Application materials for future entering years

Coco Parham
Coco Parham
Eighth Anniversary Kudos 3 Name Dropper Participant
in Blackbaud Enrollment Management System™

Each September 1st we publish a new application, dated for the next entry year. We do this so if we want to tweek the application, we can. But if an inquiry comes in for a future year and then they log in, they will see an application for the current (for mid-years) and upcoming year available but not for they year their son is entering. How does anyone handle inquiries for future years? Currently the inquiry confirmation states that the 2024-25 application materials are now available, so they can see their year is not published yet. This is all because they will receive an invite to login immediately. Do you send an email out when you year turns over to the next each fall to prompt the parents to start the process when their entering year is available?

Comments

  • Brian LeBlanc
    Brian LeBlanc
    Kudos 5 Fourth Anniversary Name Dropper Participant

    @Coco Parham We do exactly that. And for that reason, we don't send the BBID connection email immediately upon account creation; we want to control when parents have access to the application and don't want them to log in too early.

    I just sent a message to another user regarding this same issue; happy to share with you as well if you'd like, or to jump on a call to demonstrate. brian dot leblanc at thalesacademy.org if you'd like, I'm happy to help!

  • Olivia Riddiford
    Olivia Riddiford
    Sixth Anniversary Kudos 1 Name Dropper Participant

    @Coco Parham We do the same as Brian LeBlanc said- we do not send an account invite until it is the year they are applying. I asign the future checklist but the family does not know to log in until I have officially sent an email for the current admission season.

  • Coco Parham
    Coco Parham
    Eighth Anniversary Kudos 3 Name Dropper Participant

    @Brian LeBlanc Thank you! how do you stop the invite from going out? Sorry, I can be technically challenged at times.

  • Stephanie Wallace
    Stephanie Wallace
    Fourth Anniversary Name Dropper Facilitator 1

    @Brian LeBlanc have you found a way to collect inquiry information via a form linked to your website without the user creating a BBID?

  • Brian LeBlanc
    Brian LeBlanc
    Kudos 5 Fourth Anniversary Name Dropper Participant

    @Coco Parham Not a problem! The option is in the setup of the inquiry form itself. You'll want to select NO to the “Connect and invite new users to BBID?" question. Make sure you do the same on the application as well. By doing this, you will need to manually connect users to BBID using the connection wizard in Admissions>BBID authentication, and when you connect the users to BBID using that wizard, make sure to answer NO to the question about sending the email to connect to BBID.

    @Stephanie Wallace In theory I think this can be done, but it's very difficult to manage and it truly isn't worth the effort. It makes much more sense to just connect everyone to BBID (we do this daily as part of our daily tasks) but only tell the people who need to know about how to access their BBID. We do that through an official note, which is our way around not sending the automatic connection emails that I mentioned to Coco above. We have all of those automatic options turned off so that we can control who gets BBID connection information and at what time they receive it.

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