“There are really three generations of ed-tech admissions tools,” explained Pittinsky, “1) Tools to manage the process (deadlines, applications, essays); 2) Tool for Matchmaking (how students search for college; and 3) Data-driven tools that bring transparency to the price of college, the statistical chance of being accepted, and being able to combine individual credentials with crowd-sourced information to predict admissions.”
“And it’s this third generation of tool that’s going to change higher education,” he continued.
Based on Parchment’s technology, three specific components of admissions processes are changing:
1. Electronic transcripts: Though this technology is a few years old, due to the increasingly online availability of credentials and portfolios, e-transcripts have become the easiest way for students and admissions to process applications, transfers, credentials and much more. This end-to-end tech can also help institutions receive, evaluate and import into the enterprise resource planning (ERP) or degree audit systems without manual intervention.
“The simplest way to realize benefit on the receiving side is instead of opening up the mail and having to match it to the rest of the application and then image it so that an admissions reviewer can make a decision and move it up the process, now it’s coming in electronically and those matches can happen automatically, and it’s set up in the institution’s electronic application decision system,” said Pittinsky.
Not only is it easier to open a file than print and collect sheets of paper or have to manage transcripts out of SIS’ or LMS’, e-transcripts have the digital capability to support the next technology…
2. Embedded data: A company like Parchment can offer embedded data into an electronic transcript, ultimately allowing institutions to process students into courses; for example, placing students into first-year math courses based in part upon the years of prior math taken, the level of that math and also the student’s achievement in that math.
Also, “with the benefit of embedded data in electronic transcripts, institutions can take advantage of a more automated process for transfer articulation,” noted Pittinsky. “That electronic transcript data gets moved into the specific transfer articulation system that reads out the institutions I’ve attended, the courses I took and the institution’s rules about whether or not you get credit for that, making the process happen more efficiently.”
3. Big data predictive analytics: Recently, Parchment released a College Match tool, that uses aggregate data from its database of opt-in information to help predict, based on individual credentials, a person’s chance for selection and success at specific institutions.
Using a proprietary algorithm, College Match gathers and analyzes a wide set of user-reported data such as GPA, SAT/ACT scores, educational background and students’ desired colleges and universities. The tool then converts the data into an extensive list of recommendations, allowing students to look beyond the schools they know to discover similar colleges across the nation for which they can apply. For example, a student who is interested in UC Berkley and USC, may find he may also be interested and eligible for NYU, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo or University of Washington.
This online tool is available for free and is opt-in [not mandatory] for students.
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