As a university admissions office, you understand the overhead and importance that comes with receiving thousands of applications. You strive to not only look at test scores and demographics, but also to hear each applicant’s story and who they are as a person. This is no easy task, and many factors are considered when trying to determine a student’s strengths, weaknesses, their interests, hobbies, and so much more. All of those pieces must be examined to determine the applicant’s fit with the university’s goals and culture. Rather than making the process more complicated for everyone, simplify everything internally. Let’s explore some of the template’s features, by table:

Applicants

This table keeps track of all applicants’ contact details and demographics. Similarly, when it’s time to notify the applicants of whether they have been approved or rejected, this table is critical to having the necessary info to reach out to the applicants.

Fields

• Name. The applicant’s name.
• DOB. The applicant’s date of birth.
• Ethnicity. The applicant’s ethnicity.
• Gender. A field for the gender the applicant identifies with, or if they prefer not to answer.
• Email. The applicant’s email.
• Phone number. The phone number the applicant can be reached at.
• Address. The street address the applicant has provided.
• City. The city the applicant lives in. This field is linked to the Cities table.
• State. The state the city is located in. This is helpful if the applicant is from a small city that is not very well known. This field is a lookup field that gathers the respective state based on the Cities **table.
• Application. This field links to the Applications **table to identify the specific application that was submitted.

Views

• All applicants. Displays all applicants sorted in alphabetical order.
• All applicants gallery. Displays all applicants sorted in a gallery view, offering an alternative way to view each applicant’s information. It’s sorted in alphabetical order.

Applications

Applications encompass an applicant’s experience, grades, and interests. All universities love to attract top students that are not only intelligent, but also involved in the community and creative. Being well-rounded with a wide range of skills goes a long way, and this is the place to capture that. The applications are made to identify a variety of the applicant’s strengths and weaknesses alike, to determine a mutual best fit.

Fields

• Application ID. The ID associated with the specific application. Applications have IDs both to provide anonymity for the reviewers when looking at the applications themselves, but also to ensure that even students with the same name are not confused.
• Date submitted. The date the application was submitted, in year/month/day format.
• Applicant. This field links to the Applicants table, displaying the name of the applicant the application pertains to. This field can be hidden at any point.
• Transcript. This file field allows you to upload a copy of the student’s transcripts.
• GPA. The grade point average of the students on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest.
• SAT score. The SAT score of the student.
• ACT score. The ACT score the student received. Note that these fields can be renamed to any major popular test taken in any region of the world.
• Writing sample. Colleges often look for style of writing and expression. This field allows you to upload the student’s writing sample.
• Recommendations from. This multi-select field allows you to select the relationship between the student and the person that wrote their letter(s) of recommendation.
• High school. This field links to the High Schools **table, displaying the high school the student attended.
• Extracurricular activities. This field is linked to the Extracurriculars **table, displaying the different activities the student took part in.
• Types of extracurriculars. This field looks at the Extracurriculars table to determine which category the specific extracurricular activity falls under.
• Interested in. This field links to the Majors & minors table to determine which studies the applicant has an interest in.
• Number of credits. This field refers to the number of advanced placement credits or accepted college credits the students has.
• Reviewer(s). This field links to the Staff **table, displaying the name of the admissions staff member(s) that have reviewed the application.
• Rating. This field is to be completed by the staff that review the application.
• Notes. This field allows for any additional comments or information about the application.

Views

• All applications. Displays all applications sorted by the earliest submitted date to the latest date of submission.
• High test scores. Displays applications that scored the highest in either of the two most significant tests, the ACT and the SAT, sorted by GPA in descending order.
• High GPA. Displays applications with a grade point average higher than 8, sorted by GPA in descending order.
• Athletes. Displays applications of students that have played on a team sport before, sorted by GPA in descending order.
• Community involvement. Displays applications that participated in extracurricular activities geared towards bettering their community, sorted by GPA in descending order.
• Creative involvement. Displays applicants that participated in extracurricular activities that are part of the arts, sorted by GPA in descending order.
• Highest rated. Displays applications that received a rating of 9 or 10 stars, sorted by GPA in descending order.
• To be reviewed. Displays applications that don’t yet have a rating, sorted by GPA in descending order.
• Top contenders. Displays applications that have high test scores, high ratings, and they’ve taken part in extracurricular activities, sorted by GPA in descending order.
• Gallery view. Displays all applications without the applicants name. This view focuses on the applicant’s scores and interests. The view is sorted by GPA in descending order.

High Schools

High schools are typically aim to best prepare the students for further education and college. This table identifies the different high schools the applicants are from. Often times, there are patterns and certain high schools may teach electives or focus on specific topics that the university highly values. This table can be used to identify which high schools may be worth visiting to scout future applicants.

