System Proposal

Graduate Student Funding Support Systems

1. Overview
Potential graduate students for Ph.D. are often uncertain about which university to choose
and whether they can afford them because they want to study full-time. Studying full-time implies
forgoing any job or primary source of income. Without a source of income or any savings, a
student’s ability to attend a particular university is dependent on the availability and level of
funding support. Often, students miss the opportunity to make it to their first-choice schools and
programs due to delays in funding decisions. They settle for less preferred schools and programs
because they receive early funding decisions from these schools. Henceforth, the graduate student
funding support system aims to speed up funding decisions across schools to help students make
a timely and sound decision on their program choice and school.

2. The Business Need

The business needs this system to help schools make an early decision on funding support
for students and communicate on time the financial burden of all admitted students. Implementing
the plan would help schools get a fair share of the most outstanding students with excellent research
topics. The quality of students and thesis is suitable for university ranking. Mail merge will be
performed by the graduate school admission committee and the bursar’s office.
3. Data
• Name of student
• Program of study
• Academic department
• Thesis topic
• Source of funding
• GPA
• GRE score
• Student category

4. Entry Mechanisms
Data entry begins when a student personally applies for admission through the admissions
portal. All prospective and current students also submit an application for funding support to the
academic departments.

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 5. Transformation
When a student submits an application for admission through the admissions portal, the
general admissions office will retrieve it and record it in excel after student credential verification
and evaluation. The academic departments receive the student information from the general
admissions office. The academic departments select and recommend a student for admission and
funding support to the graduate school. The graduate school admission committee makes a final
decision on student admission offer and funding support and performs a mail merge by sending
emails to students on their decision. The bursar’s office also conducts mail merge by sending
emails to students about their financial obligations.
6. Output
a. Person
The intended recipients of the admissions emails are all prospective applicants. The
intended recipients for funding are all current and prospective students who applied for funding
support.
b. Timeliness
The distributed emails are expected to the recipients instantly through the application
portal.
c. Format
Decisions on admission offers will be made available on the application portal, while
funding decisions are disseminated by email.

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 Narrative of Business Process Model
The analyst used the Swimlane flowchart to depict admission offers and the award of funding
suppoer for Ph.D. students at Muncie University. The individuals, units, and departments involved
in the process are the graduate students (Ph.D.), department admission committees, graduate
school, bursar's office, and all prospective and current students. The process also shows the
requirements for partial or full funding support for graduate students.
Description of shapes
• Arrows - Indicates the link and information flow from one person/department to the
other.
• Oval Shapes – it shows the start and end of the process. The "start" marks when a student
applies for admission and funding support. The "end" indicates when all students receive
emails on funding decisions.
• Square or rectangle Shapes shows detailed activities performed by the participants at each
stage of the process.
• Diamond shapes- shows critical decision points for funding awards based on a student's
GPA and GRE total score.
Activities/tasks performed at each stage of the process are represented by numbers. A detailed
description is given below:
1. Students submit an application for admission
The task involves an application for admission at Muncie University after a prospective has
reviewed all admission requirements.
2. Receives, sorts, and verifies
At this stage, the general admissions office receives all applications for admission. Applicants
are sorted based on the programs selected. It is followed by a verification of academic credentials
and other supporting documents.
3. Evaluates and records student eligibility in excel
Here, the general admissions office evaluates applicants' credentials to determine whether basic
admission requirements have been met. Eligible students are recorded in excel for onward
selection.

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 4. Develops policies for student admission
The departmental or program admission committees review the application and supporting
materials and then formally recommend acceptance or denial to the Graduate School based on
admission policies.

5. Mail merge
The Graduate School has access to the applicant's database. They create and perform mail
mergers on recommended and denied students for admission and send applicants the final
admission decisions through the online application.
6. Receives email
At this stage, all applicants receive mail on admission decisions from the graduate school.
7. Submits all required documents for funding consideration
All prospective and current students submit an application for funding consideration or extension
to the department admission committees.
8. Selects the most qualified students for funding and records them in excel
The departmental admissions committee receives all applications for funding support. The most
capable students are registered in excel.
9. Is the student research topic pressing?
The graduate school receives the excel record of the most qualified students for funding support.
The graduate school's decision to confirm funding for a student is based on the question above.
The relevance or pressing need of a student's research area determines whether a student gets
funding or not.
10. The student gets no funding support
A student fails to secure funding because the research topic is not pressing for society's
needs.
11. Is GPA 3.5 and GRE 300 and above?
Due to limited funds, this question determines which student deserves no, partial, or full funding
based on their academic and intellectual capabilities. The condition for full funding is a
minimum of 3.5 GPA and a GRE total test score of 300. Anything below will either receive no or
partial funding.

