Case Study: Bishop O'Dowd High School achieves streamlined, personalized admissions at scale with Finalsite

How Bishop O’Dowd High School Provides a Streamlined and Personalized Experience for Thousands of Applicants

Bishop O’Dowd is a college‑prep high school in Oakland, CA, that draws a diverse applicant pool from 143 middle schools. With about 1,000 inquiries and 800 campus visits each year for a 1,200‑student school, the admissions team faced a paper‑based, multi‑step application process that made it difficult to evaluate candidates thoroughly while preserving the one‑on‑one relationships central to their selective enrollment model.

Partnering with SchoolAdmin, Bishop O’Dowd implemented a customizable admissions platform — online inquiry forms, searchable student profiles, a two‑step application workflow, bulk document uploads, communication plans, and reporting tools — to streamline review and outreach. The result: a simpler, more personalized experience that helped the school surpass enrollment goals, made the application process easier for families, and allowed staff to communicate and collaborate at scale without losing a personal touch.

Bishop O'Dowd High School

Kerryn Pincus Gallagher

Director of Enrollment