Connect with us

Technology

University of New Hampshire and Plymouth State University to Offer Real-Time Acceptance and Scholarships via Direct Admissions

Published

on

Will participate in Niche Direct Admissions® to provide a simplified admissions process

CONCORD, N.H., Sept. 30, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — The University of New Hampshire (UNH) and Plymouth State University (PSU) today announced a pilot program with Niche Direct Admissions® for the 2024-25 admissions year. Some high school seniors throughout New Hampshire, and across the country, who meet the criteria set by these institutions for admission and merit scholarships can now receive immediate acceptance based solely on their Niche Profile.

Niche, the country’s leading platform connecting students with colleges, recently launched its 2025 direct admissions program for high school seniors. The company is revolutionizing the college admissions landscape by modernizing the way students and families choose their best-fit colleges, offering real-time acceptance and upfront scholarship offers. Now in its fourth consecutive cycle, Niche Direct Admissions has over 110 college and university partners.

“UNH is committed to making it easier for students and their families to access higher education and to navigate the admissions process,” said Kimberly DeRego, vice provost of enrollment management at UNH. “Students admitted via the Niche program are held to the same standards as any other student we welcome; however, they now have a quicker, more straightforward path to enrollment.”

This is the first time UNH and PSU, part of the University System of New Hampshire, will offer direct admissions. Across the country, direct admissions programs have expanded rapidly over the past five years, as universities seek to broaden access, boost enrollment and change the narrative of higher education from one of scarcity to one of opportunity. According to Niche survey data, 80% of last year’s high school seniors reported they’d be more interested in a college that offers acceptance without a traditional application. That trend continues for rising seniors in the class of 2025. 

“Niche was easy to adopt and has complemented our existing strategies, providing us with an additional source of enrollment at a time of rapid change within the industry,” said Joanne Landers, Ph.D., vice president of enrollment management and communications at Plymouth State University. “This new resource will enable us to further streamline our admissions process and extend the PSU experience to a broader audience.”

Research from the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University noted that “complexity and uncertainty in the college application process contribute to longstanding racial and socioeconomic disparities in enrollment.” While the study found that direct admissions programs increased the number of college applications overall, the increases were greater for underrepresented minority, first-generation and low-income students.

With Niche Direct Admissions, institutions set criteria for acceptance that are unique to their college or university. Meanwhile, students create an online profile and explore colleges based on a myriad of factors. In real time, qualified students will see if they have been accepted, receive a merit scholarship offer and access detailed information about the institution along with the option to initiate the enrollment process. These are offers from colleges the student expressed interest in, as well as similar ones they qualify for and may want to consider.

“It’s wonderful to see forward-thinking schools, such as our friends in New Hampshire, start to meet today’s students where they are by providing them and their families with the immediacy and transparency they’ve come to expect elsewhere in their lives,” said Luke Skurman, founder and CEO of Niche. “Not only is it beneficial to the students, but the ROI for the colleges checks out as well. The 2024 Niche Direct Admissions cycle generated an estimated first-year net tuition revenue of nearly $100 million, accounting for 9% of our partner institutions’ deposits on average, with some as high as 30%.”

Niche’s student-first approach removes much of the friction associated with the traditional college admissions process, such as letters of recommendation or personal essays. Niche Direct Admissions is completely free for students and open to all high school seniors, allowing them to receive acceptance and scholarships to colleges both in their home state and elsewhere. Students can still apply to PSU and UNH via the traditional application process.

UNH and PSU are now actively offering Niche Direct Admissions to the high school class of 2025. High school underclassmen who create a Niche Profile will automatically be eligible for direct admissions offers during their senior year. Over a million high school seniors create a Niche Profile each year, which is roughly one out of every two college-bound seniors. 

