Configuring and Publishing Decision Letters to the Admissions Portal

Overview

Admissions decisions may be made visible to applicants through their Admission Portal. Once decisions are published, the letter will replace the checklist items on the applicant’s portal and the applicant will be able to log on and view the decision. Applicants will also have the ability to accept or decline the decision from the portal.

In order for an admissions decision letter to be published to the applicant’s portal, a text template must be created that corresponds to the admissions status and the application status must be selected to “Display Online.” Schools have the ability to publish custom decision letters to individual applicants or send standard decision letters.

Configuring Decision Letter Text Templates

Decision letter text templates display on the Admission Portal through an association with an application status. A text template must be created before it can be associated with an admissions status.

Creating a Decision Letter Text Template

All schools who have the Admission Portal will have the following Decision Letter text templates:

• Admission_Decision_Accepted
• Admission_Decision_Denied
• Admission_Decision_Waitlist

Schools may edit the decision letter message using the “value” field on the text template record. A number of merge fields are available to add to each decision letter:

Decision Letter Merge Fields

Salutation Merge Fields
mailing_address_multi_line - applicant's name with their mailing address.
mailing_address_multi_line_hh - parents' name(s) with their mailing address.
salutation_per - the formal salutation for the applicant (e.g. applicant's full name). 
informal_salutation_per - the informal salutation for the applicant (e.g. applicant's first name).           salutation_hh - the formal salutation for the parents of the application (e.g. Mr. and Mrs LastName).

Applicant Specific Merge Fields
grade_applying_for grade_applying_for_verbose campus_applying_for student_group_applying_for resident_status_applying_for year_applying_for year_applying_for_long graduation_year first_name last_name preferred_name 
Pronoun Merge Fields               he_she him_her his_her his_hers son_daughter 
Admission Decision Specific Merge Fields
decision_text_insert         today_date today_date_long entry_date entry_date_long

Adding Embed Videos

A number of schools have asked for the ability to embed videos from providers like YouTube or Vimeo on their Admission Decision Letter. This is possible using the provider’s embed code. The only embed code we currently support is iframe code (which is the current standard).

The code should use the below format:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="{LINK}" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Please contact your Account Manager with any questions regarding how to set this up.

Adding Additional Templates

Text templates other than the three standard decision letter templates may also be added as the needed:

1. From the System homepage, hover over the “Add” button and select the “Text Templates” link. This will open a new text template record detail screen.
2. Name the text template according to the corresponding application status. For example, if a text template for the application status “Accepted” is created, name the template: Admissions_Decision_Accepted.
3. Add the decision letter to the “Value” field.
4. Application statuses can be linked to the same text template, but schools can create a text template for each application status if they choose.

Application Status Configuration

1. From the “Admissions” section on the System homepage, select the “Application Statuses” link. This will open a detail screen displaying all the status options for applications.
2. Select the “Available Online” checkbox for application statuses that will be displayed on the Admission Portal.
3. Select the corresponding text template from the drop-down menu in the “Decision Text Template” column.
4. Select the “Allow Online Response” checkbox for the statuses that should allow applicants to respond online (e.g. accepted or waitlisted.)
5. Update the Application Status.

Previewing Decision Letters

To preview decision letters in batch, go to the Admissions homepage and select the link “Review Decision Letters”. This opens an interface where decision letters for each applicant can be previewed.

Note: decision letters may not be set up for all of the application statuses in use.

Publishing Decision Letters

Admissions decision letters can be published in batch or on a per-applicant basis. The three decision status options are:

• Not Published: select this option if the decision letter should not be published to the portal.
• Ready to Publish: select this option to indicate internally if the decision letter is ready to be published. This option will not display the decision letter in the portal.
• Published: select this option if the decision letter should be published to the portal.

To publish decision letters in batch:

1. Find all applicants whose decision letters will be published (usually those with the application status: accepted) using the “Find Admission History” query.
2. Under the “Results” menu option, select “Batch Update Record.”
3. On the Batch Update screen that appears, select the “Decision Publishing Status” field from the drop-down menu and select the desired value to update the field with, in this case “Published.”
4. Click “OK.”

To publish decision letters per applicant:

1. Find the applicant whose decision letter will be published using the “Find Admission History” query.
2. Select the number in the “Admission History ID” column to access the Admission History Record.
3. Navigate to the Decision Letter tab and use the drop-down menu on the “Decision Publishing Status” field to select the desired decision.
4. Update the record.

Schools can also customize the decision letters they send to their applicants. A letter can be customized either by inserting custom text into the standard decision letter or completely overriding the pre-configured letter.

Decision Text Insert Customization

1. Select the “Text Template” link under the “System Configuration” section on the System homepage.
2. Open the admissions decision letter text template.
3. The standard letter will appear in the “Value” field. Insert the merge field: {decision_text_insert} where the custom text should appear.
4. Update the Text Template.

1. Open the Admission History record of the person whose decision letter will be customized.
2. Enter the custom text in the “Decision Text Insert” field on the Decision Letter tab.
3. When the decision letter is published the merge field {decision_text_insert} will be replaced with the custom text added on the Admission History record.
4. Only one custom text can be entered for a decision letter.

Override Decision Letter Customization

1. Open the Admission History record of the person who will receive the custom decision letter.
2. Enter the custom decision letter in the “Override Decision Letter” field on the Decision Letter tab.
3. Update the record.
4. Entering text in this field and updating the Admission History record will override the standard decision letter and display the custom letter to the applicant’s Admission Portal.

Enrollment Decisions

Schools may choose to allow parent of applicant’s to respond to the admission decision online through the portal. There are a number of online response options that a school may enable. See the Admission Decisions: Online Response Options documentation for more information on each response option.