Enrollment

U Southern California Selects New Grad Application Processing Tool

• By Leila Meyer
• 03/16/16

The University of Southern California (USC) is implementing a new application processing system for its graduate schools.

The university processes more than 50,000 graduate student applications per year across its 400 graduate programs in its liberal arts college and 10 graduate schools, and it wanted to centralize the application process for those programs. University decision-makers conducted an extensive evaluation of admissions management and enrollment marketing systems before selecting UniCAS from Liaison. According to the company, USC selected UniCAS because it's a centralized system that enables individual programs to have greater control over their applications.

UniCAS is a Web-based enterprise enrollment management system that includes "application and application review workflow, integrated admissions services and an analytic reporting engine," according to information from the company. It also provides "an institution-wide view of enrollment trends to help identify, recruit and enroll best-fit students."

UniCAS will provide USC with a centralized approach to institution-wide application management, while allowing each graduate program to configure their own application requirements and application review workflows. Each program will also be able to edit, brand and manage individual sections of the application in real time without help from the IT department. UniCAS includes custom GPA calculators, applicant scoring rubrics, flexible interview scheduling and online recommendations.

"UniCAS helps deliver an excellent applicant experience while allowing each program to maintain its unique brand identity and application requirements," said said Timothy Brunold, dean of Admission, in a news release. "Best of all, with UniCAS, our programs can be more self-sufficient when customizing their applications and review process."

The University of Southern California is a private research university located in Los Angeles. It serves 19,000 undergraduate students and 24,000 graduate and professional students.