http://www.simpleapply.com Enrollment Management Made Easy Thu, 28 Jul 2011 16:04:22 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 http://www.simpleapply.com/dashboard/american-disability-act-ada-amendments-in-2011/ http://www.simpleapply.com/dashboard/american-disability-act-ada-amendments-in-2011/#comments Tue, 15 Feb 2011 13:56:37 +0000 admin http://www.simpleapply.com/?p=1407 With Q1 of a new year comes the time for every self-respecting blog to make bold predictions on events to unfold this coming year or have a best of 2010 list, let’s go with the former today:

The American Disability Act will be amended to include specific items governing web pages for institutions receiving public funding, such as higher education.

This didn’t happen last year as predicted, but steps have been made towards this. The Department of Justice requesting comment “on the possibility of revising the Title II and III regulations within the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to explicitly include Internet accessibility of covered entities. ANPRM comments posted by others share a wide array of viewpoints, from total opposition to support for the strictest of implementations.” WebAIM’s (makers WAVE, a great tool for checking accessibility) detailed response to the DOJ request can be found here. ]]> http://www.simpleapply.com/dashboard/american-disability-act-ada-amendments-in-2011/feed/ 0 http://www.simpleapply.com/dashboard/net-price-calculator-financial-aid/ http://www.simpleapply.com/dashboard/net-price-calculator-financial-aid/#comments Tue, 25 Jan 2011 18:03:42 +0000 admin http://www.simpleapply.com/?p=1372 These calculators, which are required under a provision of the Higher Education Opportunity Act, will allow prospective students and their families to estimate their personal out-of-pocket expenses at a particular college.

Colleges have until October 29, 2011, to have their calculators up and running, but they have been encouraged to take action sooner.

SimpleApply will have a limited amount of slots available to complete this project. We’re asking that if you’re interested in a Net Price / Financial Needs tool that you begin your planning in the next 2 months in order to guarantee completion by the mandate date.

For more information, please contact us.

]]> http://www.simpleapply.com/dashboard/net-price-calculator-financial-aid/feed/ 0 http://www.simpleapply.com/dashboard/introducing-simplecampus-content-management/ http://www.simpleapply.com/dashboard/introducing-simplecampus-content-management/#comments Sun, 24 Oct 2010 22:59:11 +0000 admin http://www.simpleapply.com/?p=1246 In the coming weeks SimpleApply will introduce its newest offering SimpleCampus to the Higher Education and K-12 markets. SimpleCampus is a revolutionary way of handling your institutions website. It is a fully vendor managed website solution.

What exactly does that mean? SimpleApply will be responsible for building and updating your front end marketing website in its entirety, including all webpages and toolsets that touch your prospects such as your online application, net price calculator, analytics, or contact form.

What are the benefits? That are almost too many to name. For starters, you’ll save precious budget money but shrinking your website cost to just one yearly fee. No longer will you require a diverse technical skillset on staff such as designers, programmers, marketers, networkers, hardware admins; all you’ll need to do is provide your content directly to your assigned SimpleCampus representative via email. You simply provide the content and assign us the task. We complete the work. Without constantly being concerned about the “technology” you can focus on the quality content your users want to see. For some schools, SimpleCampus will be a huge upgrade in terms of aesthetics and user experience. Our system utilizes a template and best practice navigation based on the most successful websites in the market. All we need is your logo and school colors to customize the look and feel. SimpleCampus, just like all SimpleApply LLC products is Section 508 compliant. We can do it all, for less money, faster, and with amazing quality.

If this interests you, let us know! We always have room for beta testers, and we’d love to hear what you think about a fully managed offering. Have a feature request? Tell us, we’d love to include it if it’s a viable addition. We want to build a product and service that helps you do your job better, and in the end benefits the way prospects see your institution. It’s a new way of doing things, and we’re excited to share it with you. You can contact us through our website with any questions or if you would just like to hear about our progress. Our demonstration site is also a work in progress at www.simplecampus.com and should be completed very soon.

SimpleCampus is Content Management Made Easy. ]]> http://www.simpleapply.com/dashboard/introducing-simplecampus-content-management/feed/ 0 http://www.simpleapply.com/dashboard/blind-students-sue-law-schools-over-online-applications/ http://www.simpleapply.com/dashboard/blind-students-sue-law-schools-over-online-applications/#comments Wed, 16 Jun 2010 20:03:14 +0000 admin http://www.simpleapply.com/?p=1130 the Chronicle. Contact us today and don’t let this happen to you!]]> http://www.simpleapply.com/dashboard/blind-students-sue-law-schools-over-online-applications/feed/ 0 http://www.simpleapply.com/dashboard/financial-aid-calulator-requirement-for-2011-net-price/ http://www.simpleapply.com/dashboard/financial-aid-calulator-requirement-for-2011-net-price/#comments Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:35:06 +0000 admin http://www.simpleapply.com/?p=971 It’s a piece of the modern higher education website that has a lot of names (ie. The Financial Aid Calculator, Financial Needs Estimator, Net Price Calculator). The most important thing that insitutions need to be aware of is that there is an important mandate surrounding this piece of web based software.

The Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) was signed into law August 14, 2008. It includes many new reporting and disclosure requirements. Specifically, in terms of Financial Aid, it states that by August of 2011, every College/University/Higher Education institution most have a net price calculator on its website. The U.S. Department of Education recently released a template that institutions can use as a starting point. All insitutions will have the choice of customizing the DOE Financial Aid Calculator template themselves, or working with a vendor such as SimpleApply LLC which is capable of creating this dynamic form for them. It is important to note for many schools that the DOE template is NOT Section 508 compliant.

