Program Portal Quick Start Guide
Overview
FellowshipsCAS is a single, comprehensive platform that streamlines and improves the application process for everyone. The platform includes several portals:
- Applicant Portal: where your prospective fellows create and submit their applications to your program. Applicants complete forms, upload required documents, and select your program from within this portal.
- Program Portal: where your team reviews and manages applications. You can keep it simple by exporting applications for your own use, or you can work entirely in the portal by assigning reviewers, capturing scores, leaving comments, and sending emails to applicants.
- Interview Portal: an optional workspace for managing interviews. You can use it to schedule interview days, invite applicants, conduct interviews (via built-in or external video tools), and capture interview scores and rankings in one place. You can also choose not to use this portal if your current interview process is already meeting your needs.
This guide includes 5 steps to get started with {{helpcenter}}. If you need assistance while working through these items, you can contact our support team.
Step 1: Log In and Know Your Environments
Production vs. Sandbox
There are two FellowshipsCAS Program Portal environments:
- Production: the “live environment” where real applications appear once your application data is available to you.
- Access it here: http://fellowshipscas.liaisoncas.com
- Sandbox: an optional, “playground” environment with fictional applicant data (e.g., surnames, email addresses, etc.). You can use this to try out configuration options, practice reviewing applications, and experiment with workflows, all without affecting your live environment.
- Access it here: http://programs.uat.fellowshipscas.com
Requesting Access
- Program directors and coordinators without access can email us at programsupport@fellowshipscas.com to request it. Include your name, email, institution name, specialty, and role.
- Others seeking access – such as faculty, reviewers, and staff – should contact their program director or coordinator, who can add new users.
Troubleshooting Login Issues
Some common login issues are as follows:
- Firewalls: if you’re having trouble accessing a portal and encounter error messages such as “access denied,” “connection timed out,” or “unable to connect to the server,” it’s possible that a firewall is blocking your access. Another telltale sign of a firewall issue is that you can access the platform without problems on a different network, such as your home network or mobile data. Should you suspect a firewall issue, please reach out to your IT department and direct them to our Technical Requirements & Accessibility article. They may need to safe-list IP addresses.
- Password changes.
- Incorrect email addresses.
Step 2: Brand Your Program for Applicants
Configuring your branding ensures that applicants see accurate information when they search for and apply to programs.
- From the Production Program Portal, access the Configuration Portal via the Portal Switcher.
- Click FellowshipsCAS in the left menu.
- Click the correct cycle you’re working in.
- Click the Branding tab across the top of your program.
- Confirm the image that represents your program is accurate. This may already be set based on branding you previously shared with us, or it may show a default image, which you can update to one that best represents your program.
- Review and edit your program description to ensure it is accurate, clear, and applicant-friendly. As a best practice, highlight your program’s focus, structure, and key features.
There is no review or approval step for these details. You can change them at any time, and you can return to this area whenever you want to review what you’ve saved or make additional updates.
Step 3: Get Familiar with the Essentials
As you start working in the Program Portal, you’ll notice it’s pre-configured with tools you can tailor to your review process. Focus on three areas first:
- The Dashboard
- When you log in, you land on the dashboard, which displays key reports through interactive charts.
- You can customize the dashboard to display information that’s most useful to you.
- The Applications Grid
- Open the Applications section to view the grid, your central hub for viewing and processing applications.
- Spend some time getting familiar with the grid – you can customize the columns to display key information, and practice sorting and filtering so you can quickly find applicants once the cycle is active.
- The Full application
- From the grid, click any row to open the application.
- Explore the application sections (e.g., experiences, education, evaluations) and note where you will perform review actions and view summaries.
Step 4: Add Other Users
Make sure the right people can log in before you begin reviewing applications.
- Access user settings from the left menu via Settings > Organization > Users.
- Determine the users you need to add, such as program directors, coordinators, faculty reviewers, and committee members.
- When you add a user, you select their role, which controls what users can do in the system (permissions) and what data they can see.
Step 5. Learn Where to Get Help
Get familiar with your key learning and support resources:
- FellowshipsCAS Program Help Center:
- Bookmark the help center for quick access to guides and onboarding resources, such as live and on-demand training sessions.
- Share technical requirements and accessibility guidance with your IT team.
- How to get help:
- Contact us for technical questions or access issues.
- Reach out to your Liaison Client Success contact for best practices on configuration, workflow design, and change management.
- Keep learning:
- Watch for training invitations and other featured emails during your training phase.
- Encourage your review team to explore the help resources and attend training early in the cycle.