Working With A Partner To Achieve Your Goal: Transforming Transcript Processing

Sherry Quinn, Wayne State University, and Heather Hoskins, Parchment

About Wayne State University

Staff, Personal Development Equity, Inclusion

Wayne State University (WSU) is a premier R-1 doctoral research university in Detroit, Michigan, and part of the state of Michigan’s University Research Corridor, along with the University of Michigan and Michigan State University, that generates 95% of the research in Michigan. The Graduate School at Wayne State collaborates with 11 schools and colleges to admit domestic and international graduate students to more than 230 certificate, master’s, and doctoral programs. Wayne State University itself is Michigan’s most diverse campus enrolling about 25,000 students overall, with graduate students accounting for roughly 5,000 of the population.

Upgrading Application Processing and Transcript Integration

The Graduate School initially started using the free version of Parchment Receive to streamline the collection of official transcripts, reduce the amount of paper documents, and provide a more efficient way of ensuring official transcripts were not lost in route to the Admissions office.

When the Graduate School decided to move to Technolutions’ Slate application system from a homegrown application processing system in January 2020, we also started looking at how to streamline our operations. Even though we were receiving the documents through Parchment Receive, we were still downloading, saving (as PDFs), and manually applying the PDFs to the application record in the system. These actions were not only resource-intensive (both in labor and in time), but the potential for misdirection was also high.

Reduced Transcript Processing Time with Parchment Receive Premium

After looking at Parchment Receive Premium’s features –specifically its Slate Integration – we concluded a move to Receive Premium would really help address these issues. In early 2021, due to remote work (as a result of the pandemic), a redistribution of staff, and a desire to save time and provide a more efficient service to our applicants, we discussed and realized the potential and efficiency that could be gained by having official transcripts imported directly into Slate. As a result, we upgraded to Parchment Receive Premium in October 2021. With Parchment Receive Premium, we were able to not only import official transcripts directly into the Slate system but also auto-attach them to applications. This was a game changer, increasing our efficiencies in transcript and application processing and reducing transcript/ application processing time.

Having Parchment Receive Premium for over a year, we have realized a shortened transcript processing time on average of four minutes per transcript. In a one-year span post-Parchment-Receive-Premium-upgrade, the Graduate Admissions office processed roughly 1,300 transcripts, translating to a saving of about 87 hours of staff time annually.

Positive Implementation Experience

For the WSU Graduate School, once we upgraded to Receive Premium, the integration with the Slate application system went smoothly. Parchment assigned a project manager who walked us through the implementation and provided training through scheduled virtual meetings with the Graduate Admissions team and our Computer and Information Technology (CIT) partners. One-hour meetings were scheduled over a twoweek period, which included a kick-off meeting for all team members, a planning and training workshop, a configuration check, and a Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) setup. Since the WSU Graduate School was already a Parchment member, the main focus was centered around the configuration check and the SFTP setup.

More Efficient Workflow

The WSU Graduate Admissions team has always appreciated the user-friendly Parchment Receive interface, and the ease of looking up applicant information on Parchment is outstanding! After upgrading to Parchment Receive Premium and integrating with Slate, we saw our transcript processing time reduced by 50%. With transcripts now being automatically uploaded to the applicant’s record, we also found that the number of email and phone inquiries asking if transcripts have been received has dramatically reduced. Now as soon as transcripts are received and uploaded into Slate, applicants can login and view the update. Although some institutions still send transcripts via postal mail, the overall amount of mail processing is greatly reduced, and our staff no longer worries about transcripts getting lost through mail delivery. Additionally, with transcripts automatically attached to an applicant’s record, we only need to verify the degree and GPA, which allows us to get the file in the hands of the reviewer much quicker. We can then redistribute our staff’s work to other areas that need attention.

Sherry Quinn directs and oversees the Office of Graduate Admissions at Wayne State University Graduate School. In her role, she is responsible for strategic management of the enrollment plan for admitting domestic and international students to master’s, doctoral, graduate certificate, and graduate non-degree programs.

Looking into the Future

Using Parchment Receive Premium along with its integration with Slate, we have been pleased with the increased efficiency, productivity, and ability to manage the application processing workflow online. Specifically, regarding transcripts, we were able to reduce incoming transcript processing from six manual steps to zero, saving up to four hours of staff time daily. User experience is also becoming increasingly important, and we see benefits from enabling students to track the status of their received official transcript in their online application.

In addressing increased process efficiencies and further reducing the reliance on manual processing, we find that having a companion data file to import not only PDFs but also GPA, degree, and conferral date data fields would be even more beneficial. n