Please contact us soon if you’re interested in completing this requirement as we’re anticipating increased interest.]]> http://www.simpleapply.com/dashboard/financial-aid-calulator-requirement-for-2011-net-price/feed/ 1 http://www.simpleapply.com/dashboard/the-optimized-higher-ed-web-team/ http://www.simpleapply.com/dashboard/the-optimized-higher-ed-web-team/#comments Mon, 14 Sep 2009 19:07:42 +0000 admin http://www.simpleapply.com/?p=543

• There is no need for a centralized web team, just a webmaster
• It empowers departments to generate their own content

It does however come with its pitfalls that any good user interface expert, or marketing representative would point out:

• Your marketing message lacks a clear consistent voice because it is being communicated by many different people (no copywriter/web writer)
• The overall aesthetic treatment (look and feel) of the website degrades over time as users come up with new ways to style their respective sections outside of your specified guideline

Therefore, SimpleApply LLC advocates the following for those schools interested in maintaining a well branded, and professional web presence:

• A centralized and dedicated 5 person web team consisting of the following roles:
  
  Webmaster – leads team, touches all areas of development, develops site standards
  Web Editor – reviews all information, makes decisions on publishing priorities
  Web Designer – maintains look and feel, develops imagery, art, and animation/movies
  Web Programmer – educated in the code structure of the selected CMS
  Web Marketing – solicits content from departments, edits and writes copy



• A leadership mandate dictating specific procedures for the management of the website and decision making structure of the web team

Following these suggestions we’ll help to position your institution to get the most out of its best marketing tool – it’s own website.

]]> http://www.simpleapply.com/dashboard/the-optimized-higher-ed-web-team/feed/ 0 http://www.simpleapply.com/dashboard/facebook-twitter-and-youtube-as-admission-recruitment-tools/ http://www.simpleapply.com/dashboard/facebook-twitter-and-youtube-as-admission-recruitment-tools/#comments Thu, 10 Sep 2009 19:37:45 +0000 admin http://www.simpleapply.com/?p=527 The rise of new social networking technologies has left many admission teams asking, “how do we use this?” Just referencing these buzzwords is not enough. Today’s higher education e-marketers need to know how to practically apply these technologies in order to best leverage the huge audiences in their target demographic that these networks have built.

Facebook – Your institution should have it’s own admission Facebook page. This page should reflect the branding and mission of the school. As new prospects and applicants come in, be sure to add them as a friend to this page. This will allow your network to grow. Periodically communicate with them, but only with worthwhile content. Another way to utilize Facebook is to enable Facebook sharing for all of your schools News, Events, and Media. That way if a Facebook user takes interest in something, they can virally share it with their friends via their feed. The same would apply with an online application. Imagine the “pull” your school has when a high school student signs on and sees their best friend just applied to your institution. The latest use of the Facebook API allows for easy access into secured environments via Facebook authentication. This is a newer technology and should not be pursued unless you have a deep understanding of the impacts of this strategy.

For more information on how to use Facebook, please click here.

Twitter – This technology has grown in popularity thanks to its media coverage during the Iranian Riots. All schools should have a Twitter account that is updated at least twice a day with the latest developments in the Admission office including deadlines, dates, and information for applicants and students. An easy way to grow your Twitter readership is to publicize it on your website, and also to add prospects and students to your list of followers. Another way to utilize Twitter is to micro-blog an event. Just create a unique Twitter account for an event such as an open house, graduation, or sports team/game. Publicize the new account and then let people follow your minute by minute developments about what is going on.

For more information on how to use Twitter, please click here.

YouTube – Every good Admission team should get ahead of things and create their own YouTube page with quality video that represents their school. Good things to include are campus tours, sporting events, guest speakers, and alumni interviews. Just remember that if you choose not to do so, you don’t only lose the chance to impress people with your video; you also allow video footage of the latest party to bubble up and potentially place your institution of higher learning in a negative light.

For more information on how to use YouTube, please click here.]]> http://www.simpleapply.com/dashboard/facebook-twitter-and-youtube-as-admission-recruitment-tools/feed/ 20 http://www.simpleapply.com/dashboard/simpleapply-introduces-facebook-share/ http://www.simpleapply.com/dashboard/simpleapply-introduces-facebook-share/#comments Fri, 22 May 2009 21:17:35 +0000 admin http://www.simpleapply.com/?p=379 http://www.simpleapply.com/dashboard/simpleapply-introduces-facebook-share/feed/ 0 http://www.simpleapply.com/dashboard/another-news-story-for-the-schools/ http://www.simpleapply.com/dashboard/another-news-story-for-the-schools/#comments Sun, 08 Feb 2009 21:11:21 +0000 admin http://www.simpleapply.com/?p=208 http://www.simpleapply.com/dashboard/another-news-story-for-the-schools/feed/ 0 http://www.simpleapply.com/dashboard/a-news-story-for-the-schools/ http://www.simpleapply.com/dashboard/a-news-story-for-the-schools/#comments Sun, 08 Feb 2009 21:10:34 +0000 admin http://www.simpleapply.com/?p=206 http://www.simpleapply.com/dashboard/a-news-story-for-the-schools/feed/ 0