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The staff and board of AUPHA are continuously scanning the field to identify new ways to bring you value from your membership in the Association. A recent survey of members suggested that one way in which we can continue to provide value to you is through enhancing your ability to recruit students.

To that end, AUPHA has been exploring the idea of launching a Centralized Application Service (CAS) for health administration programs. Many of our fellow health professions have already launched highly successful centralized application services, so we will be laggards in this activity. But in waiting for the right time we can take advantage of all of the lessons learned by our predecessors.

Those of you in schools of public health are probably already aware of the SOPHAS application service. It has been in place for several years and, while presenting some challenges, appears to offer sufficient benefits to outweigh the problems faced by programs using the service.

While we are always cognizant of the need to balance graduate and undergraduate program needs, at the current time a centralized application service would be focused on the graduate programs. While we would like to find a way to apply this in the undergraduate programs as well, that arena has yet to be fully tested by any health profession.

A CAS is a Web-based service that includes a centralized appli cation and set of requirements that are standard to all participating member schools. Programs may add supplemental applications at their discretion. The applicant submits: one primary application, one set of transcripts, one set of letters of recommendation through a single portal. The CAS staff confirms, processes and, disseminates the applicant’s information to the schools desig nated by the applicant. Applicants pay a single fee based on the number of programs to which they are applying.

A centralized application service would offer a great many benefits to programs, applicants, and the association. The benefits to the programs include:

• It will provide admissions staff with secure, on-line access to track progress of their applicants and view application details in real-time.
• It will increase exposure to a larger applicant pool, including applicants from minority populations.
• It will streamline the admissions process and reduce administrative tasks by refocusing current resources on higher level interaction with applicants.
• Schools/programs will receive verified and standardized applicant information for easier review (letters of recommendation, test scores, international transcripts).
• It will allow schools to track where applicants reside.
• It will provide program-specific U. S. and profession- wide statistical reports on applicants.
• It will provide Web and dedicated phone support to admissions staff and their applicants.
• It will provide an ideal platform for sharing best practices among member programs.
• It will provide information on where your applicants matriculate.
• It will be provided at no cost for schools or programs

The benefits to the applicant of applying to your program through a centralized application service include:

• A convenient and efficient process to apply to multiple schools using a single Web-based application.
• A comprehensive online checklist and instructions to help applicants easily navigate through the application.
• Elimination of the need and costs associated with duplicate application data, letters of reference, test scores, and transcripts for those applying to more than one school.
• It provides applicants with a real-time portal to check the receipt of their applications, transcripts, and letters of reference.
• It provides applicants with a single portal to research and compare different schools using comparative data.
• It provides a seamless and integrated letters of reference process (electronic and paper).
• It provides robust application validation rules that reduce unintended applicant errors and omissions.
• Applicants can access a dedicated and knowledgeable CAS support staff available throughout the application cycle (single point of contact).

And finally, a CAS provides significant benefits to the host association and the field at large, including: