Rushing last minute to the post office, college application in hand, will no longer be necessary for prospective Dartmouth students.
Starting this fall, applicants to the Class of 2005 will be able to submit applications over the Internet, either by e-mailing the application directly or by filling out the forms online and then printing and mailing them.
This marks a trend in moving online -- both at Dartmouth and elsewhere -- that is setting the precedent for the electronic future of college admissions.
The online system allows students to either fill out the common application online or to download Dartmouth's own application forms using the Embark program.
"This is the first year the use of electronic mail has been so extensive," Director of Admissions Maria Laskaris said. "Up until this year, we just weren't set up to accept electronic applications efficiently. We hadn't yet determined who would print out the applications, and we hadn't yet determined how to best integrate the online applications with the hard copy applications."
Also, until recently, the admissions process has relied heavily on the traditional mailings to provide information to prospective students and to communicate with applicants.
Lately, however, the College's Admissions Office has been phasing into the electronic age. For the past two years, the office has collected e-mail addresses from applicants. For the past year, the office has also started collecting e-mail addresses from prospective applicants as well.
"We now primarily use e-mail to let students know of upcoming visits from admissions officers to their hometowns or schools," Laskaris said. "We've also used e-mail to send prospective students confirmations for information program reservations."
One key use of e-mail is for informing international students of their admission status. Because regular international mail can be problematic, students sometimes do not receive their notification letters until a few days before the May 1 acceptance deadline. This delay means that students do not have adequate time to notify the Admissions Office of their decision.
However, electronically mailing information to students is not problem-free. Often the addresses given by students are temporary accounts set up as a part of Internet service provider promotions. These temporary accounts are then useless once they expire, and are consequently no longer an effective means of getting information to students.
Additionally, students do not necessarily have equal access to the required technology. For students who do not have the advantages of a fast connection, downloading an application can be a time-consuming, inefficient process.
"At Dartmouth, we have sort of a different culture with electronic mail because BlitzMail is so readily accessible," Laskaris said. "We are just about to put the viewbook on our website. However, when you download the viewbook from a computer at Dartmouth, it is fast and colorful, and you can see it on a big screen. Students without such quick Internet connections may find it much more difficult to download."
Dartmouth is not alone in its electronic information trend. Nationally, students are using e-mail to find out information regarding test scores, campus location and general admissions facts. The Admissions Office receives so many requests that it now uses an auto- reply system that provides students with general information.
Not all students are enthusiastic about the Internet as a source for admissions and other college information.
"I only went to the website a couple of times," Sara Glazer '04 said. "It was informative, but I didn't use it a lot. I think I'm kind of skeptical of the Internet thing, so if I got information through e-mail, I think I'd like another letter in the mail."
Students like Glazer are in luck, because the Admissions Office does not plan to send out mass e-mail notification letters in the near future.
"Because you can't use the merge function in BlitzMail, it is very inefficient to send out 10,000 letters. It's an extremely labor intensive activity, because someone has to sort out who gets which notification letter," Laskaris said. "Also, in talking with my colleagues at other colleges, I've learned that applicants are still skeptical of whether or not e-mail and online applications will actually go through to the admissions office, so they send hard copies of applications in addition to the online version."
Students like James Moorhead '04 agree that while electronic information can be helpful, students need confirmation through another source.
"I went to the 2004 website and I found the faculty profiles and department information helpful, but I think that electronic notifications need to be sent in conjunction with regular mail. It's just too early to rely totally on e-mail," he said.
Despite the instability of student e-mail addresses and student mistrust of electronic notifications, Laskaris hopes that in the future, electronic information will become an even more integral part of the admissions process.
"I've always felt that students should have access to information as soon as it is ready. As soon as there is more stability to student e-mail, we can increase our use of it," Laskaris said.
