Students - Click Here to Sign Up /Log In -   College / University Registration Steps Click Here  

The Cost of Processing Paper Info Cards

The cost to process paper info cards into actionable information is staggering. Below is just a rough estimate of the costs involved.

Known Costs

Labor

Estimated Data Entry Costs Using Info Cards

School Enrollment Num of People Hrs per Week Per Person Tot Hours Rate Weekly Pay Per Month Labor Cost for 7 months
up to 5k 10 40 400 $12 $4,800 $19,200 $134,400
up to 10k 20 40 800 $12 $9,600 $38,400 $268,800
up to 20k 30 40 1200 $12 $14,400 $57,600 $403,200
Above 20k 40 40 1600 $12 $19,200 $76,800 $537,600
        

 

 

forms1

 

 
     

 

Assumptions and Notes

A school with up to 5k students require about 10 people working 40 hours a week for 7 months to do the data entry of the thousands of cards that come in from various sources:

- Every college fair (local, regional, national)

- Every individual high school student (parent) campus visit

- Every high school student group campus visit/tour

- Every Admission Rep high school visit

- Every Open House or institution-sponsored event throughout the entire year

Paper and Printing

  • Paper
  • Printing
  • Storage of cards

Unknown

  • Green Factor
  • Loss of Opportunity – While filling out the form, time is being wasted when that time could be better spent having a deeper conversation between the Counselor and the Student
  • Time Lapse
    • Meet student on Monday but don’t reach them until a few weeks later
    • Too much is left to the memory of the Counselor and additional information would be nice to collect
    • Bad data – Here are all the things that are inherent to handwritten forms and data entry
      • Up to 10% of data is invalid
      • Bad writing creates incomplete or bad data
      • Erroneous data entry
      • Often key prospects are lost due to inefficient system