Fields

• ID code. The unique code assigned to the school.
• Name. The name of the school.
• Address. The address where the school is located.
• City. This field looks to the Cities **table to display the name of the city the school is located in.
• State. This field looks to the Cities table as well to display the state the city resides in.
• Phone number. The phone number to the main office of the school.
• Website. The school’s official website.
• Applications. The different applications sent from this school. This links to the Applications **table.
• Number of applicants. This formula field calculates the number of incoming applicants from each school.

Views

• All high schools. Displays all high schools sorted in alphabetical order.
• Many applicants. Displays high schools that have multiple applicants, sorted by number of applicants in descending order.
• New entry. Displays a form that can be used to enter a new high school to the table.

Extracurriculars

Aside from standardized test scores, extracurricular activities are arguably the next most important portion of the applicant’s application. They demonstrate involvement in the community, further interest, and indicate possible higher education studies. Student involvement in the community and extracurriculars can sometimes be the deciding factor when picking between different applicants. This table identifies different extracurricular activities indicated on applications received.

Fields

• Name. The name of the extracurricular activity.
• Type. The type of activity, whether it is an academic club, part of the arts, a volunteer group, etc.
• Description. A brief description of what the extracurricular entails.
• Application. This field links to the Applications **table to display which applications have this activity cited.
• Number of students. This formula field counts the number of applicants that contain the respective extracurricular.

Views

• All extracurriculars. Displays all extracurricular activities, sorted in alphabetical order.
• Academic. Displays extracurricular activities that are categorized as academic, sorted in alphabetical order.
• Musical. Displays extracurricular activities that are categorized as musical, sorted in alphabetical order.
• Art oriented. Displays extracurricular activities that are categorized as art with the exclusion of music, sorted in alphabetical order.
• Sports. Displays extracurricular activities that are categorized as athletic, sorted in alphabetical order.
• Most popular. Displays extracurricular activities that have more than 3 students, sorted in alphabetical order.
• New extracurricular. Displays a form that can be used to submit a new extracurricular activity.

Majors & minors

Although it’s common for students to start out with general studies, unsure of which direction they’d like to continue, most applicants end up choosing a course of study after a year. Selecting a major/minor study helps prepare the student for their future career. Classes are geared towards teaching and equipping the student with all skills necessary for a career in the given field. Additionally, universities typically want to have a blend of interests from prospective students to ensure their different programs have the capacity to accommodate the displayed interest, even if it evolves over time.

Fields

• Name. The area of study.
• Description. A brief description of the field of study.
• Type. The general field this specific study falls under.
• Students interested. This calculates the number of applications that have this area of study as an interest.
• Applications. This field links to the Applications table, displaying the applications that have the prospective field of study listed.

Views

• All areas of study. Displays all areas of study sorted in alphabetical order.
• Science. Displays areas of study that fall under the science category, sorted in alphabetical order.
• Social sciences. Displays areas of study that fall under the social science category, sorted in alphabetical order.
• Math. Displays areas of study that fall under the math category, sorted in alphabetical order.
• Business. Displays areas of study that fall under the business category, sorted in alphabetical order.
• High interest. Displays areas of study for which multiple applicants expressed an interest in, sorted in alphabetical order.
• Low interest. Displays areas of study that very few, if any, applicants expressed an interest in, sorted in alphabetical order. This view can be used to helped the university identify which areas of study need to be revamped or could be taken out all together.

Staff

Although a university typically has a fairly large staff, only a small portion of the total staff work with the admissions process. This table identifies the staff members that work with admissions to review applications. Having a repository for all admissions related staff is also important when training staff on the type of applicants and skills the university is looking for.

Fields

• Name. The name of the staff member.
• Role. The role the staff member holds.
• Email. The email the member can be reached at.
• Phone number. The phone number the member can be reached at.
• Applications reviewed. This field links to the Applications table to display the specific applications the staff member has reviewed.
• Number of applications reviewed. This formula field calculates the total number of applications the member reviewed.

Views

• All staff. Displays all staff sorted in alphabetical order.
• Admissions officers. Displays staff that hold the position admissions officer sorted in alphabetical order.
• Top reviewers. Displays staff that have reviewed the most amount of applications, sorted in alphabetical order.
• By role. Displays staff in an alternative style, stacking staff members by their roles.

Cities

This table tracks the different cities that applicants are from, just for the university’s information. It can be helpful to know where all applicants are coming from.

Fields

• Name. The name of the city.
• State. The state the city is located in. This field connects to the States table.
• Applicant. This links to the Applicants **table to display the applicants that live in the specific city.
• High schools. This field links to the High schools **table, displaying the specific high schools that are located within each city.

Views

• All cities. Displays all cities sorted in alphabetical order.

States

This table tracks the states that applicants reside in. It can be helpful to know where all applicants are located if the university is looking for a diverse set of students, as well as for calculating in-state vs. out-of-state tuition.

Fields

• Name. The name of the state.
• Cities. This field links to the Cities **table to display the different cities that are located within the specific state.

Views

• All states. Displays all states sorted in alphabetical order.