BU College of Fine Arts Program User Guide
This guide provides you with documentation, reference guides, and direct links that answer common admissions questions about the BU College of Fine Arts Applicant Portal, Configuration Portal, and WebAdMIT. It also contains resources that may help you work more efficiently throughout your admissions process. If you have additional questions or need further assistance, please contact a member of your account team.
Important Contact Information
Contact or refer applicants to the BU College of Fine Arts Application Support team at:
- Email: support@bu-cfa.myliaison.com
- Phone: 857-304-2000
Contact the Client Support Specialist team for assistance with WebAdMIT at:
- Webform
- Email: webadmitsupport@liaisonedu.com
- Phone: 857-304-2020
Cycle Timeframes
Applicant Portal
The Applicant Portal opens in mid-July and closes in late October.
Configuration Portal
Between late March and late May, configurations are entered into the prelaunch environment.
WebAdMIT
You can view new applicants and initiate a transfer settings shortly after the new cycle opens in mid-July.
Program Participation Requirements
BU requires all programs to designate two contacts at your institution who will receive all communication from BU and BU College of Fine Arts, including the configuration, application, and WebAdMIT launch notifications.
Applicant Portal
The first three sections of the BU College of Fine Arts application (i.e., Personal Information, Academic History, and Supporting Information) compose the core application. They contain questions that are commonly asked of applicants across all participating programs, such as an applicant's biographic information, standardized test scores, and experiences. The fourth section of the application is Program Materials, which is customized by you through the Configuration Portal (discussed in the next section).
You can access the BU College of Fine Arts application and BU College of Fine Arts Applicant Help Center to review the applicant experience. You can also create a test application in the Applicant Portal; we recommend creating a new account and adding "test" to your name (e.g., TestJohn TestDoe).
For a general overview of the applicant experience, review the following documents:
- Applicant Processing Reference Guide: learn how applicants move through the application and Liaison processes applicant materials, such as transcripts and official test scores.
- Application Statuses Reference Guide: review what each application status means and how you can interact with applicants at different stages.
- Review the requirements for the BU College of Fine Arts Complete application status.
You can direct any applicant inquiries related to the application to BU College of Fine Arts Application Support.
Configuration Portal
WebAdMIT
Review the WebAdMIT Help Center for any questions related to working in WebAdMIT. The Reference Guides and WebAdMIT Training and Support sections are additional resources as you configure WebAdMIT for your needs. Documents commonly requested include:
- Application Coupons Reference Guide: learn how to request coupons to offset application fees and disperse them to applicants. To purchase coupons, use this webform.
- Application Coupon Codes FAQs: view answers to frequently asked questions about coupon codes.
- Data Dictionaries and Master Code Lists: a comprehensive list of all fields available in the Export Manager and Report Manager, including associated lookup tables.
- Deferring Applicants via the Liaison-assisted Deferral Process: learn how to transfer deferred applicants from one cycle to the next.
- Integration Help Center and WebAdMIT API: learn how to set up an API and schedule automatic data exports from WebAdMIT into your SIS/ERP.
- Invitation Codes Reference Guide: learn how to offer individual deadline extensions directly to applicants.
- Manual Designations: learn how to add additional programs (i.e., designations) to an application in WebAdMIT.
- Transfer Settings Guide: a review of how programs and templates built in WebAdMIT are carried forward each cycle.
The Release Notes feature new enhancements in the Applicant Portal, Applicant Gateway, Configuration Portal, Liaison Letters, and WebAdMIT, in addition to upcoming training opportunities.
For any questions, contact the Client Support Specialist Team.
Cycle Enhancements
2025-2026
The table below contains enhancements for BU College of Fine Arts for the cycle timeframes noted at the top of this page. Note that some sections have multiple enhancements. If an action is required by participating programs to use the enhancement, click the links under Enhancement Details to learn more. Additional enhancements may have been automatically released; review the Release Notes to learn more.
