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From jobs to families, working adult learners have their own challenges and opportunities when it comes to attending college. Here’s how ���۴�ý is ensuring its application process feels less like a challenge and more like an opportunity.

The ���۴�ý application aims to remove barriers and make the application process easier for students. To welcome new students, a university needs to make the application process as understandable and straightforward as possible. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case, especially for prospective students who are still exploring or haven’t completed a college application recently (or ever).

Aware of that potential barrier, ���۴�ý surveyed applicants’ pain points when filling out its application. After a careful review and collaboration, the University unveiled an application portal last year that was designed to be simple, user-friendly and personalized. Applicants now encounter a process that has less friction than before and that guides them from account creation to onboarding in an easy-to-follow, step-by-step process.

Here’s what to expect with the new ���۴�ý application:

• Personalized financial advice: After logging in to the ���۴�ý portal, prospective students will be prompted to answer specific questions about their financial situation, including qualifying questions regarding various scholarships and funds. This is how the program can calculate a personalized assessment specific to your income. From there, applicants will receive a personalized estimate of costs. The application process was designed to replicate the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA^®) form, so applicants can see the most accurate estimate of what their costs will be.
• No enrollment deadlines: No need to wait for enrollment windows. When an applicant is ready, they can fill out the application. Simple as that. The University’s online programs give students the ability to apply and begin courses year-round, without being bound to one annual or biannual intake, so working adults can begin when it’s convenient for them.
• Streamlined process: The estimated time to complete the ���۴�ý application is 20 minutes from start to finish, and enrollment representatives are available to help.
• No prep or fee required: There are no entrance exams, essay requirements or application fees, nor are any standardized exams (e.g., SAT, ACT, GMAT or GRE) required.
• Real-time status updates: Applicants now have clear, real-time visibility into their application status.
• Support in multiple ways: Rather than filling out a standard form, the ���۴�ý application is designed to feel like someone is guiding an applicant every step of the way. This includes a dashboard with a real-time status bar and manageable tasks that provide a personalized view for applicants to know exactly where they are and what is next.

When a student is accepted, that’s when the work truly begins. So, what turns a first-year student into a graduate? To answer that question, ���۴�ý looked to a 100-level Health and Wellness course that most students took as their seventh to ninth course.

This particular The course piqued the interest of Briana Houlihan, MBA, dean of the College of General Studies at ���۴�ý, and Jacquelyn Kelly, PhD, associate dean of that same college. What they found led to their co-authoring a white paper on the subject, “How an Undergraduate Health and Wellness Course Improved First-Year Student Success and Retention.” They discovered that not only did the class have a high pass rate, but it also provided information relevant for working adult learners’ lives, including insights on stress management, sleep, nutrition and exercise. In other words, it addressed aspects that are important for adult learners, who are often juggling other life responsibilities.

Because of the high pass rate and the important life information in the course, Houlihan and Kelly had a hypothesis: What if students took the class at the beginning of their studies? Would simply moving the course earlier in the student journey improve second-course pass rates while maintaining or improving progression and pass rates in the two subsequent courses?

The researchers conducted multiple A/B tests to measure the impact of moving the Health and Wellness course to the second course in the program. The tests showed improvements in second-course pass rates and progression rates, with positive feedback from faculty and students. That change was then made permanent for all new students. This move, Houlihan says, led to higher pass rates and positive outcomes just six months later.

The ���۴�ý Health and Wellness class offered another opportunity for ideation and improvement. Since students who qualified for accommodations also had a higher success rate when they sought such services, could including examples of those resources within the course itself improve retention too?

Before testing earlier placement in the course of study, Kelly and her team worked with the Student Accommodations Office to create what’s known as “imaginaries” — personas written into the curriculum that are designed to help students see themselves in similar scenarios and thus reduce the stigma around student accommodations. The imaginaries represent the University’s student population, from caretakers to expectant parents to those with chronic or acute health conditions requiring accommodations.

“The aim of what’s known as ‘hidden curriculum’ is to help students advocate for themselves, by increasing awareness of, and reducing stigma about, asking for help,” Kelly says. “We wanted to make sure they didn’t have stigma around getting support when they needed it.”

The results bear the hypothesis. Students have demonstrated increased awareness, showing a small but consistently improved perception of how accommodations can be used, even for temporary health conditions, and how students can request them.

In some ways, the ���۴�ý application embodies the institution’s approach to higher education: Remove barriers and help students on their journey toward lifelong learning. This and subsequent changes to the curriculum are just the latest developments in an ongoing commitment to helping working adults pursue their educational goals.�� 

“At ���۴�ý, we have always put a lot of focus on understanding who our students are and what their needs are,” Houlihan says. “We work cross-functionally with different departments and student services to understand the needs of the students and tailor content accordingly.”

Prospective students can see the new ���۴�ý application or request more information.