AC24, the Enrollment Management Association (EMA)'s annual conference, has been a launching pad for breaking, industry-altering news. Amidst the buzz of our intent to merge with ERB and the planned DASL data partnership with NAIS, EMA today unveiled plans for a robust new School Search and a more purposeful, joy-filled application journey for prospective families.

"The industry has spoken," said Sunaina Khanna, director of product management at EMA. "Last year, we conducted a design thinking exercise at the conference, and the underlying thread was that schools were asking us to help source candidates and streamline the back-end application process."

The more than 3,000 parents surveyed for The Ride to Independent Schools report echoed the desire for a friendlier application process. In the report, 55 percent of respondents rated the application process as too stressful, and 49 percent said it was more work than expected. 

Given families' perspective on the application workload, it's unsurprising that the top reason cited for not applying to a school was to reduce the burden of completing applications. However, a shocking 77 percent indicated that they didn't utilize a common application such as EMA's Standard Application Online (SAO) because they either didn't know it was an option or the schools they applied to didn't accept one.

"Historically, EMA services such as the SSAT have introduced candidates to the SAO," Khanna said. "As a result, the SAO made sense for schools that accepted the SSAT, but there was less incentive for those that didn't. Layering a comprehensive School Search utilizing modern search engine optimization techniques on top of the rapidly growing footprint Admission.org already has with families will dramatically increase our ability to connect candidates to schools."

Prospective candidates will be connected to EMA member schools through information-rich school profiles that families enter from the School Search. As a value-added benefit to membership, all EMA schools will be able to publish a profile.

"We're currently in the design phase of developing the school profiles, and we're reviewing the designs with family and school focus groups to ensure the profiles strike the right blend of information families want to see with the ability for schools to showcase their key differentiators.

"Schools won't be required to utilize the SAO, but as The Ride research shows, not incorporating the SAO could be at the expense of applications. It's also worth noting that pairing the School Search with the SAO will likely shorten the pathway to engaging with candidates. “When candidates start an SAO application, 90 percent turn on the "interested in" flag, which immediately shares their contact information with the school."

The new School Search is the first phase of reimagining the applicant journey. The second phase is to create a more purposeful Student Success Portal. Here, families will receive recommendations on schools that fit their criteria, check application statuses, monitor SSAT practice progress, and utilize third-party integrations such as Vericant's video interviewing.

"The possibilities are endless for the Student Success Portal, and we're extremely excited about the impact it will have on families."

The new School Search and profiles will be available in time for the 2025–26 admissions year.

"In the meantime, we recommend that schools unfamiliar with the SAO start using it. This gives you plenty of time to configure the SAO to your school's admissions criteria with things like supplemental forms and integrate it with your enrollment management system, so you're ready to go when the new Search expands our candidate funnel."