Scholarships-Undecided Students-Universal Application
Hello. I was wondering how others handle undecided students when using the Universal Application. We start our application process mid-December and it ends April 1. Many students (mainly those attending competitive schools) do not know where they will be attending at the time of the application so they choose undecided as their school name. This can make them ineligible for many of our scholarships that require they attend an in- state school (Ohio). After our scholarship committees make their selections, I mail out award letters asking the undecided students to email me back with the college/university name/student ID numbers. Once I receive this, I have realized they may have been eligible for more scholarship if they are staying in state but it is too late at this point. Has anyone else run into this issue? Also, it could be reversed: they say there are going to an in-state school on their application and then change their mind and are going out of state which would make them ineligible. I find it too difficult to track manually-we have 82 scholarship opportunities in our universal application. Any input would be appreciated.
Best Answer
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Hi @MelissaElsfelder! Excellent question!
I would recommend asking the student to enter their First Choice, Second Choice, Third Choice, etc (you could also use branching to ask if they would like to add a second choice, third choice, etc. so you can make each question required). When writing your eligibility rules, you would create a sub group in the appropriate rule groups that would look something like First Choice EQUAL TO Western Kentucky OR Second Choice EQUAL TO Central Michigan University OR Third Choice EQUAL TO University of Oklahoma, etc.
This set up will allow you to shuttle the students to the appropriate opportunities without excluding qualified applicants. You can still verify their selected school after the committee has met prior to approvals, or you can verify the school on the follow up form and go back to an alternate if they make the wrong selection.
If you would like any help with this set up, please feel free to reach out to success@foundant.com!
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Answers
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Hi @MelissaElsfelder! Excellent question!
I would recommend asking the student to enter their First Choice, Second Choice, Third Choice, etc (you could also use branching to ask if they would like to add a second choice, third choice, etc. so you can make each question required). When writing your eligibility rules, you would create a sub group in the appropriate rule groups that would look something like First Choice EQUAL TO Western Kentucky OR Second Choice EQUAL TO Central Michigan University OR Third Choice EQUAL TO University of Oklahoma, etc.
This set up will allow you to shuttle the students to the appropriate opportunities without excluding qualified applicants. You can still verify their selected school after the committee has met prior to approvals, or you can verify the school on the follow up form and go back to an alternate if they make the wrong selection.
If you would like any help with this set up, please feel free to reach out to success@foundant.com!
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As part of our financial need determinations, we needed a more accurate answer from applicants about their school choice, also. As a result, we eliminated the Undecided answer option, and we pushed our application deadline to April 30, with the idea that most schools require a decision and/or deposit by May 1, and almost all students would have chosen a school by that date.
Verifying school choice is still part of our follow up forms, but so far it appears that the applicants have been accurate about their school choice in the Universal app.
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