Online Apps Save Time by Eliminating Redundancy
In a world saddled with shortages of both time and money, online applications are a godsend for both applicants and admissions committees. A comparative analysis between the paper and online options for applying to graduate, law and medical school shows that online applications enable both the applicant and admissions offices to save time, money and effort to achieve their admissions goals.

An applicant is best served spending as much time as possible on essays, recommendations and supplemental statements. But the applicant's name, the family's biographical information, all the past academic achievements, and work history rarely change from app to app, and any time spent having to enter this redundant information is time wasted.

Altogether, there are more than 130 applications online at PrincetonReview.com alone for grad, law and med schools, sprawled geographically from the California Institute of Technology Graduate Programs to the Yale University School of Music, from the Boston University School of Medicine to Willamette University College of Law. Using the Application Profile, the applicant enters that information once, and it then populates the relevant fields for every application when it is initiated. Once applications are underway, changes to that core information (personal, educational, family and other) can be updated by returning to the profile page stored in My Review.

To further trim wasted time from the process, online application technology allows an applicant to upload his essays created in most word-processing applications (which can include formatting such tables, footnotes, bold, italic, and other common layout standards) right into the app (even typing out "application" is a time-waster!). Once uploaded, the applicant can review his essay as it is displayed in Adobe Acrobat. Finally, the Application Inspector feature checks your entire application for quantitative errors in data entry. All that is left to the applicant is the same old-fashioned demand for qualitative proofreading of the text.

Payment for electronically submitted apps is often made via a secure online server that accepts credit cards, allowing the transaction to be made quickly and safely from all corners of the globe. Some schools, however, will ask an applicant to mail the payment in even though the application is coming through the Internet. Emails update the applicant on his status and upcoming deadlines. Also, with applicant permission, schools have the opportunity to contact applicants while their applications are in progress.

Why Online Applications Are The Way To Apply
Geri Nederhoff of Harvard School of Design, which began accepting online applications last year, says her admissions office has come to value them for their ability "to eliminate as much data entry as possible. It saves you a lot of time on all the background information."

Some applicants worry about a tangible presence to their online application, concerned that a school's awareness of them is at risk of somehow becoming lost in cyberspace. The confidence and reliance increasingly showed by business schools in their use of online applications proves otherwise and should reassure those skeptics. How confident have schools become? "This year we stopped printing paper versions of applications" from online applicants, says Ms. Nederhoff of Harvard.

The swelling ranks of applicants considering graduate, law and medical school can be thankful that online applications have evolved to manage the tremendous workflow. In the end, applicants can make a better case for their admission and submit it online knowing it will get the consideration it deserves. "The benefit is the same for students and schools," Ms. Nederhoff says. "It's time saved."