Cycle 2025–2026 Updates

Fully Redesigned Application Review Experience

Based on user feedback, we're excited to introduce a new application review experience built for efficiency, clarity, and ease of use. This update includes a number of features designed to help you navigate and evaluate applications faster and more intuitively. 

Streamlined Navigation and Key Info at a Glance

You’ll notice several major updates the moment you open an application:

1. 1. A new Applicant Header that displays contact details, signals, and applied tags –so you have key information at a glance.
   2. An interactive timeline with scrolling and zooming capabilities to make reviewing an applicant's academic history easier than ever.
   3. A modernized navigation menu with enhanced search, bookmarks, and easy section-to-section navigation.
   4. Quick access to key information, fully customizable to suit your review priorities.

Improved Application Section Layout

When reviewing application sections, you'll now see a streamlined layout – including collapsible panels and the ability to bookmark sections – all designed for better organization, easier reading, and helping you focus on what matters most.

Recommendations/evaluations are also organized into collapsible panels. When collapsed, they show basic information about the letter writer. When expanded, you can toggle between the Details and Attachments views. In the Attachments view, any uploaded documents or PDFs appear directly inline.

Enhanced Application Details and Review Panels

The Application Details, Reviews, and Comments panels are still accessible from the top right, but with some notable enhancements. First, the Application Details panel now includes phases, tags, and fully customizable summary data for quick insights.

Second, the Review panel has been reorganized to better display assigned and completed reviews – all while keeping the application in view.

All Reviews Now Conducted in the Program Portal

This update applies to OB/GYN programs only. 

In the first cycle, OB/GYN programs had access to a dedicated Review Portal – a simplified version of the Program Portal designed specifically for reviewers. However, Review Portal usage was historically limited, many users were unaware of its full functionality, and managing multiple portals sometimes created confusion or added unnecessary complexity.

To streamline workflows, the Review Portal has been retired. All evaluation and review activities will now take place directly within the Program Portal. Reviewers (those with the Interviewer/Reviewer role) will now complete their reviews in the Program Portal. Here's how it works: 

• All users who previously had access to the Review Portal will automatically be granted access to the Program Portal.
• They can log in with their existing credentials – no new accounts or setup required. 
• Reviewers can complete their review tasks without accessing any administrative functions.
• While reviewers will not receive additional permissions beyond what they previously had, programs still have full control and flexibility to adjust those permissions and data visibility as needed via the Roles feature. In fact, this change offers more flexibility than before – the Review Portal limited certain capabilities, while the Program Portal allows for greater customization to support a range of review processes.

This update simplifies the overall experience for everyone involved by centralizing application review in the Program Portal (interview scheduling and execution remain in the Interview Portal). The transition is expected to have minimal impact; most users will not experience any disruption.

Simplified Interview Portal User Management

You can now add and manage Interview Portal users the same way you do for the Program Portal. From Settings > Users, open a user profile, scroll to the Portals section, toggle on Interview Portal, and assign the appropriate role. You can also update a user's role directly using the pencil icon. Previously, Interview Portal access was managed in a separate area of Settings. This update streamlines the process by giving you one central location to manage all user access.

New Process for Adding Applicants to Interview Portal

We simplified the process of adding applicants to the Interview Portal. Previously, applicants were moved into the Interview Portal by placing them into specific phases. Now, you can add applicants directly from the application using the Send to Interview Portal button. 

Alternatively, from the applications grid, you can select the applicants you want to interview and then select the Interview Portal option from the menu. 

When you add an applicant to the Interview Portal, they appear in the Interview Candidate status – a neutral status that ensures they don’t see anything until you’re ready to invite and schedule them. If you add an applicant by mistake, you can remove them in the Interview Portal via the Applicant Profile panel, as long as they're not assigned to a session. If needed, you can always re-add them from the Program Portal.

By default, users with the Reviewer/Interviewer role don’t have permission to add applicants to the Interview Portal. If you want to allow this, navigate to Settings > Roles > Reviewer/Interviewer, and under General Settings, enable the Send Applications to Interview Portal permission. For most programs, reviewers/interviewers don’t need this permission – they typically just need to be added to the Interview Portal as noted above so they can perform interviews.

Enhanced Data Flow Between Program and Interview Portals

As you move applicants between interview statuses in the Interview Portal, that information is now synced to – and visible in – the Program Portal. This means you can view interview statuses directly from the Program Portal. Additionally, all comments, scores, and ranks from the Interview Portal are now synced to and visible in the Program Portal, making it possible to include them in the applications grid (as shown below), segments, reports, and more.

New Cycle Management Features

Programs can now access data from previous cycles in both the Program and Interview Portals. This update is especially helpful for programs that completed their first cycle last year and want to reference or review past activity.

In the Program Portal, a new drop-down appears in the Segment Selector within the Applications section. This allows you to view applications from the current cycle, archived cycles, or both. This cycle filtering also applies across the Program Portal, including in reports and exports.

