- Admissions Connect, part of Education Cloud, helps streamline K-12 and higher ed application review through data visualization and stronger application communication
- Features like personalized action plans, dynamic checklists and chatbot support help build stronger applicant engagement and a more personalized student experience
Even before the pandemic hit, admissions teams were facing increased competition to find, reach and enroll students. Now, with the uncertain future of campus life and a shrinking pool of applicants, the competition has increased even more.
The harsh reality is that undergraduate enrollment fell by 4.4% nationally last year. Given this new landscape, creating a seamless recruitment and admissions experience is more critical than ever before.
For students, knowing what to submit and when throughout the application process can be overwhelming. And for admissions staff faced with sorting through thousands of applications, the opportunity to strengthen relationships with prospective students is often missed. This stage in the recruitment and admissions process is often a shared moment of pain for students and staff alike.
Introducing Admissions Connect for educational institutions
Today we announced Admissions Connect from Salesforce.org. A new product in Education Cloud, Admissions Connect helps modernize the recruitment and admissions process for both applicants and admissions teams through streamlined application review, stronger applicant engagement and a more personalized student experience.
A unified experience for applicants and admissions teams
Now more than ever, admissions teams need to be able to focus on establishing strong connections with students from the very first interaction, and enable staff members to focus on what matters most: helping students begin their education journey with personalized and proactive support.
Admissions Connect creates a unified experience for both applicants and admissions teams. Staff can meaningfully engage with applicants and manage their journey in a single view while also seeing which application actions are complete and which ones are still in progress. And applicants can get proactive support at the right time with personalized action plans, dynamic checklists and support with chatbots. It is also built with accessibility in mind from the ground up, helping to ensure that every member of an institution’s admissions team can easily read applications and move between tabs on their screen without difficulty.
Building lifelong relationships with students from day one
Admissions Connect allows K-12 and higher education counselors to:
- Drive stronger applicant engagement, helping to support applicant and family experiences with personalized communities, program-specific outreach and dynamic checklists. This can include a customized cadence of communication for each prospective student — such as email nudges to continue their application process — reminders for upcoming events, next steps for new students to attend university orientation and more.
- Streamline application review, enabling officials to automate tasks and customize their application review process, keeping students and families on track with checklists and document requests. Staff can note which items are complete – and which are still in progress – empowering the whole team to provide more personalized and proactive outreach.
- Work smarter with 360-degree student visibility, allowing admissions staff to better manage the entire student relationship, from prospect to enrollee. Officials can manage all the details of prospective students in one place and use analytics to get a visual report of everything that is happening across the recruitment and enrollment funnel, allowing for better decision making, team collaboration and actionable steps.
- Unify student data, including enabling Common App member institutions to import application data from the Common App, a platform that helps reduce entry barriers by allowing applicants to apply for multiple colleges at once.
Admissions Connect drives student success at University of Colorado
Admissions Connect was built with input and direct feedback from our higher education community, including major institutions like the University of Colorado.
University of Colorado at Colorado Springs is an early adopter of Admissions Connect and has used the product to reduce the manual processing during application review, build deeper relationships with prospective students and provide them with the personalized communications experience that they expect in today’s all-digital world.
“The University of Colorado is in the midst of a fundamental transformation in how we use technology to serve our students and state, as well as to improve our systems and business practices,” said University of Colorado President Mark Kennedy. “It’s a large undertaking at a complex four-campus university system, but Salesforce has been our valued partner on every step of the journey. We are moving to a place where technological innovation will lead to a more effective, efficient university that is better able to deliver on its mission.”
“We’re excited to partner with Salesforce to build engagement opportunities for our future students,” said University of Colorado Colorado Springs Chancellor Venkat Reddy. “Admissions Connect will support students from initial interest and enrollment, all the way through graduation. This technology will further strengthen our commitment to student success. We appreciate the support given by the CU President’s office in implementing this technology.”
Enabling the future of education technology and student experience
Today’s rapidly evolving education landscape requires nothing less than complete digital transformation by every institution. We are committed to helping our education community through this transition with technology that helps schools better connect with and serve their students.
As the education sector shifts to a digital-first world, Admissions Connect will be a foundational part of the toolkit to help institutions shape a new path forward in education. Learn more about Admissions Connect here.
