The graduate admissions site is the gateway for prospective students to learn about, engage with, and apply to The City College of New York. But it was in desperate need of a refresh. No easy feat, but Suchitra Sherpa BIC ‘24 was up for the task. The redesign took a strategic branding approach to enhance the user experience of prospective students navigating the site and efficiently direct them to the 60+ graduate programs offered at CCNY. In collaboration with the Graduate Constituent Council and the Provost’s Office, BIC Program Director Nancy R. Tag initiated and supervised this project along with Graduate Admissions Director Pauline Pabon. Suchi’s primary contribution was designing and then building the landing page along with individual graduate program pages and other accompanying pages, with enhanced content and intuitive navigation. 

Suchi implemented a few key features to improve the site - a strong brand positioning of CCNY, the large spectrum of degrees and schools highlighted, and an introduction to the innovative "cluster programs" that directly speak to the student's passions. 

She didn’t stop there: Aside from the landing page, Suchi saw an opportunity to enhance the individual graduate program pages. For this, Nancy created a survey and sent it to all of the 60+ graduate program directors intending to understand each program in depth. Suchi then designed a template to be used across all program pages and personalized each page based on the survey answers. The new program page template includes a summary of the program, a unique positioning statement with impressive facts and figures, information about faculty and students, curricular innovation, and admissions facts. 

This was a highly ambitious project that required a collaborative effort from everyone involved including graduate admissions, the provost’s office, the graduate program directors, Suchi, and last, but not least, Nancy who started it all. Bravo to all involved in this undertaking! 

Check out the new and improved site for yourself: https://www.ccny.cuny.edu/admissions/graduate-studies