In the Interview Portal, you can use the role switcher (the circle with initials in the bottom-left corner) to access a previous cycle. Only program directors, managers, and coordinators have this access – applicants and interviewers will only see data from the current cycle. If a program director, manager, or coordinator switches to their Interviewer role, they'll still only see current cycle data. Additionally, any changes made in a previous cycle, such as updates to interview statuses, scores, or ranks, will not be reflected in the Program Portal.

Clerkship Grading Scales Now Available as a Data Point

When ResidencyCAS receives a Medical School Transcript (MST), we now capture and display the grading scale used for clerkship evaluations — in addition to the grades themselves. This allows you to incorporate grading scale data into your review process, including when building segments and exports.

The available grading scales include:

• H/P/F (honors, pass, fail)
• H/HP/P/F (honors, high pass, pass, fail)
• P/F (pass, fail)
• A/B/C/D/F
• Other

Note for emergency medicine programs: by default, this scale is currently visible directly in the application, just below the timeline.

Interview Scheduling Deadline Now Available

Programs can now set a deadline that requires applicants to accept, reschedule, or cancel their interviews a specific number of days in advance. This enhancement helps prevent last-minute changes, which previously left programs with little time to find a replacement applicant.

You can enable this deadline in Settings – if turned on, it applies to all sessions.

If you set a deadline, it will reflect for applicants as follows:

• After accepting your invitation, applicants will only see sessions that are still open for scheduling (i.e., the deadline has not passed). Then, once they've selected a session, the Invitations tab will display the deadline for updates to that session.
• In the Invitations tab, if the scheduling deadline has not passed, they can cancel.

• If the deadline has passed, they'll see a message indicating that the deadline has passed and that they need to contact the program directly.

Enhanced Schedule Building Tools

We’ve introduced several updates to make the interview scheduling process more flexible and efficient.

1. You can now manually update the status of basic sessions (i.e., sessions run outside the Interview Portal) from Scheduled to In Progress or Completed. Previously, the status remained fixed at Scheduled. When a session is marked Completed, any applicants who were interviewed will move from Interview Scheduled to Interview Completed in the Interview Portal – this status is also reflected in the Program Portal.
   
   
   
   
2. Standard session schedules can be generated two ways: automatically (when applicants self-select their sessions) or manually (when programs manually assign applicants to the session). Previously, any changes required drag-and-drop editing. Now, you can choose to build the schedule from scratch, making it easier to pair the right applicants with the right interviewers.
   
   First, clear the schedule:
   
   
   
   Then, click the Add Applicants icon to build your schedule:
   
   
   
   
3. You can now group applicants to move through the interview day together, which is ideal for cohort-based scheduling or programs with structured tracks. You can set up groups in the Applicant Distribution section (previously called Rooms).
   

   
   
   
   After generating the schedule, you’ll see each applicant’s group listed next to their name.
   
   

   
   If you need to update group assignments, click View All in the top-left area of the session.
   
   
   
   

4. After creating a schedule, you can now use the Manage Applicants menu (three dots) to quickly remove, replace, or swap applicants. This gives you more flexibility and saves time when making last-minute adjustments.
   
   
   
   
5. You can now add interviewer instructions to individual interview rooms. Previously, instructions could only be added at the session level during setup. This enhancement gives you more flexibility, allowing you to tailor instructions for each room as needed.

Session Scoring: Updated Default Scoring Range

The default interview scoring range is now 1–5 (previously 1–10). This change helps prevent confusion and misalignment between scoring forms and system settings. Previously, programs using a 1–5 scale on their forms were unintentionally having scores scaled up to match the 1–10 default. With this update, the system better aligns with common scoring practices and reduces the need for manual adjustments, and you can still adjust the scoring scale if you need a different range.

TimeTrack Enhancements

We've made a few updates to help you manage interview days more easily and efficiently. Highlights include:

• Improved layout for better navigation, including a better chat experience.
  
  
• Quick access to meeting rooms via the calendar icon in the top right – no need to leave the TimeTrack screen.
  
  
• A new message broadcast feature is available via the megaphone icon in the top right. When you send a broadcast message to everyone, all users – regardless of role – will receive it, except the sender.
  
  

New Statuses: Interview Scheduled and Interview Complete

To improve the overall process for programs and support better reporting, we've added two new statuses: Interview Scheduled and Interview Complete.

• Once an applicant is assigned to a session, the system will automatically move them from Invited & Ready for Scheduling to Interview Scheduled.
• After the applicant completes all interview sessions with a program, they'll automatically move from Interview Scheduled to Interview Complete.

Updated Applicant Name Format

We've updated how applicant names are displayed throughout the Interview Portal: they now appear as last name, first name, degree instead of first name last name, degree. This change makes it easier to sort and scan names, especially when reviewing large lists.