|
Portal |
Section |
Enhancement Details |
Implementation |
Availability |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
CAS Applicant Portal |
Background Image |
The background image in the application was updated. |
No action required by participating programs to use this enhancement. |
Available at cycle launch |
|
CAS Applicant Portal |
Academic History – Colleges Attended |
Applicants are required to upload their unofficial domestic transcripts and/or foreign evaluations before they submit their application to your program. Additionally, a CAS can now replace the "foreign evaluation" language with "foreign transcript" to accurately reflect the desired documents applicants should submit. The instructional text was also updated to better assist applicants. |
No action required by participating programs to use this enhancement. |
Available at cycle launch |
|
CAS Applicant Portal |
Academic History – Standardized Tests |
Applicants can self-report their Duolingo test scores. You can view their scores under the Standardized Tests panel on the Applicant Details page. Additionally, the instructional text was updated to better assist applicants. |
No action required by participating programs to use this enhancement. |
Available at cycle launch |
|
CAS Applicant Portal |
Program Materials – Documents |
The Required Documents and Optional Documents headers have been removed. |
No action required by participating programs to use this enhancement. |
Available at cycle launch |
|
CAS Configuration Portal |
Organization Details |
The College Transcript sheet in the Export report now includes the following fields:
This enhancement allows you to capture all program configuration data, especially related to recent new features. |
No action required by participating programs to use this enhancement. |
Available now |
|
Liaison Letters |
Recommendation Forms |
The recommendation form name was updated. |
No action required by participating programs to use this enhancement. |
Available at cycle launch |
|
WebAdMIT |
Export Manager |
The following fields were added to the Evaluators field grouping in WebAdMIT exports:
These fields correspond with the evaluations added via the Program Materials (Quadrant 4) section of the application. |
No action required by participating programs to use this enhancement. |
Available at cycle launch |
|
WebAdMIT |
Applicant Details Page Email Templates Export Manager List Manager |
The Title field is no longer collected in the application and will be removed from WebAdMIT. You will need to update any lists, exports, emails, and other integrations to account for this field removal. |
Action required by all participating programs. |
Available at cycle launch |
|
WebAdMIT |
Applicant Details Page Export Manager List Manager |
The Refugee answer option was removed from the Visa Information question in the application; the correct option, I-94 Refugee, remains available. You should update any lists, exports, and other integrations to account for this answer option removal. |
Action required by all participating programs. |
Available at cycle launch |
|
WebAdMIT |
Login |
You can now activate multi-factor authentication (MFA) using any standard two-factor authentication (2FA) app (e.g., Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, Authy, etc.). |
No action required by participating programs to use this enhancement. |
Available at cycle launch |
|
WebAdMIT |
Applicant Gateway |
Association users can now reset select individual activities (e.g., supplemental application, schedule interview, extend offer, etc.) back to a draft status, as long as applicants have not used or completed the activity. |
No action required by participating programs to use this enhancement. |
Available at cycle launch |
2024-2025
The table below contains enhancements for BU College of Fine Arts for the cycle timeframes noted at the top of this page. Note that some sections have multiple enhancements. If an action is required by participating programs to use the enhancement, click the links under Enhancement Details to learn more. Additional enhancements may have been automatically released; review the Release Notes to learn more.
|
Portal |
Section |
Enhancement Details |
Implementation |
Availability |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Applicant Portal |
Background Image |
The background image in the application was updated. |
No action required by participating programs to use this enhancement. |
Available at cycle launch |
|
Applicant Portal |
Personal Information – Biographic Information |
A new Phonetic Name question was added. |
No action required by participating programs to use this enhancement. |
Available at cycle launch |
|
Configuration Portal |
Documents |
The Design & Production Essay Document Type was renamed to Design, Production & Management Essay. |
No action required by participating programs to use this enhancement. |
Available now |
|
WebAdMIT |
Work Groups |
In WebAdMIT, you can configure Work Groups to allow users to see specific panels on the Applicant Details Page. With this enhancement (from Release 11, 2023) if you remove access to a panel for a Work Group, the fields in that panel are also not available for the Work Group to see when creating exports, lists, or PDF manager templates. For example, if the Race and Ethnicity subpanel is not enabled for a Work Group, its members will not see the information from that panel when creating an export, and will not be able to create filters in List Manager using any of the fields from that panel. As a result of this enhancement, reports that are not shared with Work Groups from the Report Settings page will be inaccessible to anyone who is not a WebAdMIT Administrator. Review the How Work Groups Impact Access to Features and Fields documentation to learn more about the impacts of this enhancement. |
No action required by participating programs to use this enhancement. |
Available at cycle launch |
|
WebAdMIT |
Export Manager List Manager |
The TOEFL Official PBT fields were removed. If you have exports and lists that include this field, you will want to review and update them as necessary. |
No action required by participating programs to use this enhancement. |
Available at cycle launch |