Overall, my experience with schoolmint is good. We love having all of the information at our fingertips.

I like that all three of my children are on one account. It's very easy to click between children and view grades, absences, etc.

It's difficult to recover username and password. I've always had to end up calling the school to have mine reset.

I love all the customized aspects that meet our specific needs. Love the scheduling feature! Most of all, I love the customer support!!!

We use Smart Choice for our online applications and lotteries and recently added their services for permits, which is going great! I love the customer support. The reps are always quick and responsive to even the smallest issue and if my rep is unavailable, someone else responds on her behalf right away. Working collaboratively with the reps and developers is my favorite thing - no question goes unanswered, I can't say enough about how important and impressive that is. One of my favorite features which is absolutely worth the money is the scheduling feature!! What a time saver and so easy to use! I also love that I can create my own deliverables and customize how I use them. The lotteries have worked very well for us and we have a lot of custom priorities that the system handles very well.

Like the other reviewers, I feel that creating reports is the most tedious and unintuitive part of the system. Lots and lots of trial and error in that area. We can finally duplicate a report which is helpful to a least have some of the info already available when creating a new report. Luckily the reps and develops are helpful, but I would like to be able to do more of it myself. Now that we use Smart Choice for our permits in addition to our lottery, it is a little confusing go and back and forth between the newer permit system and the old lottery system. It would be nice if they were they same. A minor thing I don't like in the new system, is that I can't see the parent notes without clicking on them, in the old system I could see all of the notes at the same time. Another thing that would be helpful is to be able to sort by more than one column header while looking at the application management page. Filters are useful for the most part, but sometimes the extra layer of sorting would be helpful.

The interface is clean and aesthetically pleasing.

Enroll is like an airplane that is being built while it is in the air for the first time. Features are incomplete and do not function properly. For example, applicants can use a Scheduling module to select appointment dates/times, but there is no way for the system admin to export that information to a CSV or Excel. Same with recommendations; they cannot be exported by the admin. So there is critical data points in the system that cannot be accessed by the admins. The product is very disappointing.

It is 100% online. This alone has saved our campuses many hours in going through paper applications and parents can chose more than 1 school at the same time without having to complete a new paper application. I love the conditional formatting, scheduling of messages and the defaulting of today's date enhancements added this year. We are able to get incoming students set up very quickly for testing or find potential needs for students earlier by collecting the information earlier in the process than we have in the past since the forms are so easy to use online. Wonderful tool to collect enrollment data and create projections when we start year 3. This helps locate the grades of greatest needs so we can concentrate marketing in the locations and grades we need as well.

No way to stop users from creating multiple accounts year to year when they cannot remember their password or username - I have parents with 3 user names for 1 student and 3 siblings with different usernames. We send them the username in all communication, but parents still create new accounts! We would really love a view only or a way for certain groups to be able to print their own forms, such as Nurses or principals. We would not want them having the ability to make any changes, but if they could look at the information and print out anything pertaining to their department, then this would eliminate the need for the registrar to do it for them. The feeder campuses and administration would love a way to see which campus the re-enrolled student came from the prior year. For example, the Junior High campus cannot see which elementary campus the re-enrolled student came from. Since we are open boundaries, there are 5 elementaries that feed into 2 different junior highs. But the student can pick either junior high. So to get the records to the right school, I have to go through and find the info student by student since I have full access.

It has streamlined my process so much that I only need a little help now! Once we get all of our forms figured out and set up, it will be even easier! And once everyone gets used to the fact that they can use the spreadsheet and no longer need to have the paper in their hand, it will cut down on even more time and paper waste.

The ease in communicating with our entire school community. The ability to sort and download the information. The ease in which we can conduct our lotteries, and sort and organize our waitlist. The quick reaction time for customer support when small issues arise. The ability to build our own forms to our own specs so we can collect information for our specific needs and state requirements. The companies quick and open response to suggestions from and accommodations for their clients. And the overall respect with which they treat their clients. This all contributes to the whole sense of family and a caring community.

