How Educational Consultants Can Track University Applications

This is the most common mistake when a consultancy outgrows a spreadsheet. One row per student, one column called Status. By November it reads "3 sent, 2 waiting on transcript, TU Delft needs the essay" and nobody can filter it.

A stage model that survives contact with reality

A stage should say where the work is, and each move should be something a person does. Five is usually enough:

• University and course, spelled the way the university spells them.
• The submission deadline, and separately your own finish date, usually two weeks earlier.
• The documents this university wants. They differ, and assuming otherwise is how a submission slips.
• Who on the team owns it. One name, not a team.
• Notes from any contact with the admissions office.

In EduCRM each application sits on the student's record and on a drag-and-drop board. Open the student to see all of theirs, or the board to see everything in preparation. See application tracking.

Deadlines are a scheduling problem, not a reminder problem. A reminder three days out is useless if the transcript takes two weeks. Two habits fix most of it:

1. 1Put the document-gathering date in the calendar, not the submission date. Work backwards through everything that means waiting on someone else.
2. 2Review the board once a week at a fixed time. Filter to applications in preparation with a deadline inside six weeks. That list is the week's work.

Because sessions, deadlines and follow-ups share one calendar, that review is one screen. More in managing documents and deadlines.