Admissions Software

[Bankesy]

Good afternoon all

 

Does anybody have any recommendations for Year 7 and Sixth Form admissions software? We don't currently have anything like that and have started to look at Applicaa which we can already see has some cons, our admissions team even went to a networking event for it at another school and not all was positive.

 

Thanks in advance for any suggestions

[ITGuyNW]

All I can say is we use signed up for Applicaa last year, tried it once, it was rubbish so now Finance are looking elsewhere. Support was pants too.

[chris11256]

We're tied into a 3 year subscription until next summer. It's not bad, but certainly could be better. Senior Management certainly aren't fans after it completely fell over on GCSE Results day last summer for most of the day, caused chaos.

[AJWhite1970]

We also use Applicaa for both and yes, the less said about GCSE results day last summer the better. However, at BETT this year I was lucky enough to have a long chat with their senior database manager who took the time to explain to me what happened, how they identified it and how they are putting in the hours now to ensure it doesn't happen again now the issue has been fixed.

 

As far as a parent portal for our y7 and y12 applications are concerned, nice and simple process and we sent out 360 provisional A level offers last week.

 

We'll be staying with them

[Aprice]

Applicaa here as well, don't think they minded it.

[Miscbrah]

All I can say is we use signed up for Applicaa last year, tried it once, it was rubbish so now Finance are looking elsewhere. Support was pants too.

 

If you have a sec can I ask specifically what was rubbish about it? Having a look around at a system for admissions currently.

[DrCheese]

Have used Applicaa for the past two years, it's generally a pretty good piece of software.

 

The only annoying thing is that I have to import everyone twice into SIMS as around 1/2 of them fail the first time & then works the second time. Not a problem, except you have to run through the entire matching process for every user.. AGAIN.

I logged it as a bug & all they needed to do to fix it was allow a retry option but no luck.

[Ditto]

When, as Data Manager, I was involved in admissions, I worked with Google Sheets and an admissions officer. I think there was some GScript, but not a lot. I do have a programming background so I understand that's not suitable for all. I know I had implemented the admissions criteria with mostly sorts on appropriate attributes. Not sophisticated, but did most of what we needed without too much manual intervention.

 

I recall I looked for a strong admissions app, but didn't find one. What would the list of functional requirements be for fully fledged admissions application?

[Starbug1]

We also use Applicaa and a lot of things went wrong, in particular parental consent information (e.g. biometric consent, photographic consent etc) and our pastoral admin assistant also said the support wasn't good.

 

Does anyone have any ideas for alternatives? Is there anything that could be seen at BETT this year that could work as an alternative?

[Bankesy]

I've pushed back as much as I can but we have got Applicaa coming in tomorrow for a demo, how is everybody getting on with it now?

 

Any alternatives?

@ITGuyNW did your finance team find anything?

[Edu-IT]

I've pushed back as much as I can but we have got Applicaa coming in tomorrow for a demo, how is everybody getting on with it now?

 

Any alternatives?

@ITGuyNW did your finance team find anything?

 

https://uk.bettshow.com/exhibitors/admicity

 

Saw this one recently.

[Bankesy]

Thanks @Ed-IT this looks like it could be an alternative and is an approved SIMS integrator

[MSGT]

On 2/12/2025 at 1:58 PM, Edu-IT said:

 

https://uk.bettshow.com/exhibitors/admicity

 

Saw this one recently.

How did it look? We use Applicaa and wanted to see how Admicity differs (pro/cons for both)...?

[MSGT]

On 3/6/2024 at 2:24 PM, ITGuyNW said:

All I can say is we use signed up for Applicaa last year, tried it once, it was rubbish so now Finance are looking elsewhere. Support was pants too.

Did you end up finding anything else? Have you tried Admicity? 

[Bankesy]

@ZoeT I've just seen your other thread regarding this, we had the CEO of Admicity come in and give us a demo but it lacked some of the key functionality that our Admissions teams required around mail merge of entrance test results to parents and it does a whole lot more than admissions that we don't really need.

We have gone with Applicaa, speaking to another local school it seems like IT don't really need to get involved other than permissions and their Data Manager did most of the setup.  We are due to get started with them on Monday.

 

Thanks

[MSGT]

4 minutes ago, Bankesy said:

@ZoeT I've just seen your other thread regarding this, we had the CEO of Admicity come in and give us a demo but it lacked some of the key functionality that our Admissions teams required around mail merge of entrance test results to parents and it does a whole lot more than admissions that we don't really need.

We have gone with Applicaa, speaking to another local school it seems like IT don't really need to get involved other than permissions and their Data Manager did most of the setup.  We are due to get started with them on Monday.

 

Thanks

We use it in the 6th form but we have found the set up quite lengthy (not the IT side - but the actual admin setting up of the whole forms/process) and their call centre seems to be overseas too. 

[Bankesy]

@ZoeT

 

Thanks for the feedback, I haven't had any feedback from our Admissions team since my last post so don't really have anything to add.

 

When we had our demo it was confirmed that support is not UK based, I they said Vietnam but don't quote me on that.

[Maria_Admicity]

On 06/03/2024 at 14:54, chris11256 said:

We're tied into a 3 year subscription until next summer. It's not bad, but certainly could be better. Senior Management certainly aren't fans after it completely fell over on GCSE Results day last summer for most of the day, caused chaos.

Hi Chris, are you looking for an alternative at the moment? Just noticed this post and that you were tied in to your current contract until this summer. If your school uses SIMS and you would more information about my software, Admicity, please let me know and I'd be very happy to give you a demo. Maria.