College Admission Help

St. Philip’s dean recognized nationwide for ideas on College Admissions
By Catherine Dominguez
San Antonio Business Journal
A dean with Alamo Colleges may soon find his ideas as part of a college-wide
decision-making tool.
Christopher Pate, an administrator with St. Philip’s College, was the winner of the 2009 Best Paper Award from the members of the Clute Institute for Academic Research.
Pate wrote “Using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to Improve the Admissions Process in Health Sciences Education: Formative and Substantive Aspects of a Structured Decision-Making Methodology.” Pate’s award was presented during the international organization’s annual academic conference in San Antonio, where Pate was Session Chair. The paper will change the way St. Philip’s conducts its health sciences admissions process. However, the paper could have influence on admissions standards nationwide.
“The ideas in Dr. Pate’s paper can apply to many things in life,” says St. Philip’s College Radiography Technology program director Donna Laird. “Dr. Pate provides tools his Health Sciences team can use to more subjectively promote one out of several great candidates. In our MRI program, we recently selected 15 of 32 applicants. We can also use Dr. Pate’s principles to conduct our admissions process even more subjectively.”
The Clute Institute for Academic Research is a 24-year-old organization founded to disseminate fresh scientific research on topics related to business, economics, college-level teaching and administration. Pate’s research may be published in one of the institute’s 11 annual academic journals.
St. Philip’s College is a multi-campus institution of the Alamo Colleges and serves nearly 10,000 credit and more than 6,000 continuing education students.


St. Philip’s dean recognized nationwide for ideas on College Admissions