Publishing Decision Letters in the Admissions Portal

Overview

Now that the initial configuration is done, the remaining work to publish the decisions to the Admission Portal can and should be done solely from the Admissions homepage. Decisions can be published either individually or in batch. If there is no specific decision date deadline, it may be best to publish decisions individually. For example, if the Admissions Office handles applications on a rolling admissions basis, publishing individually may be the appropriate choice. However, if the school’s policy is that decisions are released on a specific date and time, publishing in batch will likely be more efficient. This article describes the publishing process using both of the two methods and is the third in a three-part series that describes the full configuration process for decision letters from setup to online publication. Previous steps in the process involve creating decision text templates and configuring application statuses.

Navigation and Admissions History

Regardless of the method, decision publishing is done through the Admission History records for the applicant. The Admission History record is accessible in two places: first, it can be accessed from the candidate (or person) record: open a candidate detail screen, select the Admissions History tab, and then click “View Detail” for the appropriate year. Second, use the Find Admissions History query from the lower left side of the Admissions homepage to find records.

Once the record is open, decision publishing information can be found on the Decision Letter tab. This tab provides key information, including the admissions decision as well as a link to preview the letter to see what it will look like for this individual applicant. In addition, the Decision Text Insert field is available from this screen, which can be used to personalize a decision letter.

Most importantly, the Decision Publishing Status field will be used to actually publish the decision to the portal. The default setting should be “Not Published,” since the decisions should not be on the portal by default. The “Ready to Publish” option has no effect on the portal, but may serve as a way to categorize applicants if some decisions will be published earlier than others. Finally, if the status is changed to “Published,” the decision will be visible in the portal.

Publishing

As mentioned above, publishing the decision is done by changing the Decision Publishing Status field from “Not Published” to “Published.” This step is true whether the process is completed individually or in batch, so the primary difference in publishing strategy depends simply on how the Admission History records are accessed.

Publishing Individually

To publish the decision for a single applicant, access the Admissions History record for the applicant either by clicking on the Admission Detail link from the candidate record or through the Find Admissions History query. When the record is open, navigate to the Decision Letter tab. If the Admissions team is using the Decision Letter Text Insert to personalize the decision letters, ensure that the field is populated with the appropriate message (if applicable). After that detail has been verified, change the Decision Publishing Status to Published, and the decision will be displayed on the portal.

Publishing in Batch

To publish decisions for a large group of applicants, navigate to the Find Admissions History query. Modify the query so that the results will show only applicants applying for the Active Admissions Year who have decision statuses set (i.e. Accepted, Accepted with Condition, Waitlist, Decline, etc.). Make sure to add the Decision Publishing Status field to the query, as it will not be listed in the default design. Modifying the default query design ensures that the batch publishing will only affect those applicants that should receive decisions. After the query has been modified, click the Run button to view the results. Then use the following steps to publish:

1. From the Results detail screen, locate the action menu (depicted as a lightning bolt icon) and select the “Batch Update” option from the list of options.
2. When the Batch Update dialog box appears, follow the prompts to fill in the field to update (select “Decision Publishing Status”) and the desired value for the field (select “Published”).
3. After the two available fields have been populated, use the Update button at the bottom of the dialog box to initiate the batch update. Decisions will be published to all portals.
4. Verify that the decisions were published by logging in as an admitted, waitlisted, and declined applicant family. To view the portal for a specific applicant, navigate to the Portals tab of the candidate person record and click the auto-login link.

Beyond Publishing

Publishing decisions essentially completes the official admissions process. However, the work of the Admissions Office may continue through enrollment. If your school manages enrollment through the Veracross Online Enrollment module, a connection can be made between the Admission Portal decision letter screen and the Online Enrollment landing page (for accepted applicants only). Talk to your account manager if you would like to explore the option of integrating the two modules. In addition, this article provides a technical overview of the various options for how the link between the two modules can function.