Regardless of how long you have been using a Liaison International Centralized Application Service (CAS™), taking full advantage of the “Fourth Quadrant” is an indispensable way to create the most meaningful and efficient applicant experience every year.
The Fourth Quadrant, which is the final stage of the CAS application process, allows you to create questions and generate responses about program-specific requirements that vary from student to student. As a result, applicants and admissions professionals only need to concern themselves with information that is directly related to their specific program interests and qualifications. (The first three steps in the CAS application process involve the collection of personal, academic and supporting information.)
Within each CAS, the Configuration Portal is the tool you use to set up the Fourth Quadrant to address your unique program needs and elicit related information from applicants. To make sure you’re taking full advantage of every opportunity a CAS provides, Liaison recently presented a webinar highlighting several new Configuration Portal enhancements designed to help you build a better class in every cycle while making the application experience more intuitive and relevant for everyone involved.
Here are some developments you should know about:
Additional “Power Tools”
There are numerous resources currently in the Configuration Portal referred to as power tools. For example, they give you the ability to create conditional questions (i.e., those with “show/hide” rules), program- and school-level questions and automatic fee waivers. Soon, new power tools will also allow you to establish rule-based deadlines, document upload capabilities and automatic program eligibility validation.
This will allow you to improve data quality and avoid asking applicants unnecessary questions. It will also eliminate the possibility of applicants making choices that are not available to them.
Automatic Program-Level Fee Waivers
You can now create a rule in the Configuration Portal that will grant an automatic fee waiver if an applicant meets the criteria you established. (For example, “Are you or any member of your family currently an alumni?”) You can define an unlimited set of rules for each program.
Applicants will receive an automatic application of the waiver at checkout, reducing the administrative overhead associated with coupon management and distribution.
More Extensive “Extended Profile” Questions and Responses
The Extended Profile feature in the Configuration Portal allows you to request even more detailed information about your applicants that may affect their ability to enroll. (For example, “Are you an international student?”)
This provides you with the ability to customize each application experience, such as by changing subsequent questions and program listings based on the student’s profile.
Better State Residency Information Gathering
This upgrade makes it significantly easier to ask all applicants to all programs a series of state residency questions and to subsequently download that information into your student information system. All you need to do is configure the questions once at the organization level and then apply them automatically to all programs.
More Efficient Management of Rolling Entries
To prevent students from selecting an entry term after that term has already started, you can now establish a program- or organization-level “hide option after” rule. This eliminates the ability of applicants to see information about each term after a predetermined cut-off date of your choice.
Additional Fourth Quadrant upgrades give you the ability to:
- Track applicants to the right program — and away from programs for which they are not eligible.
- Employ richer applicant portal email templating.
- Receive additional support for special transcript instructions and overlapping/non-traditional cycles.
- Benefit from enhanced electronic transcript partnerships and workflow.
- Allow real-time direct feeds of CAS data and documents to other systems on campus.
To learn more about using your CAS’s Configuration Portal as efficiently as possible, watch Liaison’s on-demand webinar The Fourth Quadrant: Best Practices for Configuring CAS.