I only wish they also supported a database! The most difficult thing about having online paperwork is making sure everyone has access and knowledge on how to use it. SchoolMint is wonderful about helping the families with issues, but they can't help with everyone having access! :)

My favorite feature of Smart Choice is the parent portal. This feature allows me to have an excellent understanding and overall view of the parent experience, as well as insight to help parents troubleshoot any issues they are experiencing. The software is highly-customize-able, which works for our organization. There hasn't been any system upgrades we have requested that they are not able to do. I like that we have one contact for support. I am willing to sacrifice a support line for our one contact of support because she has a comprehensive understanding of how we use the software and is always able to follow along quickly with our issues and requests.

The most difficult part of Smart Choice is filtering the data and building reports. The reporting feature only allows for "and" filters. It would be nice to have the option of "or" filters. I wish Smart Choice, on the back-end, had a more updated look-and-feel. It kind of feels like I am in my high school portal from 10 years ago. I also found it difficult to figure out how to create field dependencies when creating form steps. Once you understand how it works, you can replicate the steps, however, it is not intuitive at first and there was a lot of trial and error.

It's customizable - we can make the system work for our needs (e.g. create our own deliverables and reports). Back-end access allows us to create analytics and data visualizations to meet organization's goals. Customer support is prompt and usually provides quick resolution time. The price for the product is great. The system is scalable and has accommodated the growth of our organization.

The firefly gadget is not user-friendly and does not support formatting easily, which makes it difficult to create website content that looks clean and professional. The letter feature does not support formatting easily. The system glitches too frequently, leading to problems with data management (e.g. application priorities improperly tagged, lots of unintended consequences when updating data - which might be due to the way the system is structured in terms of students, programs, applications, etc.)

* Interest Tracker feature *Automated emails/text messaging *Great Customer Support team *Each student profile/dashboard keeps gives both the parent and our staff easy access to up-to-date application/registration information *Notes feature allows users to know what other staff actions have already been taken on a student--which helps with communications between departments *Electronic Signatures and uploads *Online Teacher Recommendations are very important to us as it speeds up the process of getting feedback on applicants. *Cut costs on printing *Integrates with Powerschool *Lessens transcribing errors *Time/Money saved on Data entry *Up-to-Date enrollment numbers/reports

*Still learning how to make this work for a private school that requires a different process. *There have been several software issues/errors that have come up delaying numerous applications and therefore affecting our school's customer service response time. *Pay feature-needs promo code *Application doesn't auto save progress *Doesn't save the whole application when you hit submit at the end of the application

SchoolMint has taken our application, lottery and registration to a new level. They have streamlined every aspect of the process. Our school now has opportunities to expand and grow in ways that were unlikely even just a few years ago, in part thanks to SchoolMint.

SchoolMint's customer service is the best I have ever encountered. Each question is answered quickly, thoughtfully, and with kindness. Their technical expertise is matched by their humanity, patience and good humor. SchoolMint is truly a partner in our school's success and growth.

There are certain aspects of our school that have evolved because of our unique circumstances. There are still a handful of minor issues in the registration process that we have had to work around. SchoolMint has taken note of our difficulties and is exploring ways to meet our needs more fully in the future.

Instead of having multiple systems, all of the information I need is in one spot.

What I like most about this software is the versatility of the system. It can be customized to fit the needs of your company.

The only negative I have is the reporting aspect. Creating a report is difficult and many times I have to rely on the customer service to create the reports on my behalf (which they do efficiently and in a timely manner).

Again, our school is small and the program is huge so it's a bit overwhelming. Everyone has been very knowledgeable, helpful and friendly when I've needed them and things have been done to our liking in a very timely manner.

There are many things this program can do. I like the automatic emails that get sent out. I like the visual graphs. I like the ability to customize most everything and add all the info we want to receive from parents.

It's almost too big for our smaller school. Feels like there are too many steps for parents to take from creating a log in to registering. A lot of things are being over looked and skipped and assumed by parents. Wish things could be just a bit more simple or user friendly for parents. On the back end, I wish it was more user friendly as well. It gets really confusing sometimes with all the options and log ins etc. There are a lot of features that are available that we are choosing not to use so when I search for something to customize, It's not always apparent where it is or what it does or if I'm doing it right. I don't like the fact that I have to schedule a convo with my rep when I want to chat about something right away.

The best part of the software is being able to customize it. It has also been a great tool to collaborate many organizations into one.

Parts of the back end are not user friendly or understandable to everyday individuals. I've been able to tweak things by having an understanding of technology.

