Purdue University streamlines student onboarding with UiPath Apps and Serverless Robots™

How a world-class university turned a 13-step setup into a 3-click experience—saving thousands of staff hours and scaling smoothly for admissions spikes.

Each year, Purdue University sends out tens of thousands of admission letters. For new students, creating a Purdue account should be a seamless first step. But the legacy process had them navigating a maze: hunting for the right page, juggling an expiring PIN, and working through 13 manual steps. Focusing on continuous improvement, Purdue IT sought ways to streamline the process to reduce staff workload and enhance the student experience.

The Purdue AI and automation team transformed the process with a public-facing UiPath App backed by UiPath Serverless Robots™. Now, each student gets a personalized link, enters a password twice, taps Submit—and they’re in. Behind the scenes, jobs queue automatically and scale on demand to handle admissions peaks.

We went from 13 clicks to 3.”

Will Oprisko, Senior AI Engineer for Automation, Purdue IT

Here’s how they made it happen.

The challenge: Expiring PINs, seasonal spikes, and complex steps

Before automation, account creation was more confusing than exciting. Students had to locate the correct page, enter a Purdue ID and expiring PIN, and complete 13 steps to activate their account. Instructions were easy to miss. PINs expired quickly. Thousands of students ended up on the phone with the service desk.

The impact was massive. Every January, call volumes spiked when acceptance letters went out. A second wave hit in spring around housing and financial aid deadlines. At peak, account setup made up 40–60% of daily service desk calls, leaving other tech needs waiting.

Frontline teams felt it, too. “When letters went out, I knew what the next morning would be: phone call after phone call,” said Scott Tatlock, RPA Developer. “Now, that dread is gone.”

The results: A seamless start and lighter workload

The shift was immediate. When the first batch of letters went out post-launch, the Purdue IT team watched dashboards light up, with no significant impact on the service desk.

Within minutes, we saw 100 robots spin up and stay online for hours, processing the work.”

Will Oprisko, Senior AI Engineer for Automation, Purdue IT

Instead of fielding calls, the system handled everything in the background. Students got real-time confirmation their accounts were ready. Staff expected a flood of issues—and saw none.

Since launching on February 27, 2024, the new process has set up more than 27,000 student accounts, saved roughly 9,000 staff hours, and avoided over $300,000 in costs. What once felt like a crisis is now just another day for Purdue IT.

And for students? The new experience works so well, it’s seamless. The streamlined process goes a long way toward improving the student onboarding process, leaving accepted students with a positive first impression.

Lessons learned from Purdue’s automation journey

• Keep it simple. Hide the technical complexity and focus on the next step students need to take.

• Design for spikes. Serverless scale turned Purdue’s biggest stress points into non-events.

• Partner early. “Working with UiPath to raise concurrency from 50 to 100 made all the difference—especially when 2,000 students hit the system in hours,” said Oprisko.

• Build bridges. Close collaboration with security and enrollment accelerated approvals.

• Start small. One high-impact use case opened the door to broader automation.

Closing thought

What began as a student frustration is now a university-wide success. Purdue transformed onboarding into a smooth, silent, stress-free win in partnership with UiPath Apps for simplicity and UiPath Serverless Robots™ for scalability.