Inquiry Phase
A record is termed an inquiry if the child, family, consultant or employer contacts the school for admittance during either the current school year or the upcoming school year. An Inquiry record is created immediately after contact is made. A contact can be made by email, phone, visit, a fair, or, in some cases, by the receipt of an application. By default, on creation, all new records in sbINQUIRIES are flagged as Inquired in the Admission/Enrollment Status (AEStatus).
Pending Phase
Any record that has an AEStatus from Applied to Confirmed will be considered Pending applications. In general, these are the records most often reviewed during daily business in an Office of Admission.
Pending does not include children from the current Admission Season who have stopped the process—DNCP (did not complete), been Denied or Rejected, or who have Declined the school’s offer. It therefore consists of only records whose AEStatusis Applied, Completed, Accepted, Wait Listed, or Confirmed. Children with the statusInquired are not included nor are children who have been Admitted.
Application and Application Fee (AEStatus = Applied)
Once a student’s application and application fee are received, the Application and Application fee checkboxes are marked and you must change the AEStatus to Applied. If the application fee is waived, the Admission Office can mark the box anyway to indicate that the fee requirement has been met.
Tracking Forms and Paperwork (AEStatus = Completed)
Once all the required paperwork and forms have been received and the appropriate checkboxes marked, the AEStatus must be changed to Completed. The exact paperwork required depends upon the individual school’s process and is determined during installation. Additionally, for any applicant, the Admission Office can elect to consider the process complete even if the paperwork has not been submitted, by checking the yellow Complete Ovr checkbox.
File Reading and Committee Decisions
The committee decision process consists of evaluating the qualifications of a candidate and making a recommendation to the Office of Admission. Not all schools take this step; this is most common for multi-division schools and international schools where the Division Head makes a first evaluation of the child. These AEStatuses should be considered a minor holding area for the Office of Admission to indicate that the child’s record has been examined by a panel and not that a final decision has been made regarding the candidate.
The Committee Recommendation area is found on the App/Decision screen. The committee uses criteria agreed upon by the school in order to make one of the following recommendations:
- Recommend: The student is deemed academically suited for admittance to the school. The Recommend value is selected and the AEStatus should be changed to Recommended. It is important to recognize the difference between Recommended and Accepted. There may be three or four Recommended children but only two places and so the Office of Admission still must decide which of the four children to accept and offer a place.
- Not Recommended: The student is deemed academically unacceptable for admittance to the school. The Not Recommended value is selected and the AEStatus changes to Not Recommended. This evaluation does not place the child in the terminal phase and does not move the AEStatus to Closed because many times children who are not recommended may still be accepted despite this evaluation.
- With Concerns: The student is basically recommendable, but should not be Accepted without certain conditions being met. The With Concerns value is selected and the AEStatus should be changed to With Concerns. Some schools use this designation to mean that this child should be discussed further. This may also be used by schools when Recommended means “yes”, Not Recommended means “no”, and With Concerns means “maybe”.
Admissions Decisions
Decisions regarding individual candidates are made by the Office of Admission and are based on many factors—the recommendation of the committee, the availability of space in the school, company contracts, legacy relatives, etc. Possible Admission Office decisions are as follows:
Accept
The student is guaranteed a place in the school and an offer is extended to the family. TheAdmission Decision is changed to Accept and the AEStatus is changed to Accepted.
Schools often accept more candidates than there are spaces available, betting that only a percentage of those families will confirm the offer.
Wait List
The Admission Office may wish to place a child on a waiting list for a variety of reasons. In some cases the school is waiting to see the yield from the original round of accepts, in other cases there is no immediate opening for a particular grade but the school does not want to lose contact with the family in case a place opens. The Wait List value is selected and the AEStatus changes to Wait Listed.
- Wait List to Accept: If a child is removed from the Waitlist, the decision should be changed to Accept, and the Waitlist to Accept box checked.
Reject
The Admission Office may elect not to offer the child a place at the school. Different schools use different terms here and any of the above can be used. If something else is needed, contact iR. When Reject is selected, the AEStatus changes to Rejected. In this case the family has no decision to make and the Family Decision remains blank.
Close
The Admission Office can elect to close the file for whatever reason at any time. Close is selected and the AEStatus changes to Closed. This is a terminal phase, but the office should generally NOT mark the record as Archived. Many times the office will want to re-activate a Closed record and this can be done by simply changing the Admission Decision.
Family Decisions
Part of the admission process includes the various decisions that families make, either to confirm or reject an offer, remain on a wait list, withdraw the application, etc.
Confirm
The family accepts the offer and confirms either by phone or letter, depending on the custom of the office. Change the AEStatus to Confirm. This verbal reply is generally not enough for a school, but the field serves to record the answer. Only when the contract and deposit are received, would the office actually admit the child.
Decline
The family declines the offered placement. The value Decline is selected and the AEStatus is changed to Declined. The child enters a terminal phase but the record is not changed to Archived. Sometimes the family has a change of heart and requests to confirm. The school merely changes this value to Confirm and the record is restored.
DNCP (Did Not Complete Process)
The family may decide to not complete the process for whatever reason and contacts the office to inform them of their plans. The DNCP value is selected and the AEStatus is changed to DNCP. Again, the record is not marked Archived at this point. If the family changes their mind this value can be changed back or blanked out and the former AEStatus is restored.
DNCP is sometimes called Application Withdrawn. Some schools wish to distinguish between aDNCP before an application is received and a DNCP after an application is received. The standard SANDBOX installation does not support this, however. A DNCP after an offer is made is a Decline.
This is not the same thing as the Close Admission Decision. In this case, the family contacts the office to declare their decision. In the case of Close, the Admission Office decides that, for whatever reason, the family is not intending to complete the process and, therefore, indicates that in the record. In one case it is a family decision and in the other case it is an Admission Office decision.
Options for a Child Who Has Been Wait Listed
There are two options for families who have been wait listed. These are not family decisions as tracked in the Family Decision field but instead decisions directly related to being wait listed. These are:
- Remain on Waitlist: After being informed that their child has been placed on the wait list, the family informs the Admission Office whether or not they wish to remain on the list. If so, the Remain on Waitlist box is checked and the AEStatus remains as Wait Listed. Nothing changes for the AEStatus because there has been no change. This value merely serves to track the fact that the family was contacted and has indicated that they wish to be part of the wait list process.
- Decline Waitlist: The family does not wish to remain on the wait list. The AEStatus will be changed to Declined.
Admitted Phase
Admit
A percentage of the accepted families will return a contract and a deposit, and these students will be admitted to the school. When ready, the Admit button is pressed from the App/Decision screen, and the AEStatus is changed to Admitted. For most schools this will happen throughout the admission season, on a child-per-child basis.
From the point of view of the Admission realm, this is the end of the admission process, as these children have completed the admission process successfully.
UnAdmit
Occasionally a family declines an offer after they have sent their deposit and contract and have been admitted. This is generally considered different than attrition. The procedure is to use the Unadmit button to unclick the Admit box and blank out the date. The Family Action is changed to Decline. There is no Decline after admit status in SANDBOX. These records can be found however, because the contract and deposit boxes will remain checked. These records will appear in statistical reports as normal Declines.
Terminal Phase
Closed vs. Archived Records
It is important to understand that Closed and Archived are not the same concept. There can be Active records with an AEStatus of Closed. These are inquiries that have applied during the current season but the process has been terminated. Records are Archived when they are no longer part of the active Admission Season.
