Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

U. Iowa pushes back application deadline
By Emily Melvold
The Daily Iowan, U. Iowa
March 04, 2009

University of Iowa officials say it’s taking prospective students longer to make up their minds — prompting them to push back the application deadline and invest in technology to help develop relationships with students interested in the UI.

For the fall and summer, the UI Office of Admissions has extended the deadline for enrollment applications from May 1 to June 1.

And admission officials will also begin working with new “constituent relationship management software” to improve relationships and make communication more efficient with prospective students.

Emil Rinderspacher, a UI senior associate director of Admissions, said the incoming freshmen for fall 2009 are investigating more college options and take longer than freshmen of previous years before making a final decision.

“By extending our deadline, we’re giving people more time to think,” said Rinderspacher, who said he wasn’t sure exactly why high-school seniors are taking more time.

He did speculate, though, that the economic situation could be a factor, given the high cost of higher education.

Maura Flaschner, the associate director of freshman admissions at Iowa State University, said the school is also seeing slightly more prospective students postpone their decisions.

“Students have a lot of options when it comes to universities,” she said. “Our students and families are being very diligent consumers.”

And despite three years of record applicant numbers at the UI, Rinderspacher said, he doesn’t foresee the rise continuing this year.

Matthew Kroeger, associate director of the Admission Office’s pre-enrollment services, said approximately 30,000 high-school students have sent their ACT scores to the university in the last few years.

In addition, around 10,000 prospective students visited campus or have shown interest in the UI in an alternate way, and fewer than 10,000 simply have applied in past years.

These groups — along with 50,000 names purchased by the university through testing companies such as ACT — make up the pool of prospective applicants.

UI Admissions administrators are also calculating finances and preparing for possible budget cuts.

Rinderspacher said the new constituent relationship management software, along with transitioning to more online communication, will aid in lowering expenses.

“We’re really getting excited about the new system,” he said.

Printing and postage costs will decrease with use of the system, which, he said, will be instituted as quickly as possible for the UI’s main Admissions Office but could take years to be fully installed in the school.

Rinderspacher and his admissions team are already decreasing the amount of print material and mailings without the new software.

They still send out admission letters, though transfer brochures, Orientation letters, arrival instructions, and HawkID information has been moved online.

“The installation of the new system may take a long time, but we’ve got to keep up with all of the technology,” Rinderspacher said. “Once we’ve perfected admissions, it will help the university community.”

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