Princeton Weekly Bulletin October 26, 1998
Graduate students can now apply online
By Sally Freedman
Prospective Princeton graduate students can now apply to the Graduate School online at http://www.snapweb.com/Grad/Princeton/.
"The online application provides a quick and convenient way to apply directly to the Graduate School," said Graduate School Dean John Wilson. "Candidates who apply online will still have to send original letters of recommendation and transcripts directly to the Graduate Admission Office, and we'll continue to offer the paper application, but we hope the online application will expedite the process for everyone."
The Graduate Admission Office processes more than 5,000 applications a year with a staff of four full-time employees, led by Barbara Basel, manager of graduate admission. The bulk of the applications arrive during the month of December, since the deadline for September matriculation is early in January. Around Christmas, as many as 15 part-time students are hired to help open the mail and get the applications in order before they are forwarded to the departments for review.
Last year's applications yielded more than 900 admissions, and a new class of nearly 500 this fall. The largest number of applications received by a single department was 522, by Economics, which matriculated 17 new students; Electrical Engineering matriculated the largest number of new graduate students: 52, from more than 400 applications.
Snapweb
Basel was the driving force in getting the online application into production.
"I did a study of other schools' online applications," she said. "Though many undergraduate colleges have online applications, there aren't many graduate school applications. But there are quite a few business schools. As I searched the Web for them, I kept finding myself in the same place: snapweb. It turned out that snapweb was associated with a company in San Francisco called CollegeEdge."
Basel and her boss, Sandra Mawhinney, associate dean for budget and administration, visited CollegeEdge and were impressed by the company, as well as by its technical support services. Once hired, CollegeEdge was "quick and efficient in getting the application ready for the Web," Basel said, "and when we asked for modifications, they were very responsive."
"One of the really great things about the online application," according to Basel, "is the tracking mechanism. Once the applications start coming in, we'll be able to log into the Oracle system and track the progress of the applicationsand so will the applicants. They'll be able to see whether we've received their supporting materials, such as transcripts and recommendations."