PRESS CONTACTS
UNH: Tania deLuzuriaga, Executive Director of Public Relations
tania.deluzuriaga@unh.edu

PSU: Denise Panyik-Dale, Director of Communications and Marketing
denise.panyikdale@plymouth.edu

Niche: Nick Liberati, Director of Public Relations
nick.liberati@niche.com

ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE:
The University of New Hampshire inspires innovation and transforms lives in our state, nation and world. Nearly 16,000 students from 50 states and 87 countries engage with an award-winning faculty in top-ranked programs in business, engineering, law, health and human services, liberal arts and the sciences across more than 200 programs of study. A Carnegie Classification R1 institution, UNH partners with NASA, NOAA, NSF, and NIH, and received over $210 million in competitive external funding in FY23 to further explore and define the frontiers of land, sea and space.

ABOUT PLYMOUTH STATE UNIVERSITY:
Established in 1871, Plymouth State University serves the state of New Hampshire and the world beyond by transforming our students through advanced practices where engaged learning produces well-educated undergraduates, and by providing graduate education that deepens and advances knowledge and enhances professional development. The Plymouth State Cluster Learning Model emphasizes open, integrative, and project-based experiences. With distinction, we connect with community and business partners for economic development, technological advances, healthier living, and cultural enrichment with a special commitment of service to the North Country and Lakes Region of New Hampshire.

ABOUT NICHE:
Niche is changing how colleges connect with students and build their future classes. As the trusted partner to hundreds of colleges, Niche is helping higher education institutions across the country streamline operations, forge genuine connections with students and achieve their enrollment targets. Our nationally recognized Niche Direct Admissions® program enables colleges to proactively accept qualified students based on their Niche Profile alone. Through real-time acceptance and scholarship opportunities, Niche Direct Admissions offers a modern experience for today’s students, resulting in more enrollments for college admissions teams. Learn more about how over 110 institutions are already leveraging Niche Direct Admissions.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/university-of-new-hampshire-and-plymouth-state-university-to-offer-real-time-acceptance-and-scholarships-via-direct-admissions-302261928.html

SOURCE Niche

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Technology

Preventing Signal Degradation due to Inclement Weather with an Innovative Heating System

Published

on

By

AURORA, Ill., Sept. 30, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Scientel Solutions (Scientel) headquartered in Aurora, IL USA has launched an antenna enhancement product focused on avoiding potential weather caused interference and downtime. In partnership with Surface Heating Systems, Scientel has developed an Anti-Ice heating system for millimeter antennas of all sizes. The new product is compatible with most major manufacturers and intended to prevent the buildup of snow and ice, thus keeping the antennas operational in the most severe weather conditions.

Antenna interruptions cause network down time, data loss, and can create an operational nightmare. The formation of ice and often heavy snowfall, especially on parabolic antennas, is a major cause of loss of signal transmittal and reception during winter months.

“Utilizing millimeter radios in weather affected regions was previously challenging given the difficulty of site access. This technology has ensured that there is no ice buildup which enables the delivery of Gigabits of capacity to remote facilities, without having to dispatch to the site.” – Bill Asselborn, Project Manager at Scientel Solutions

The Anti-Ice heating system is a robust, hard-backend system that either easily attaches to the rear of the antenna, directly heating the structure or via an intermediate enclosed air gap. Both variations have a control unit which only turns on when the temperature is below 40 degrees, and moisture is detected. Thus, keeping the energy utilization to a minimum. These systems can be installed with minimal disruption to the service.

Having already been deployed in the Midwest and Northeast portion of the United States, these units have the capability to withstand the most severe weather conditions through the brutally cold months. 

All systems can be supplied with fully automatic controls with the option of SNMP upgrade. 

About Scientel Solutions

Scientel Solutions is The Universal Integrator that offers 360° technology services supporting clients’ dynamic and sophisticated communications, video, and data management needs. Their mission is to enhance the quality of life for their Customers, Partners, Employees, and Community. They are headquartered in Aurora, IL with offices across the United States, Canada, and Europe, with extended capabilities to service clients globally.

