Sara Kies

Sara, this is an absolute genius post! Plus, as a person who has to register their car and was recommended to wait until August due to COVID-19 backup, this gives me a bit of heartburn. I think a process that more and more states seem to be adopting is to provide third-party services the opportunity to alleviate the DMV issues. For instance, in Illinois, we need an emissions test to register your car after so many years. Instead of taking the test and then going to the DMV, you can now do it in a one-stop shop. You can also do it online, but there needs to be more automation and updating to get your driver’s license renewed or started.

Great post Sara. Your post is timely in that my wife is attempting to get her license renewed at the moment. It expired in March but she was unable to renew because she’s at that age where the person renewing is required to get their vision checked. Thanks to recent covid-related business shut downs, she was unable get that done until just last week. Anyway, the process for this effort between our MVA and the eye doctor has been such a joke. There was a complete inconsistency in communication with the MVA expecting one thing and the eye doctor another thing. In addition to that, the MVA cannot clarify if the form my wife needs to submit can be done online or needs to be submitted in person. I know COVID has disrupted many processes for businesses during these last few months but you would thing this process should have been more clear prior to COVID. It’s a mess, and completely frsutrating.

Sara – This is awesome. I couldn’t agree more. The DMV is not my BFF. It’s frustrating, always takes 3x as long as it should and I usually avoid it as much as possible. I went there recently for a driver’s licenses – it was such a pain. I stood in 2 different lines to do the same thing. ugh….

So smart Sara – I was just talking to someone about the mess of the Real IDs (this was before COVID hit). Can’t imagine that’s going to be a fun process. Plus, who likes going to the DMV under regular circumstances, let alone during a pandemic. This is a process that is ripe for an overhaul. Awesome!!!!!!

Awesome post, Sara! Just like everyone else, I try to stay far far away from the DMV as much as possible. You have to clear your whole day for it since you never know how long it will take! The process needs to be streamlined and possibly automated for customers to leave satisfied. It would be great if there were a user friendly app that people have an option to use to ensure the process flows a little better. Even if it’s just filling out half of the information for your reasoning of visiting the DMV, the time spent there in person will decrease.

Awesome post, Sara! I just recently moved from New Jersey to Pennsylvania and the DMV process was a nightmare! In order to get a Philadelphia residential parking permit you need a PA license, PA proof of insurance and to register your car in PA. I went on a rainy Thursday to get a PA license and expected there to be delays due to social distancing procedures due to COVID-19, but did not expect to wait four hours in the pouring rain only to get to the front door to be told that one of the proofs of identity documents to be printed out and that a PDF would not suffice. Luckily, the woman let me run a few blocks to a FedEx to print out the document and gave me a later appointment to return, but their current process seems so inefficient and led to a lot of frustration on my end. Perhaps, they should invest in a printer and allow guests to use it for a small fee even instead of running around in circles or make more of the process electronic.

Great article, Sara. I think you’re on to something with running higher education similarly to businesses. I think it would definitely cut out some headaches for you personally. I look forward to diving into this topic more with our final project and hopefully finding some concrete resolutions.

Excellent post, Sara! This is such a hot topic right now. I saw an interview on MSNBC with some Professors from NYU talking about how COVID will affect higher education. The problem is even more compounded if we have to go into lockdown again in the Fall. Do students move into dorms and then leave again? Will they just decide to take a gap year?

Throughout the years I’ve heard the concept Universities are businesses. In a world where you can see several TikTok posts joking about grads looking for entry-level titled jobs requiring 5 years experience with a Master’s degree preferred and a 28k salary, College tuition is a hard sell. Not to mention the bad rep that higher ed gets because of so many people buried under student loan debt, there is obviously a need for growth, and change somewhere in the process.