BU School of Social Work Program User Guide
This guide provides you with documentation, reference guides, and direct links that answer common admissions questions about the BU School of Social Work 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 your Account Manager and Client Success Manager.
Important Contact Information
Contact or refer applicants to the BU School of Social Work Application Support team at:
- Email: ssw-info.bu@liaisoncas.com
- Phone: 857-304-2004
Contact the Client Support Specialist team for assistance with WebAdMIT at:
- Webform
- Email: buprogramsupport@liaisonedu.com
- