Admissions Portal 3.0 Overview

Overview

Admission Portal 3.0 is a framework that gives you as much control as possible over the parent/candidate admission experience prior to enrollment. Specifically, you will have more control over:

• tailored initial engagements via customizable inquiry forms
• curated first impressions of the school via a full content portal (similar to what the academic side has had for nearly two years with the Portals 3.0 platform)
• clearer applicant workflow presentation via checklist categories
• the ability to control which applicant data enter the database

How is it different from the Admission Portal 2.0?

There are several key areas that do not change between the two versions of the Admission Portal:

• child-specific reporting records: admission history, inquiries, applications, and checklists (though the method of creating checklists will change)
  • e.g., application record will still be created when all the "Required for Application" checklist items are completed
• online application review (aside from reviewing webform submissions)
• visit sign-ups (will depend to some degree on new checklist items)
• application fee setup
• publishing decision letters

The Registration Season Type (RST) Record

The Registration Season Type (RST) record. The central hub for configuring AP3.

The RST is a simple container record for a comprehensive registration scenario. The main fields that are directly a part of the RST are in the header of the General tab in the Configuration and Portal sections. Everything else simply connects to the RST, so it is a very simple type of record.

Learn more about the Registration Season Type Record here.

Accessing the Registration Season Type record from the Admissions: Candidate Changes homepage.

The Registration Season Record

The registration season is a container for year-specific checklist items. It also enables the display of campus, resident status, and student group for a given season.

Implementing the Registration Season

Add new registration seasons via the Copy Registration Season Action menu item on the registration season detail screen. Checklist items are copied in the procedure. 

Copying a Registration Season and its checklist items forward.

Web Form Elements

An example of a single-field web form element. 

Web form elements are the building blocks of forms, representing the questions you wish to ask form submitters and the related data points you want to gather. Fields (database fields) are tied to elements, elements exist within sections, sections exist within forms. 

All form elements have a description that appears in the portal (though where it appears varies based on the type) and an insert and update status.

• Insert Status: Options available for this element when a new record is being inserted ("added") into the database. 
• Update Status: Options available for this element when a record is being updated in the database. Update Status does not impact Inquiry forms, as they are not accessible to form submitters after initial submission. 

Options for both insert and update status are:

• Hidden: Hides the web form element from the form submitter (helpful to temporarily "turn off" an element or to keep hidden while you are working on it)
• Hidden with Preset Value: Hides the web form element from the form submitter while predetermining an answer on their behalf (commonly used with the Create Portal Account? element to predefine a "yes" response without requiring the user to see/interact with the element)
• Read Only: Displays existing values but does not allow the form submitter to edit (used as an update status to prevent a user from editing their initial response)
• Optional: Not required for initial form submission
• Updatable, Optional: Editable during form update but not required
• Required: Required for initial form submission
• Updatable, Required: Editable during form update and required

NOTE: Insert and Update statuses should generally match, e.g. Insert Status = Required, Update Status = Updatable, Required.  Elements with an Update Status of Updatable, Optional will allow the form submitter to submit with a blank answer when updating a form, so it is advisable to avoid using the Insert Status = Required, Update Status = Updatable, Optional pairing.

Learn more about Admission Portal Web Form Elelments here.

Checklist Items and Widgets

Checklist items are managed year-to-year in Admission Portal 3.0 as season-specific checklists. The checklist hierarchy is:

• Checklist library > registration season > checklist categories > checklist items

A checklist item must first exist (or be created on the fly) when a new checklist item is created for a particular season. Season-specific checklist items are in turn organized into categories.

Widget types define how a parent/candidate interact with the checklist item, such as via a web form, file upload, or application fee. 

• Do Not Display: use for internal workflows that will not be discoverable by candidates.

Learn more about Checklist Items and Widgets here.

Inquiry Forms

An example of what an inquiry form looks like with AP3.

The basic purpose of an inquiry form is to collect information about prospective families before they enter the full admission portal.  Here are some key features:

• Check the parent's email as a first step to ensure their information is not already in your database (called "account lookup"). 
• Choose to process submissions immediately, committing data to your database, creating user accounts, and directing the parents to your admissions portal.
• Choose to put submitted data in a staging area for your review.
• Create numerous inquiry forms to collect interest-specific information. 
• Create custom questions.
• Create versions of forms with pre-filled information.
• Protect prospective families from identity fraud with required email verification for new portal account creation.

Learn more about Inquiry Forms here.

Web Forms

New web forms allow you a high degree of control over the information that end users are able to submit in the admissions process. They function similarly to the household profile update (HPU) feature. Forms become accessible to candidates/parents by associating them with checklist items. Access forms via tabs on the registration season type (RST) record:

• Inquiry Forms: Build and access your inquiry forms. Read more about inquiry forms.
• Parent & Address Forms: Access the six system forms for collecting information about candidates' parents.
• Candidate Changes Forms: Access system forms for adding and updating candidates.
• System Forms: Access the six system forms for collecting information about candidates. 
• School Forms: Access forms you have created to collect customized information. 

The Recommendation Forms tab contains teacher recommendations you have configured. They use an integration with Google Forms and are not Veracross web forms. 

Learn more about Admission Portal 3 Web Forms here.