Web-based admission system for physical therapy graduate program

Abstract

Web-based applications are no doubt replacing a paper-based process in most of higher education activities. Web-based applications can help to improve the reliability and to reduce the processing time and cost. In graduate admissions, the applicants are able to apply and retrieve the application status online. All of the application forms, fees, resumes, transcripts, GRE scores, and letters of recommendation are submitted electronically. This project was initiated by Doctoral Program in Physical Therapy (DPT) at University of Wisconsin-La Crosse (UWL), in order to assist the admission office to manage the applications. The project objective is to build a web-based system that allows the applicants to submit their applications online. The recommenders for the applicants are also able to submit their recommendation via this system. Furthermore, the admission officers can manage the applications and export the needed reports. This manuscript is written as a summary of the development process of the web-based application mentioned above. It also includes the challenges and fun that I have encountered during this project. Limitations and possible improvements are also mentioned.