Niche, a popular and fast-growing app that lets prospective college students create a profile and apply to colleges on their phone, has reached the University of New Hampshire (UNH). This change in admissions is a part of a trend to make college admissions less stressful.
Niche lets users create profiles that list majors that they are interested in, colleges they are interested in, and it provides personalized college recommendations with over 50 million users and more than 100 colleges partnered with Niche. The app has become an easy way for high school graduates to apply to potential colleges.
The app shares that using this app you will have “No application. No waiting. With Direct Admissions, colleges can accept you based on the information in your Niche Profile,” according to Niche’s website. Niche claims that normal admissions are long and stressful, they don’t believe it needs to be confusing.
Kimberly DeRego working with Enrollment Management at UNH shares that they have been watching the research for direct admissions for several years. “Niche had asked us over a year ago if we wanted to move forward with direct admit. So we took about a year to gather the data and try to make a decision and then we decided to go for it this year and do a pilot. So now we are offering direct admit through Niche for some students,” DeRego said. This will take place for the incoming freshman, class of 2029.
UNH worked with the Niche app to show their criteria for what they look for in a student, “They are able to program that into their system, so that when a student logs in and uploads their transcript information and some other information the platform is able to look at that and then it programmed to show the students who meet our regal admission criteria that they will be admitted if they go in and fill out our form,” said DeRego. The admissions criteria have not changed. When the forms are submitted UNH reviews their forms and transcripts and will confirm if they are admitted.
While easier for students, it has been harder on the admissions side. “There’s a whole separate thing we need to do, we had to build a separate process within our CRM (constituent relationship management) we have new technology and more things going on,” said DeRego. But they have heard from many students saying that the process for them has been easier and more straightforward. Almost all positives have been positive. There was a small issue pointed out if a student uses a different email for the app plus the form it causes slight confusion.
It is unknown if they will continue to use Niche in the future. “We are going to see how this year goes, it creates a little more work on our side so we need to make sure we can maintain that, but early indicators are students really like it,” DeRego said. It looks possible for them to continue the use of the app, but it is decided on a year-to-year basis.
