Automatic reminders and notifications

Here is a quick overview of the kind of automatic communication that DreamApply sends out. Click on the name for more information.

If an applicant has requested to be removed from all reminders and notifications, there is an option on the application menu called “Silence all reminders”. This disables all the reminders discussed here on a per-application basis. Next year, when they make a new application they will continue to receive reminders.

See the above table for reminders and notifications that will be silenced. Note that reminders that are unrelated to any application or are sent “on request”, will still go out.

Immediately after the applicant has registered, the first letter is meant to send a personal welcome to the applicant, as well as serve as a way of making sure that the applicant will have the login code in his/her mailbox.

The template used depends on the intent of the registration – either application or event registration.

In case the applicant was intending to start an application, this will get sent:

In case the applicant wanted to sign up for an event:

This letter will be delivered when the applicant has requested a “password reminder”. The first of the two letters will contain the link that he/she needs to click on in order to receive the new applicant code:

The second letter will be sent upon the applicant clicking on the link contained in the previous letter and is meant again to keep a copy of the applicant code in the user’s mailbox in case he/she fails to write it down properly.

It is also possible for the applicant to request the new code be sent to his/her mobile phone via SMS. The “password reminder” can only be requested no more than once a day.

Any applicant that has an active application (not in Closed status) as well as some confirmed accepted offers ( Accepted, Conditionally accepted, Other) that require a decision (as set by the administrator when making the offer) will be subject to periodic reminders urging the applicant to consider making the final decision as soon as possible.

As a side note, the applicant can choose between 4 decisions statuses:

1. Final decision (also choosing the offer to accept as final decision)
2. Waiting for more offers
3. Undecided
4. Other (possibility to describe the situation)

The interval of these reminders depends on a number of factors:

• The first notification is sent immediately when the above conditions have been met as a way of informing the applicant of the future steps that need to be taken.
• Subsequent notifications will be delivered with an interval of one week if the applicant fails to make any decision or chooses the “Undecided” status. If the applicant chooses the “Waiting for more offers” status, the reminder interval will be 2 weeks.
• A last-minute reminder is also sent out if the offer carries a decision deadline that is only one day away and there is still no final decision yet.

The reminders will stop when:

• the applicant makes a final decision (or chooses “Other”)
• the applicant declines the offer in question (or the administrator declines it on behalf of the applicant)
• the offer carries a decision deadline and it has passed
• 2 months has passed from the offer being confirmed. By then it should be sufficiently safe to consider that the applicant most likely never intends to respond to the offer(s)

The template used to deliver these notifications is:

When an applications has been in the PREPARE status for 15 days without the applicant editing, it will be given the INACTIVE status. No reminder, however, will be sent. This may change in the future, hence it is listed here.

When the applicant has an application in the Reopened or Problematic statuses (the latter being irrelevant in most setups) and has not edited it for 3 days, a reminder is sent to the applicant to urge him/her to make sure to re-submit the application.

The reminders will be sent with a 10-day interval, stopping after 3 reminders (usually around 30 days). In this case, the applicant is considered a “lost cause” and the system will refrain from “spamming” the applicant too much.

The template used to deliver these notifications is:

When a course has been edited in any non-cosmetic way ( explain this further), the administrator will be offered a possibility to include a notification to be sent to any existing applicants that have already selected this course for their application.

Currently this notification does not have any related templates - it will look as follows:

Subject: Change regarding [course name]

Dear applicant,

There was a change in the information regarding the course [course name]
			
Please visit this address to see the updated information: [link with course description]

[additional notification that the administrator can include]

When an invoice has been issued to the applicant, it will be immediately delivered to the applicant as an attachment to an email. When the invoice has been edited by the administrator, there is a possibility to re-deliver the invoice, which is up to the administrator to decide.

When an invoice has been issued to the applicant, it will be immediately delivered to the applicant as an attachment to an email. When the invoice has been edited by the administrator, there is a possibility to re-deliver the invoice, which is up to the administrator to decide.

When an invoice has been marked as collected by the administrator, a message will be delivered to the applicant confirming that the payment is received.

When the applicant has invited a referee to complete an online reference, he/she will immediately be sent an invitation email using the following template:

When the referee has not completed the reference within a period of 10 days, he/she will be issued a reminder. This reminder will only be sent once, so an uncooperative referee will receive a maximum of two letters regarding a single reference invitation.

Upon completing the reference, the referee will be issued a thank-you letter for the effort using the following template.

The applicant will be notified that the reference has been successfully completed using the following template:

These reminders are highly configurable and most likely unique to each instance of the DreamApply software. There are, however, some common traits.

Reminders about checklist tasks will only be delivered to applicants who have an active application - not in Closed status and contains at least one non-Failed offer.

When the tasks are being programmed, it is possible to set a different reminder interval for each status. For example, “I have not yet taken a language test” my have a reminder every 10 days, however “I am waiting for my language test results” will have a longer reminder.

Additionally, the administrator can manually edit the reminder interval for each specific task via the admin interface, along with the possibility of shutting off any future reminders regarding this specific task. Just open up any task and you should see the controls right there.

It is possible to configure the system so that reminders for a particular task stop after a certain event has taken place. By default, all checklist reminders stop when the applicant has made a final decision.

It is, however, possible to set the system up so that the reminders terminate based on other events, for example 60 days after creation, 30 days after applicant submission, 2 weeks after the final decision, 10 days after last update to the task status etc.

Also, note that there is not “only send N times” termination scheme, but for example, setting up the interval for 10 days and termination on 30 days means that the reminder will go out 3 times.

Possible termination anchors:

* Includes Accepted, Conditionally accepted, Other

Please consult support on how to achieve that.

At most, all task reminders (resolved or not) will stop after 6 months.