3 technologies revolutionizing admissions

College enrollment and admissions offices, as well as students, are getting new services thanks to big data

Where should I go to college? What courses should I take? How will the college know about the importance of my credentials? Should I transfer?

These questions, which have become so important to today’s students, can now be answered in the blink of an eye, thanks to a set of digital technologies aimed at easing the worry and workflow of prospective students and admissions offices.

Incredibly enough, two of these technologies are based on the foundation of a relatively old [in the tech world] technology that’s revolutionizing how students choose college, how students transfer, and how admissions and enrollment offices process students into the system: electronic transcripts.

“In 2011, it had taken us 7 years to reach 1 million electronic transcripts; however, in the last 12 months we’ve reached 5.5 million,” said Matt Pittinsky, CEO of Parchment—one of the largest e-transcript and online credential transfer companies, and a recent panel presenter on affordability and accessibility during National Education Week.

Pittinsky also said that, currently, roughly 2 million high school students are using Parchment for e-transcripts. Considering there are only 3 million rising seniors next year [2015], that’s no small feat.

The reason for the large client base, believes Pittinsky, is because of a new tool that harnesses the big data aggregated from student opt-in information to predict individual success rates at specific institutions.

(Next page: How 3 technologies are changing admissions)