CollegeLink 
CollegeLink was designed to make it possible for college students to apply to all of their prospective colleges without having to fill out
multiple applications.
A student would select their colleges, then a customized interactive applications was created that asked them for the minimum
set of information needed to complete those applications. They could add colleges to the list and they were asked only for the incremental information needed, if any.
When it came time to apply, the infomation was sent to CollegeLink, and the applications would be filled out on each college’s own paper application.
At the point we got involved, CollegeLink was distributed on a floppy disk.
Application data could be sent back on a floppy, over the internet, and by use of a dialup dropbox. Over the years, the internet played a bigger role, and a web site was added for entering data.
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The Major Problem Space: Human Factors
The first problem had to do with motivation and attention span. If you have any experience with the application process, the procrastination
factor is huge. The kids put it off, typically till the last minute, and run head first into deadlines. Studies of usage patterns in the early days of the company showed that three quarters of the
students who began the process never finished. On the web, the number was even higher.
Our challenge was to reduce that number to less than 15%. To accomplish it we had to get the kids invested in the process as quickly as possible, and the first applications ready to send in under half an hour.
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Key Project Data
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Project Duration
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11+2 Weeks (Hard Deadline)
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Key Technologies
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Server, multi-platform clients, web client, security, compression, encryption, database, serial networking, syncronized client database
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Major Technologies
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Human Factors, Auto Load Balancing Server, Anticipatory Defaults, Security Model
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Key Success Factors
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Finish Date, Completion Metric, Usage Metrics, User Satisfaction
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Surprises
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CollegeBoard network runnable Version
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Client Platforms
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Windows 3.1, 95, 98, ME,NT, 2000, Mac OS 7.1-9.2
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Server Platform
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Win NT/SQL Server, Unix/Oracle
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We set up an approachable graphical interface that broke the task into 5 discreet information groups.
Each section was broken into up to a maximum of 12 sub-sections. Each sub-section was designed to be completed in under 3 minutes.
We relied heavily on defaults, lists and our own concept of implied defaults. The latter were prefilled answerd that were determined from answers
to previous questions, we arranged the question order to make maximum advantage of this feature.
For the majority of schools the number of sub-sections for each group was actually quite small. Our first trick was to break up the process on a
per school basis. The first school presented was the one requiring the least information.
Each sub-section completed or partially completed resulted in a visual check displayed next to the section heading. Each school that was ready to send was also visibly tagged.
The result was the the first school was typically completed in under 20 minutes.
In most instances this resulted in two additional schools inhereting a completed mark. Subsequent schools would typically show up as over 90% ready with only one or two sub-sections neeeding attention.
The results: Over 85% of the students that started CollegeLink completed their first application, and the students applied to over 50% more
schools then they had planned, increasing revenue dramatically.
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RealBasic to the Rescue |
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A few weeks before the end of the project The CollegeBoard, (that’s the SAT folks) decided to utilize CollegeLink for their XSPAN product. This also resulted in a set of security, executable and
network usage requirements that we had not planned for. This was where we discovered RealBasic. It really saved us from a nightmare. See our RealBasic Development Notes for more on our use of RB.
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User satisfaction |
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User satisfication on a scale of 1-10 went from 6.8 for the previous version to 9.6 with the Wolf Rock implementation.
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