DSI Charter
Project Name:
Admissions Funnel - Point-in-Time
Initial Target Audience: ☐ Public
Primary Contact:
Cheryl Stine
☒ Department
Request Date:
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All campuses admissions, enrollment management offices, IR offices,
Desired Completion Date:
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☒ School
☒ University
☐ Group
☒ Campus
☐ Role
some departments and schools
Executive Sponsor: Todd Schmitz
Product Owner: Cheryl Stine
Functional Experts: Cheryl Stine, BL OEM office, IUPUI IMIR, regional IR offices
Product Owner Availability: Immediate
User Acceptance Tester(s): Cheryl Stine, …
Check to Acknowledge Sponsor and Owner will ensure Time Commitments for Experts/Testers for Agile Sprints: ☒
Problem Statement
The current admissions funnel process needs to an overhaul of breadth and depth. Currently, there is a weekly process that tracks and compares current year
admissions data (applicants, admits, deposits, enrollment) to the same week in prior years at the undergraduate career level only. It has been an ongoing need for
admissions offices to be able to track the admissions funnel on a day to day basis, for comparison to the progress of previous years. The current weekly tracking
does not allow for the proactive responses required to meet the campuses admissions and enrollment goals. In addition, the current process is based on IPEDS
definitions, and campuses would like to be able to report on what meets their needs (ie, summer and fall admits separately, versus rolling summer into fall). So, the
new process should accommodate both needs, IR and campus level needs. And lastly, we need to be able to track the progress for all campuses over all careers and
admit types, and down to the program and plan level. Currently, we only track this for undergraduate beginners and transfers.
DSI Charter
Examples of Decisions to be Supported
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Are we on target to meet admissions goals for the year? If not, in what area(s) are we behind? We currently can do this on a weekly basis, but only for
undergraduate beginners and transfers. So, we do not support this currently for any other careers/admit types
Are we on track to meet enrollment goals for each cohort? If not, in what area(s) are we behind? We have the same shortfalls on this question as above.
Are deposits showing us to be on track for enrollments for the campuses that track deposits?
What programs and plans are students expressing their interest in? Are we losing interest in certain schools/programs/plans, or gaining interest? Currently we
do not track the admissions funnel at the plan level.
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Project Narrative
The admissions funnel project is mainly concerned with admissions data, although it does eventually factors into enrollment, as it tracks applications through the
funnel of an applicant becoming an admited student, then enrolled at IU. This includes the biographic/demographic data for a student.
What is proposed is a set of foundational tables that tracks the admissions data on a daily basis and with additional depth. Consequently, this would need to include
all campuses and careers, looking down through to the plan level, as well as accommodating both IR and campus level definitions. These foundational tables would
allow us easily create powerful visual and interactive reports using the BI tools at our disposal, for any day of an admissions cycle, and for comparison over years.
These data views could potentially support a variety of related student analytic projects.
In Scope
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The funnel of admissions data, from applicant to enrolled student.
The ability for daily point-in-time comparisons
All campuses and careers (UGRD, GRAD) and admit types (Beginner, Transfer, Intercampus, HS, BAC, visitor-transient)
DSI Charter
Excluded from Scope
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Click to enter bullets for “Out of Scope” parts of the project
Project Metrics
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University-wide vetting of the daily point-in-time data.
Admissions data is usually compared over three years, but at a minimum, we need one year of data collection, so the second year could compare at least one
year back, for any day in the prior year.
Alignment with IU Bicentennial and Campus Strategic Plans (IU Bicentennial Strategic Plan)
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Student Success - attracting the most qualified and diverse incoming classes at both undergraduate and graduate levels.
Centrality of Information - effect greater efficiencies in our student support systems, best practices, and analytics for decision support.
Responsible Stewardship - accountability through metrics/analytics