The average number of online applications for MSU admission — including freshmen, graduate and transfer students — is up almost 8 percent since last year, which is consistent with a national trend in college admissions, officials say.
Online freshman applications for fall 2006 alone jumped 10 percent from last year, with about 75 percent of them received online as of Feb. 1.
"Students are increasingly likely to conduct a lot of their things online, and college applications are no exception," said David Hawkins, director of public policy for the National Association for College Admission Counseling. "This generation of students will just continue to increase their activity online as we move ahead."
The association is a Virginia-based company that helps high school students make decisions about their postsecondary education.
The reason for the increase could be the greater convenience for both students and admissions offices, Hawkins said.
"It holds costs down to not have to print and key in the information, and students are more comfortable doing things online," he said.
That comfort with the Internet also is why students don't choose paper applications as much, Hawkins said.
"The paper does truly seem like an extra step," he said.
No-preference sophomore Erica Vandekerckhove chose to apply online when she transferred to MSU.
"It was just easier — the convenience of having it right in my room and being able to go back to it whenever I wanted," she said.
Many universities also include incentives — such as waiving application fees — to encourage online applications, Hawkins said.
MSU offers a special feature that is only available to online applicants — the ability to track the status of their application process, said Pamela Horne, director of admissions.
An added benefit for university officials is that all data can be loaded directly into the university's student information system. This makes errors less likely because no one has to input data into the system, "so the applicant knows their own data have integrity," Horne said.
The use of online applications is substantially growing nationwide, Hawkins said.
Colleges and universities received about 57 percent of their applications online in 2004 — compared to only 35 percent in 2003, according to the association's March 2005 annual "State of College Admission Report."
And because of the growing trend in online applications, it's possible that paper applications could be phased out in the next decade, Hawkins said.
But MSU won't be getting rid of the paper applications any time soon.
"We'll continue to print paper applications for another couple of years and see how these trends go," Horne said. "Access is still an issue, and we don't want to alienate anyone."
