Overview
The Auto-Waitlist feature can be enabled through the Grades page. When it's turned on for a grade, if a student applies to that grade, they will automatically be added to the waitlist.
In this article
How it Works
The auto-waitlist feature can be turned on and off for each grade within the Grades page on your site under Settings > General > Grades. This will automatically put any student that applies for that grade on the waitlist page and update their status to Waitlisted.
Waitlist Status
The waitlist status is only visible on the Admin end. Parents still see the checklist and the "Applying for X Grade in [Term]" message and still have access to the student's checklist.
Admin Side:
Parent Side:
Waitlists Page
The Waitlist page (Admissions > Waitlists) is where you can view and manage your waitlisted students.
To view a waitlist, select a term and a grade.
Students can be dragged and dropped to change their position on the waitlist.
Selecting one or more students in a waitlist opens the Download, Communicate, and Edit menus allowing for management options.
Other Ways Students get added to the Waitlist Page
Apart from parents/guardians submitting an Application for a grade that has been waitlisted, there are two other ways students will populate on the Waitlists page.
- Admin Entered Applications: If you internally submit an application for a student in a grade set to Auto-Waitlist, the student will automatically be added to the waitlists page.
- Manual Status Update: If you manually update a student's status to Waitlisted, they will also appear on the Waitlists page.
- Lottery: If your school utilizes the lottery feature, students who are not accepted when a lottery is run will be auto-waitlisted.
Ideas for Improving the Waitlist Experience
You may wish to consider the following when setting up grades to Auto-Waitlist students. If you have questions on how to implement any of the below options, please connect with our support team.
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Application form: On the application you may wish to add language that will show if a waitlisted grade has been selected.
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Important: you must remember to remove this from the application once the grade is no longer waitlisted.
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Important: you must remember to remove this from the application once the grade is no longer waitlisted.
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Application fee: Families that apply to waitlist grades still need to pay the application fee. Consider adding a rule to the Application Fee that will set the app fee to $0 for waitlisted grades.
- Our Support team will need to add this rule for you.
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Important: You must remember to deactivate this application fee rule once the grade is no longer set to auto-waitlist.
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Communicating: All applications submitted typically trigger the Application Thank You email. If you are auto-waitlisting grades you might consider setting up an alternate workflow to support communications with your waitlisted families.
- See the steps on setting this up in the Automated Communications for Waitlisted section below.
Automated Communications for Waitlisted
Steps to create an alternate workflow for automated communication for waitlisted families.
At a Glance
- Disable the automatic Application Thank You email.
- Build an Automated Communication Plan for non-waitlisted students.
- Build an Automated Communication Plan for waitlisted students.
Please note: This is only available to schools that have a Pro account with us.
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Deactivate the automated Application Thank You system email: Uncheck it and Save the setting under Settings > Communication > Communication Setup.
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Create a custom Application Thank You Email: On the System Emails page, copy the Application Thank You Email contents. Navigate to your Custom Emails page (Settings > Communication> Email Templates > Custom Emails) and paste the email into a new template. Save this email template with a recognizable name. You are going to use it to create an Automated Communication Plan email for non-waitlisted families.
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Create a custom Waitlist Thank You Email: Create a new email template. In this template, craft an email to send to your waitlisted families. Save the template with a recognizable name so that it can be easily found and added to an Automated Communication Plan for your waitlisted families.
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Set Up an Automated Communication Plan for your Non-Waitlisted Families: Under Settings > Communication > Communication Plan, on the Admissions tab, select Add a New Step.
Within the Edit box, set it up as follows:
Name: Application Thank You Email
Trigger: Select Checklist Item: Application Form
*Check your work: You should see the text "This step will trigger when the checklist item Application Form is completed" underneath the trigger section.
Additional Criteria: Apply Grade > is not > **select all waitlisted grades**
Perform Action: Send Email
At this time: Immediately
Send to: All Parents
Email template: **Find and select your custom application thank you email**
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Set Up an Automated Communication Plan for your Waitlisted Families: Next, add a new automated plan. This one will be for your waitlisted families.
Within the Edit box, set it up as follows:
Name: Waitlisted Thank You Email
Trigger: Select Checklist Item: Application Form
*Check your work: You should see the text "This step will trigger when the checklist item Application Form is completed" underneath the trigger section.
Additional Criteria: Apply Grade > is > **select all waitlisted grades**
Perform Action: Send Email
At this time: Immediately
Send to: All Parents
Email template: **Find and select your custom waitlist thank you email**
Please keep this in mind.
- Please remember that you'll need to go in and adjust or deactivate these plans as needed when your waitlist changes.
- You can reactivate the automated Application Thank You email whenever you need on the Communication Setup page.
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