The American School in London is an independent pre-K through 12th grade day school. They’re located in the heart of London, England and have a population of 1,400 students. They moved to Veracross in 2010.
The Challenge
Prior to Veracross, the American School in London (ASL) was using an in-house database built on FileMaker Pro. The system served the school well for many years but began to get unwieldy over time. Additionally, the system required paper applications for admissions and enrollment.
When the school moved to Veracross in 2010, the admissions team gradually started to transition their workflow into the new admissions and enrollment software. This happened in two phases: first, getting applicants to use online applications and second, getting the internal team to review applications online.
The admissions team began using the Veracross application to gather information from new students and parents. All applications and supporting documents were then printed for manual review.
Reviewing hundreds of paper applications was a time-consuming process that became unsustainable. By the 2017/18 application review season, ASL was fully on board with online enrollment and re-enrollment using the Veracross Admissions Portal.
As Jodi Warren, Dean of Admissions, recalls: “The first time we did online re-enrollment, we all thought we’d died and gone to heaven. We used to spend a whole week packing envelopes…”
Benefits for Admissions
Now several years into online enrollment and re-enrollment, the ASL admissions team has benefitted from their new workflow in several ways.
Paperless Process
A paperless admissions system saves time and improves staff efficiencies. Instead of sorting through mountains of paperwork, authorized users can access application files wherever they are. This makes it easy to share files and speeds up the review process considerably.
Last week I needed to send applications to our educational psychologists, and it took me two minutes. I wrote an email, entered the student’s name, made a hyperlink to their candidate profile, and two days later I had the reviews back. It’s really helpful and makes it easy for multiple people to read an application.
In-Depth Reporting Tools
Veracross’ reporting tools help ASL to learn about their applicants in new ways. Beyond basic demographic information, international schools like ASL are curious about their applicants’ citizenship, language comprehension, and the type of school they’re currently attending. With Veracross reporting, ASL can quickly access this information and use these answers to identify trends and inform their admissions strategy.
Seamless Experience
Having admissions information in one central database allows the admissions team to easily pull information about the applicant without manually importing or exporting data — everything is integrated. The historical record is especially helpful for international schools.
As an international school, we see families leaving and then coming back a few years later. With the enrollment history, you can see when, and for how long, students previously attended ASL.
Benefits for Families
It’s easier for families, too. With their previous system, applicants had to apply by a certain date and submit all supporting documents together. Now they can complete the application at their own pace within the assigned timeline. This is helpful for families who want to start their application but don’t have all of their paperwork readily available; they can upload school reports and enter demographic information before writing their parent statement, for example.
Additionally, applicants previously had to physically mail, or email, documents like transcripts to the school. ASL’s applicants come from all over the world which created even more friction. Now, they can easily upload their supporting documents in the Admissions Portal and not even bother with FedEx.
Plus: online decisions eliminates the need to wait by the mailbox for an admissions letter which is a win-win for both the applicant and the school!
Veracross is the leading student information system for private and independent schools around the world. To learn how we can help streamline your admissions process, get in touch for a free demo.