Visit them at: www.scientelsolutions.com

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/preventing-signal-degradation-due-to-inclement-weather-with-an-innovative-heating-system-302262945.html

SOURCE Scientel Solutions

Continue Reading

Technology

KUDO Earns 4th Patent for AI Innovation Amid the Launch of KUDO AI v.3.0

Published

on

By

KUDO launches a new AI engine, KUDO AI v3.0, while gaining a fourth US Patent for innovative speech translation method.

NEW YORK, Sept. 30, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — After being granted three Patent certifications from the United States Patent Office (USPO) within the last twelve months, the KUDO team rounds off Q3 of 2024 with a fourth – for ‘Systems and methods for automatic speech translation’ – being added to their impressive collection. The granting of the Patent comes after extensive R&D efforts into AI speech-to-speech technology following KUDO’s Series A investment round, and amid another round of UX and UI optimizations to their product suite that include a new AI engine, KUDO AI v.3.0.

Since January 2024, KUDO AI Speech Translator has seen a 453% increase in monthly client usage. The solution’s ease of use and market-leading translation quality are the result of a complex process incorporating state-of-the-art Natural Language Processing systems and Large Language Models. KUDO’s latest Patent, no. 12,079,588, focuses on this unique method for real-time, continuous translation, with an emphasis on automatic speech recognition and a segmentation model that almost instantly organizes sentences in a way that the translations are rendered as naturally as possible.

Having already undergone a new AI engine previously, significant UX and UI improvements, the addition of a custom glossary feature, and more, the KUDO team is continuing its commitment to delivering the most user-friendly AI Speech Translator by sharing further product enhancements to the solution’s translation quality and captions.

New AI Engine – KUDO AI v.3.0

In this update, new and existing clients of KUDO AI can expect to see an even greater increase in accuracy and fluency than in our last AI engine upgrade, due to be released in October. The objective, as always, is to continue improving the translation quality of KUDO AI while ensuring that the latency (lag) between the original speech and the translation remains as short as possible. Read our in-depth guide for more information about the quality of AI translation and the role of latency.

UX/UI Customization of Captions

Continuing the theme of an enhanced user experience, the live captions on all of KUDO’s product interfaces have undergone a revamped design adapted for accessibility.

On the KUDO Platform videoconferencing interface, and KUDO’s Mobile Link solution which can be accessed simply by scanning a QR code, users can now benefit from: light and dark mode for the screen, the ability to select the size and color of the captions to suit your preferences, and the option to choose the default font or Open Dyslexic, a font which is designed to increase readability for participants with dyslexia.

More Accessible Captions on MS Teams

In KUDO’s last update on Microsoft Teams, the team added automatic language detection. In October, the same optimizations to KUDO’s captions will be rolled out on its native integration on Microsoft Teams. This means that users will be able to access the same KUDO AI customizable captions directly on Microsoft Teams. Microsoft Teams users will also benefit from the optimizations to translation quality with the launch of KUDO AI v3.0.

About KUDO

KUDO is the world leader in providing real-time multilingual solutions that enable people to communicate effortlessly in any language⁠—on any platform. Their network of 12,000 professional language interpreters, combined with their ground-breaking Speech Translator, empower organizations of all sizes to collaborate more efficiently, with greater inclusivity, and on an international scale. KUDO Inc. is a New-York based technology start-up founded and managed by language and conferencing industry insiders seeking to create a world in which everyone has the power to understand and be understood in their own language.

Media Contact

Chloë Walford-Delahaye, KUDO Inc., +1 347 943 9056, marketing@kudo.ai, kudo.ai

Twitter

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prweb.com/releases/kudo-earns-4th-patent-for-ai-innovation-amid-the-launch-of-kudo-ai-v3-0–302262713.html

SOURCE KUDO Inc.

Continue Reading

Technology

Digital Federal Credit Union and First Tech Federal Credit Union Announce Intent to Merge

Published

on

By

Combined entity will provide members an unrivaled digital experience, a coast-to-coast branch network with expanded member service hours, and access to premier financial products and advisors.

