| GENERAL |
| Why do we need Applications Quest? In other words, why do we need diversity? |
In order for students and universities to remain competitive, a diversity of perspectives, opinions, and ideas is essential. The United States Supreme Court considered the educational benefits of diversity to be so compelling as to warrant its active promotion by schools in their admissions practices. The educational benefits of diversity are borne out by a wealth of studies.A listing of these studies may be viewed by clicking here.
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| Does Applications Quest sacrifice quality for diversity? |
| No. The premise of a holistic approach utilized by Applications Quest is that no application used as input to the evaluation algorithm can be considered any more or less qualified at the outset - i.e. prior to holistic evaluation - than any other application on the basis of limited criteria such grade or GPA. Once the evaluation process is completed, the applications recommended for admission cannot be considered to be less qualified than non-recommended applications from a holistic point of view. However, all applications can be considered equally qualified at the outset in the sense that they all must meet certain minimum criteria set by the admitting institution. |
| METHODOLOGY |
| How does Applications Quest make recommendations for admissions? |
| After the applicants are placed into clusters, Applications Quest will recommend one applicant from each cluster. The recommended applicants are selected based on their holistic diversity. Applications Quest recommends the applicant from each cluster that is holistically most unique. |
| How is Applications Quest distinguishable from Descriptor PLUS? |
| Unlike DescriptorPLUS and other diversity admissions tools that use Zip Code and High School information to cluster applicants, Applications Quest can use any and all variables the admissions committee selects. Those other tools simply query a database and group applicants based on Zip Code and High School; however, Applications Quest performs clustering based on all selected attributes using clustering algorithms. |
| Do I have to accept the applicants that Applications Quest recommends? |
| No. Applications Quest makes recommendations. It is possible to accept other applicants using by Applications Quest in conjunction with other approaches. |
| Can Applications Quest be used to target achievement gaps? |
| Applications Quest can be used to contribute to critical mass across race, gender, national origin, etc. As such, research has shown that when minority students work in environments where they have critical mass, they close the achievement gap; therefore, Applications Quest doesn’t solve the achievement gap problem, but it can be part of the solution when used with other programs. |
| Can Applications Quest be used for race specific programs? |
| Yes. Race specific programs do not violate the law as long as they are not race exclusive. Applications Quest can be used in race specific programs that are not race exclusive. |
| LEGAL |
| Does Applications Quest give preference based on race, gender, national origin? |
| No, Applications Quest considers all attributes equally important in contributing to diversity. Race, ethnicity, or national origin may be among these attributes, but will never be the determining factor according the model adopted by Applications Quest. In fact, Applications Quest is presently the only holistic solution which can prove objectively that race and ethnicity have not been used as determining factors in achieving diversity. |
| Does Applications Quest adhere to the US Supreme Court decisions in the Michigan cases, Proposal 2 or Proposition 209? |
| Yes, all three cases make it clear that race, gender, national origin can be used in admissions so long as they do not form the basis preference . Applications Quest achieves diversity while at the same time excluding the possibility of preference in a manner that is objectively verifiable. |
| Are minorities more likely to be recommended by Applications Quest? |
| No. In fact, the model used by Applications Quest inherently excludes the possibility of preference for one particular race or ethnicity over another. All applications have equal opportunity on the basis of race and/or ethnicity. |
| TECHNICAL |
What do I need to use Applications Quest? |
| Applications Quest is offered via the ASP (Application Service Provider) model, meaning that it is a fully hosted service that is made available to clients via the Web. Therefore, you do not need special hardware or software platforms to use Applications Quest. All that is required is a web browser and the applications used as input to the program. |
| Will my data be protected? |
| All data will be hosted in a secure web server and transferred via a secure socket connection. However, institutions are encouraged to only upload information that is going to be used in Applications Quest. Social security numbers and other sensitive data are not required for processing in Applications Quest; instead of using names or social security numbers to track applications on Applications Quest, such information may be omitted in favor of an assigned code which may be used by the client for internal tracking. |
| Does Applications Quest work with other enrollment management systems? |
| While at the present time there are no APIs (interfaces) to existing enrollment management systems, data transfer from these systems to Applications Quest is simple. You can transfer data from your enrollment management to Applications Quest by exporting the data to a tab delimited file, and then uploading the file into Applications Quest. |
| How does Applications Quest process essays? |
| Essays should be read by a person and scored. The scores are processed in Applications Quest. |
