"View Decision" = Ready to Read in SIS

I've written about this a few times in blog posts and in my responses to comments (did you notice that I respond to comments?), but I think I need to make a really simple blog post about it.

The Student Information System has a built-in feature that adds a box at the bottom of your status page when your file is deemed complete and ready for us to read. 

Here's what it looks like:

If you see that box show up, it might cause a little excitement because "view decision" shows up in the box.  Alas, when you click on the words, you get a little message saying decisions aren't ready yet.  Because they aren't.

Early Action Notification = January 31st

Regular Decision Notification = April 1st

(any change will be announced on this blog ASAP)

We release all decisions at once and we aren't done with the EA process yet.  RD applicants, you'll probably start seeing these boxes pop up in early February, at which point I'll probably repost this entire entry.  :)



That's the Reader's Digest version (does that phrase even make sense anymore?).  The long version is that student information systems are built by companies that are in the information management business.  The company that built the system that we use did a lot of things right. However, there are a couple things that those of us "on the ground" don't love and that is to be expected. 

The "view decision" box works for lots of admission situations (many undergraduate and graduate programs use a rolling notification).  It just doesn't work for schools that admit a class as a big group.  Our SIS does a lot of things really well, but this one feature doesn't work perfectly for us. 

I have a feeling that if you have an offer on the big day, you'll be pretty happy with SIS.  Without it, you'd be standing by the mailbox, waiting for the postal service to bring your decision the way I did a long time ago.