straight in the
typewriter.
No more laboriously writing the same information over and over
by hand, like some 12th-century monk.
No more white-out!
Today's high school seniors, coming of age in this era of
dazzling technological leaps, have been freed from another ancient
and onerous tradition: filling out college applications the
old-fashioned way.
Now they can apply by computer.
As colleges and universities kick off the admissions season this
month, many are accepting applications on computer diskettes as
well as paper.
Some even prefer the electronic form.
And a fast-growing new industry is taking a related tack,
generating customized applications from information students type
into home computers.
Experts say the next step -- so far confined to a few
school-based terminals -- will find students jacking into computer
networks, taking "virtual" visits to campuses around the globe and
applying online for admission if they like what they see.
In the meantime, for students such as Cameron Glasgow, a senior
at Corona del Mar High School in Newport Beach, applying by disk is
already a big step up.
Glasgow, 17, found that two of the schools he was interested in
accepted computerized applications. So instead of filling out the
forms by hand, he "filled out" two computer diskettes, one for the
University of Southern California and one for California
Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.
"I think it'd be easier if they used computers for all of them,"
he said. "On the computer, you don't have to, like, white it out or
something when you make a mistake. You can just delete it."
Using the diskettes has its own problems, however. Once, when
Glasgow turned off the computer, he lost a bunch of material. "And
if you don't understand what's going on in the program, you get
sort of lost."
But paper applications look messy by comparison, he said, adding
a statement rarely heard about the applications process: "It was
pretty fun."
While many Orange County guidance counselors say colleges aren't
sending them nearly enough diskettes -- students can get a disk from
the college or at school -- they love the concept.
"It makes so much more sense," said Gerri Gordon, counseling
coordinator for the Capistrano Unified School District.
"I'm really glad that schools are doing this, because for the
last five years, to stick an application form into a typewriter --
nobody has typewriters anymore," said Maureen Oeding, college
counselor at Corona del Mar High.
"The technology is changing the entire admissions process, from
the way students research schools, all the way through the
application process," said Joseph Allen, admissions dean at USC.
USC's admissions process, in fact, is the most computerized of
any major university. This year, USC expects about 5,000 of its
freshman applications -- or about 40 percent -- to arrive on disk.
"It's a definite advantage for the student," Allen said. "It
allows them to complete the application in a convenient fashion."
But Allen said the real draw is that it's more efficient for his
office, which ultimately would have to input much of the
information into computers anyway.
"We actually charge less for students who apply by disk than we
do for students who apply by paper," Allen said.
The "old-fashioned" students have to pay $50. Techno-savvy ones
get a $15 discount.
"It's really a processing fee, and there's a savings involved in
using the disk, and we pass it along to the students," Allen said.
All 22 campuses of the California State University system now
accept the same disk, though the availability of those disks
remains spotty and the number of students using them is small.
The CSU diskettes offer one advantage, however: Students
applying to more than one campus can tell that to the computer. If
they insert a blank disk when prompted, then -- voila! -- another
application is complete.
While the University of California and several other large
institutions still only accept paper, applications for many
colleges that haven't created their own disks can still be filled
out on home computers thanks to a slew of new services.
CollegeLink, for instance, sends students software that prompts
them for personal information and statements. About 44,000 of the
$35 diskettes have been bought this year, said Raymond Wheeler,
vice president of Concord, Mass.-based Enrollment Technologies.
Students send their completed disks back -- or download them to
CollegeLink using a commercial online service -- and the company
plugs the information into applications for any of 700
undergraduate institutions.
The company's computers and printers can churn out as many
different applications as the students want from the same inputted
data.
"The theory here is: Do it once, do it right," Wheeler said.
When students get the completed applications in the mail, they
sign them, attach an admissions check and mail them off to the
schools.
Another service, MacApply, gives students the software they need
to simply input personal information and churn out completed
applications on their printers, for $15 a piece.
Greg Charles, director of marketing for Apply Software Systems
in New York, said MacApply isn't exactly a computerized application.
"It's a computer-generated application," he said. "The
difference is the school is still receiving a complete application
on paper."
Allen's USC operation is so high-tech that he scoffs at those
universities and services that accept computerized information,
only to print it out.
"I think it's a little ridiculous," he said. "It's like turning
gas into coal."
At USC, in fact, even the paper becomes vapor.
"We throw away the paper," he said. "We scan them in, and they
become virtual images on the screen."
What's next?
"We laugh about virtual admissions," Allen said. "You put a
helmet on the kid and put a helmet on the admissions officer."