Organizing the Paperwork
How can you or did you organize all the paperwork and information related to completing the admissions process according to state guidelines?
I had some idea of the paperwork involved in admissions as I went to 2 private universities myself. Luckily, the person I am training with has been with us for 14 years and is incredible when it comes to explaining the ins and outs of the paperwork we are required to complete. She has everything organized in a way that makes sense and flows well when completing the admissions process. All of our paperwork is organized and revised with the state regs.
It would be great if there was a little list serv or some sort of mass email that alerted us when a new reg came out...just a suggestion. :)
A 3 ring binder has been a great resource!! Marking it with tabs makes it easy to find exactly what I'm looking for and helps me stay organized. The 3 ring binder also makes it easy to change out and update pages as I need to!!
Our organization, as well has a large binder for each rep, but allows the rep to organization the materials within the binder to their own orderly fashion. There is no right way when it comes to binder set-up, each binder should be user-friendly to the rep, nothing is more aggravating than not being able to find what one is looking for, especially if you have a student waiting for the info.
Our application and enrollment agreement are also online, this should be the way schools go, less paper and filing is always better for the institution.
Besides having a complete binder, a new admissions rep should follow a student through the entire process. This way they will be able to explain to any future students what the process is and what to expect.
Sitting with the Director of Financial Aid, gives you,the knowledge and understanding about the FA process.
Our student services coordinator keeps everything in a preorganized folder
Having it broken up into different sections really helps the student understand what they are signing and makes it easier to explain and walk through!
I have always had a cheat sheet that includes all the steps needed to complete the enrollment in front of me prior to having the conversation
I especially concur! When everybody is well aware of others roles and knows how it works, it setting the company up for major success.
I think it is a really good idea to speak with someone from financial aid. I'm going to sit down with our financial aid director and ask them to go over the process with me.
I have worked for schools that handle all paperwork electronically, by default. There are only paper documents required in a few rare circumstances. I think this method is preferable to handling large quantities of paper. There are fewer cases of paperwork being misplaced and it is certainly more environmentally friendly.
I think a checklist is the easiest way to make sure you have systematically covered all your bases, especially in the early days when the FA package is so new. After awhile you won't need the checklist but it could be a handy tool that you could customize for your own needs.
Honestly I just asked for help. I met with other people from my department and took a look at how they had it organized and then created a binder that looked like theirs.
Instead of a large binder I use file folders so I can have quick access to each doc and I find that it helps you get ready for a conduct pretty fast.
I also was provided with a binder that has example of the enrollment agreement.Inside this binder are completed examples of all the paperwork that is to be filled out. the examples are also labeled to which dept gets it,and which ones are to be given to the students as copies. This has been very helpful.
I organized my paperwork by putting together a binder with several important documents in it. I also have a board posted on my wall with key details so that I do not forget the processes set in place.
I have a filing cabinet that I use to organize all of my students information. Once a student enrolls, I create a file for that student. Everything is in alphabetical order. This helps keep things easily accesible.
The paperwork is prepared by our enrollment processor. These are typically created before the student arrives,there is a checklist in the folder as to what needs to be completed as well. We also meet reguarly to ensure the paper work is being explained and presented properly