MARLBOROUGH, Mass. and SAN JOSE, Calif., Sept. 30, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Digital Federal Credit Union (DCU) and First Tech Federal Credit Union (First Tech) announce their intent to combine through a merger of equals for the benefit of members, employees, and communities. Following completion of the merger, which is subject to approval from the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) and First Tech’s membership, the new entity will emerge as a $28.7 billion credit union serving nearly two million members with more than 50 branches in eight states. The proposed combination, which is expected to be completed in 2025, has the unanimous approval of both the DCU and the First Tech Board of Directors and their respective leadership teams.

Members will experience no immediate changes as the two organizations will operate independently as DCU and First Tech until systems and processes are integrated and operational. Upon completion of the integration, the combined organization will operate under DCU’s charter and the First Tech Federal Credit Union name. In recognition of the strong and proud histories of both DCU and First Tech, employees and members of both organizations will work together to develop a brand experience that honors both entities’ roots with a future-forward vision. First Tech President and CEO Greg Mitchell will remain with First Tech through the integration. DCU President and CEO Shruti Miyashiro will become President and CEO of the newly combined credit union. 

“Our credit unions have a shared origin—each created to serve the financial needs of technology employees, their families and digitally savvy members across the country,” said Shruti Miyashiro, President and CEO of Digital Federal Credit Union. “The transformative power of this merger of equals will unlock enormous potential to deliver value and opportunity for the people who matter most—our members, our employees and the communities we serve.”

“Uniting the capabilities of the nation’s two leading technology-forward credit unions will allow us to innovate and push the boundaries to deliver more elevated experiences by making material investments in products and services to meet the needs of our growing membership,” said Greg Mitchell, President and CEO of First Tech Federal Credit Union. “With shared principles of people helping people, the new organization will also become the single-largest national philanthropic leader in the industry, donating more than $4 million annually to positively impact our local communities.”

More information about the intent to combine into one organization may be found at DCU.org and Firsttechfed.com.

ABOUT DIGITAL FEDERAL CREDIT UNION

DCU is a $12 billion financial cooperative headquartered in Marlborough, Massachusetts. Established in 1979 as the credit union for the employees of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) and their families, today DCU serves over 1.1 million members across all 50 states and Puerto Rico. DCU has a proud legacy of serving many members who are newer to banking, including young-adults, historically underserved, or new arrivals to the U.S. banking system. DCU’s member-centric mission and commitment to digital innovation informs how products, solutions and services are created to provide a remarkable experience to support members’ financial goals. With 23 branch locations and 35 ATMs across Massachusetts and New Hampshire, members have additional access to DCU’s award-winning digital banking platform and mobile app as well as more than 5,600 branches in a shared CO-OP network, plus over 30,000 surcharge-free ATMs nationwide. Federally insured by NCUA. Equal Housing Lender. For additional information, visit dcu.org. 

ABOUT FIRST TECH FEDERAL CREDIT UNION 

First Tech Federal Credit Union is a nearly $17 billion institution headquartered in San Jose, California. The nation’s premier credit union serves the world’s leading technology-oriented companies and their employees, including HP Inc., Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Microsoft, Agilent, Intel, Cisco, Amazon, Nike, Intuit, Google, and more. First Tech is recognized as the industry catalyst for delivering effortless banking experiences to more than 660,000 members through its 34 branch locations, more than 5,600 CO-OP Shared Branch locations, 30,000 CO-OP Network ATMs, and online platforms. First Tech offers a full range of financial services, including traditional banking, online banking, mortgages, financial planning, various consumer loans, and insurance services. Federally insured by NCUA. Equal Housing Lender. For more information, visit www.firsttechfed.com

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/digital-federal-credit-union-and-first-tech-federal-credit-union-announce-intent-to-merge-302260570.html

SOURCE Digital Federal Credit Union/First Tech Federal Credit Union

Continue Reading

Trending