On Wednesday, March 29, the ITS ConnectCarolina Student Administration team worked with the Admissions Office to release more than 18,000 decisions for first-year applicants. This was an overall increase in first-year applications of nearly 14 percent, so the competition was especially tough this year for applicants to UNC-Chapel Hill.
Unless you get to witness the inner workings of a decision release at Carolina, you might think there’s not much to it. But it involves a broad-reaching, cross-functional team made up of staff members of the Admissions Office and employees within three ITS divisions: ITS Enterprise Applications, Infrastructure & Operations and User Support & Engagement.
“Everything was flawless,” Legge said.
A checklist benefits effort
Allison Legge, Senior Director of Enrollment, Melissa Florio of the Admissions Office and ConnectCarolina team members Mihaela Cornea and Julie Dockens work step-by-step through a detailed technical checklist to make sure everything is in order. Then they run the final process that makes the decisions go live.
20,000 applicants race to ConnectCarolina
The date and time that decisions will be released are kept secret, but somehow within minutes of the decisions being released, applicants start posting the decisions they received on the College Confidential website (a website where applicants can find information about colleges as well as forums where they can discuss colleges). All it takes is one post, and then nearly 20,000 applicants are racing to ConnectCarolina to see their personal decisions.
“All of us in Admissions are grateful for the outstanding support provided by ITS,” Legge said. “I feel extremely fortunate to work at this wonderful place surrounded by so many talented and dedicated people.”