Among the goals of The Rensselaer Plan is an improvement of the admissions process, and to this end, the admissions office has released a new version of the graduate admissions website. Improvements and additions to the website include an online application form and an easy-to-navigate structure.
Approximately 31 of the statements in The Rensselaer Plan are related to the admissions process. "We see this website as a major achievement in successfully recruiting graduate students," said Teresa Duffy, dean of enrollment management.
In designing the new version, the admissions office eliminated many of the long paragraphs and made the links more organized and visible.
Michelle Greenwood from Media Logic, the company responsible for the site’s design and maintenance, said that making the navigational experience for the prospective student easy and fast was one of their main goals.
Another online company, Embark, was contracted to provide the online application form. The online applications will give the students more flexibility in editing and completing the forms. Duffy also sees the online application as an essential tool in attracting and serving more students. "We want to get out of the snail-mail business, especially when it comes to international students," she said.
Wafa Bataineh, an international Ph.D. student who joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering last month, said that the previous graduate admissions website was a very important source of information for her. However, she says that the new version is more useful and complete.
The implementation of the website started two months ago, but the development process started much earlier. Duffy said that focus groups were conducted during the summer to find out what graduate students would want to see on the website and that their feedback was important.
Based on student feedback, information on housing, student organizations, ongoing research, and development resources were added to the website.
However, Duffy admits that more improvements will take place in the future. More access to research information and a strong web presence for research are two of these goals.
"We have some very wonderful and exciting researches going on and we need to showcase them," she said.
