Admissions management software takes a student applying to a college or university from the first enquiry to the application, the offer and enrolment. It is also called an admissions CRM or enquiry management software. CRM stands for customer relationship management, software that records every contact with a customer. Here, the customers are applicants.
A large private university in India may receive 50,000 enquiries for 4,000 seats. The enquiries arrive from its website, education fairs, advertisements, phone calls and WhatsApp. Each enquiry is called a lead. Without software, many leads are never called back, and good applicants join another university.
Consider a private university in Mangaluru that is admitting students to its B.Tech programme. A student fills in an enquiry form on its website at 11 p.m. The software creates a lead, and records where it came from, for example a search advertisement. Within a minute, the student gets a WhatsApp message with the fee structure and a link to the application form. She asks whether the university accepts JEE Main scores. An AI customer service agent answers from the university's own admission rules. If she asks something that the rules do not cover, the agent passes the conversation to a human counsellor.
She applies, and uploads a scan of her Class 12 marksheet. Intelligent document processing (IDP) software reads the marks from the scan. The admissions software checks them against the university's rule: at least 60% in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics together. Her marks are 78%, so she qualifies. The software then ranks all the qualified applicants, sends offer letters in order, and tracks who pays the seat deposit of ₹50,000. If an applicant does not pay by the deadline, it offers the seat to the next applicant on the waiting list.
When she pays, the software sends her details to the student information system (SIS), which creates her student record and roll number. From then on, the SIS holds the official record. The admissions software also reports how many leads from each source became students. So the university knows which advertisements and education fairs were worth their cost.
Many applicants also ask about fee concessions. Some admissions systems connect to a scholarship search platform, which shows the scholarships that a student qualifies for.
The newest systems use AI to read every application and essay, and to write a summary for the admissions officer. The officer still makes the decision. AI models sometimes state invented facts with confidence, which is called AI hallucination. So a person must check any summary that affects a student's admission.