Governed by many rituals, admissions offices often resist change. When Rick Bischoff heard that other colleges were doing initial evaluations of applicants in two-person teams, he scoffed. “The stupidest thing I’ve ever heard of,” he recalls saying.
But Mr. Bischoff, vice president for enrollment management at Case Western Reserve University, is now a true believer. Since the university adopted the new model, in 2015, he says admissions evaluations have become more efficient — and thorough. Two cycles in, some themes have emerged.
Faster reading can be better reading.
Mr. Bischoff’s initial skepticism of the model faded after he and a seasoned colleague sat down one day to compare their assessments of the same applications. Some didn’t match. “When we had different evaluations, it was usually because one of us saw something the other didn’t,” he says. Team-based evaluations can keep admissions officers on the same page. “This helps us eliminate the errant read, the missed data point,” he says. “Now we can reconcile all those things immediately.”
Typically, the team spends about eight minutes on each file. “You’re getting the intensity of the time,” Mr. Bischoff says. “When you’re reading with someone else, there’s no stopping to check your email.”
The process saves time and money.
As application pools have swelled, many colleges have hired part-time readers to keep up with the volume. With 25,000 applications this year (4,000 more than just two years ago), the admissions office would need about three times as many part-time readers to keep pace if it were using the old evaluation model, Mr. Bischoff figures. “It’s not trivial in terms of cost,” he says. “And though they still bring value to the process, there’s the increased complexity of managing large numbers of outside readers.”
Training becomes more important.
The team-reading model has prompted admissions officials to think harder about preparing staff members for evaluations.
“Now, we’re doing a much deeper dive in training,” Mr. Bischoff says. “It’s forced us to have those contextual conversations about how you don’t look at an applicant who’s a first-generation student from a small town the same way as you look at suburban student from a school with many AP courses.”
Changing a work culture can be good …
Retaining staff is a challenge for many admissions offices, where long hours are the norm. “In this field, we work people to within an inch of their life,” Mr. Bischoff says. The new model, he explains, has freed up many evenings and weekend hours that staffers previously spent reading applications. A better work-life balance, he hopes, will help keep talented staff members around longer.
… but also jarring.
Ever since applications went digital, admissions officers have been able to read applications at home. One can work in pajamas, hit the gym whenever, and dive into files at odd hours. Yet team-reading requires staffers to be in the office at set times. “That’s a fundamental shift in how admissions people think about doing their work,” Mr. Bischoff says. “Before, you controlled your day, and you don’t have that control anymore. That’s a big psychological change.”
Eric Hoover writes about admissions trends, enrollment-management challenges, and the meaning of Animal House, among other issues. He’s on Twitter @erichoov, and his email address is eric.hoover@chronicle.com.