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 12. The student receives partial or no funding
With this decision, students meet all funding support requirements, but either their GPA and
GRE score or both fall below 3.5 and 300, respectively. As a result, they either get partial or no
funding at all.
13. The student receives full funding support
Students whose research topics were pressing and applied with a GPA of 3.5 and a GRE score of
300 or more receive full funding support with an amount determined by the graduate school.
14. Records students funding support in excel
At this stage, the amount of funding support for all admitted students is recorded in excel.
15. Performs Mail Merge
Notations 10, 12, and 13 are collected for mail merging at the bursar's office. Students' financial
obligations after receiving funding support or not are merged here.
16. Receives email on admission and funding support
Finally, this task notation depicts the receipts of congratulatory emails and records on funding
support for students and the financial obligation the student must bear for all prospective and
current students.

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Business Process Model for Student’s Funding Support System

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 Data Flow Diagram for Student's Funding Support System

The analyst used the Gane & Sarson notation with Swim Lanes to show the system's flow of data
and information.

Description of Shapes

• Arrows - indicates the flow of data and information through the system.
• Blue rectangle – shows the data source or external entity.
• Square shapes with numbers – describe the process or activities performed at each stage.
• Pink rectangles with numbers – indicate the data source or database.

External Entities

Prospective students/applicants are graduate students who have submitted their information and
academic credentials for admission purposes.

General admissions office – represent the first line of communication in the University's
admission process. They interpret admissions policies and procedures and respond to general
questions about its academic programs and requirements.

Academic department admissions – they process applications for a given admissions cycle.
They decide whether to accept, reject, or waitlist students for access to the program in question.

Bursar's office – is responsible for collecting and analyzing all student charges, including tuition
and student unions and health and dental insurance and funding support. They report any
outstanding balance to students' accounts after deducting the total funding support for a student,
if any, from the total charges.

All prospective and current students represent prospective and current student bodies seeking
financial assistance to pursue their studies.

The graduate school admission committee makes final decisions on recommended students
for admissions and funding and performs mail merge to students.

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Individual students – these are individuals that make up the graduate students' population in a
university.

Processes

1. Receives and records student information

The students submit applications after enquiring about the admission requirements and process.
The student application contains personal and academic information. The general admissions
office receives this information, sorts and verifies them. Additionally, they evaluate and process
admissions applications per the university policies, goals, and rules on the admissibility of
graduate students. Students' eligibility is recorded in excel for further process by the general
admissions office. Student information is stored in the university student's database.

2. Selects and recommends students for admission

For a student to qualify for admission, the student must meet department admissions
requirements. Students who complete the basic requirements are selected and recommended to
the graduates for entry. The departments also select qualified students for funding considerations.
This process is done after the general admissions office records student eligibility in excel and
forwards it to the academic departments.

3. Updates excel on admitted students for funding support

At this stage, both current and prospective students who need financial support must submit a
funding application. The academic departments review all the applications and select students
who meet the basic requirements for funding support. Students are taken through the processes
by the graduate school to determine the level of funding they will receive.

4. Mail merge of updated excel and amount of funding support for students

The bursar's office receives the updated excel for students that got funding support or not and the
amount they received. The amount, if any, is deducted from students' tuition bill or account to
determine how much of financial obligation the student must meet. The bursar's office performs

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mail merge on the financial commitment of all new and current students on their financial
burden. They also resend emails to students' accounts or financial obligations upon request.

5. Mail merge

The graduate school's admissions committee performs mail merge for all applicants. They also
resend emails to students' admission decisions upon request.

6. Resend requested old emails

Emails are sent to individual students upon request. These include students who never received
the initial emails distributed by the graduate school's admissions committee and the bursar's
office. It also includes students who got the emails but cannot trace them at future dates. Such
emails are retrieved from the data store in the Outlook folder.

Data Stores

1. University student's database

This is the warehouse of all students' information, both current and past, at the University. The
information stored in the database comes from the general admissions office, the academic
departments, the bursar's office, and the graduate school. These units can also retrieve student
information from the student database when needed.

2. Folder for sent emails

There is an emails backup stored in Outlook. Whenever a student requests an email, the
information is retrieved from the Outlook folder and forwarded to the student. The stored emails
come from the departments which perform mail merging, thus, the graduate school's admissions
committee and the bursar's office.

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