Georgian College introduces near-real time admission experience

Sept. 20, 2023

Students applying to Georgian College can now expect to receive a faster and more personalized experience. The college recently launched a new admissions system with a new applicant portal that is user-friendly, intuitive and provides greater transparency for applicants during the college admissions process.

“This new admissions system is part of our innovation strategy to offer an unrivaled student experience,” said Cindy Mutchler, Registrar and Executive Director, Georgian College. “Early in the development of Georgian’s digital innovation strategy, we identified the opportunity to streamline and modernize the admissions system as it hasn’t changed over the past few decades. The ultimate goal of the service is to significantly reduce the wait time between when applicants submit their application and when they receive information about the next steps and/or a decision about their application.”

Largest system replacement ever done at the college

The system is delivered through software developed by EnrollmentRx on the Salesforce platform. This is the largest system replacement ever done at the college, replacing the former Banner admissions module and leading to a solution that fully integrates with OCAS, Ontario’s centralized college application service.

The new OCAS application cycle begins Sept. 30. New applicants will be able to take advantage of the modern system when they apply for programs with start dates in fall 2024, winter and spring 2025.

‘Georgian is deeply committed to helping each applicant start their postsecondary journey on the right foot’

Georgian was excited to collaborate with EnrollmentRx and OCAS on this initiative. The new application process fits with the college’s digital innovation strategy and OCAS was eager to test and implement its new Domestic on Demand (DoD) service that enables colleges to exchange domestic application data with OCAS in a near real-time fashion.

“We’re proud to work with Georgian to launch Domestic on Demand, a system that helps our college partners support learner needs by responding more quickly to their applications,” said Lee Manchur, Chief Information Officer, OCAS. “Throughout the onboarding process, it’s been clear to me and the team at OCAS that Georgian is deeply committed to helping each applicant start their postsecondary journey on the right foot. We look forward to working with Georgian in the future to create new and innovative experiences for learners.”

Georgian is the second Ontario college to begin using DoD and the first to take advantage of its full capabilities.

With the new system, Georgian can access application data at any time of the day and as often as is needed.  It delivers faster answers for applicants and is less manual work for Georgian’s admissions team, enabling admissions officers to dedicate more time to personal connections with applicants. In addition, the responsiveness will help the college make an early, positive impression at the first stage of a student’s postsecondary journey.

‘New and personalized experience’ for applicants

Applicants will love the new and personalized experience to easily track their progress, anytime at their convenience. And, once applicants submit required admissions documents there won’t be long wait times to find out if they’ve been accepted to Georgian. Ontario colleges are permitted to release offers starting Nov. 1. However, those applicants who have applied to a highly competitive program may not receive an offer until the equal consideration deadline on or after Feb. 1.

Finally, through Georgian’s unique new applicant portal, applicants can view a checklist detailing specific admissions requirements for each program, and access the admissions roadmap to ensure they know all the steps needed to prepare for registration, including medical, immunization or police vulnerable sector checks, and more.