Their customer service has been great! Their team works hard to customize their system to fit your needs. I have truly enjoyed working with our Senior Account Manager. She has been such a huge help and resource in learning and navigating the system.

We introduced this system this year to our school district. It is very user friendly. The Smart Choice team did a great job of customizing the system to fit the needs of our district.

I honestly like all the aspects of the software. If there was an area that I thought could be improved, the Smart Choice team did a great job of customizing the system to include the suggested improvement.

provide for an autonomous lottery process, decreased phone calls, allows parents to control application

the main page of the application management site should have the applications easier to use to track - wish this site had the applications numbered

The student enrollment summary is reviewed daily, the easy function to export families information, data, charts, map of where student applications are coming from, the ability to use SM fields for enrollment forms, and RSVP tracker.

Email communication design could be improved, easy search for family emails, and rsvp tracker on each application not just in the rsvp section.

We are reducing paper usage thereby helping the environment. We are cutting down time parents spend in the school office waiting to register their students. It provides ease and convenience for busy parents.

School Mint Was an easy and effective way to transition our student registration and documentation process to an online format.

Depending on parent education level and flexibility. Some found it tedious to upload the required documents for school registration. They needed a mind shift and the necessary tools on their electronic devices. Parent reports that there were a lot of pages to navigate through.

The ability to easily customize the lottery application and registration forms. You don't even really need the training support to figure it out.

I would like to be able to run more reports with customized features. For example, we poll our families about aftercare needs on the registration form. I would like to be able to see the responses ordered, etc.

I was introduced to Smart Choice Technologies when working on a project and I have to say that it really impressed me and helped me sort out applications and making sure everything worked out well, and it did a good job at that. I definitely recommend it.

Smart Choice Technologies is the smart choice to make if you want to make your life easier when it comes to applications and wait lists for schools. It allows you to provide an online platform to you applicants, and easier management of everything involving said applications, making it a great tool for making sure you have the best possible experience.

Other than the fact that you have to pay for it, I don't have anything negative to say here. It's a great tool and the price is reasonable for what it offers.

SchoolMint has completely revolutionized the ways that we recruit, enroll, and conduct a lottery. In year one of working with SchoolMint we saw ROI in our first 6 months and have remodeled how we work with families. We are no longer chasing paper, but instead focus on productive outreach and onboarding of new families.

Ability to set parameters around lotteries and use of features. Ease of use for grade levels, multiple school accounts dashboards to review easily.

Assisting parents in setting up their accounts to select multiple school choices simultaneously. Bugs which arise feel frequent, however developers are quick to respond.

Dashboards, Mapping application, Family-Centered Profiles, ease of communications via email and text, tags and sorting of the database, ease of tracking leads from events.

reports need work, does not allow for mass self-data imports, the text editor is simple and requires thorough editing on Word before pasting from a document.

I do think this could be a good product, but the support is usually only offered a few days after I submit a ticket. I was also told that I would not be able to get my re-enrollment online for another 2 months because I missed a deadline (while I was waiting on support)! Hopefully others have a better experience. Maybe it's just the people assigned to my school.

We purchased this software to help us automate enrollment and our lottery process.

Initial training was offered, but when that person left the organization, follow up training has been below expectations. School Mint's idea of training or support is to send a tutorial link that's an hour long when you only need 5 min. of the video. I spend more time trying to figure out my own solutions rather than getting actual support. Charter schools usually have a great deal of turn over in the first few years. They need to learn more about the people they work with and provide support so the product is actually useful.

The front-end user interface was nice...

We tried to be patient and work with SchoolMint to make things happen, but we were let down at every tier of the SchoolMint Enroll System. Perhaps they are still trying to figure their processes out after the merger of acquiring enrollhand, but as a company that works with and for school systems, we expect a higher level of professionalism and accountability.

SchoolMint is a very unique product! As a teacher manager, I am able to track how many observations are completed, my past notes, goals, and much more.

SchoolMint is excellent! One way to improve this product is to make a drop down option that would makes it easier to navigate multiple candidates.

Quick access to parents and easy to track and verify data.

It is easy for parents and I am able to track items quickly. I love the automation of emails so that I can follow-up. I also like the notes. I would wish there was a privacy section on notes so that parents could see some notes but not view others.

Their is no custom reports that I can use. I don't want to have to pay for custom reports on data that has already been collected. At least the csv export download could ask for what fields we want to pull.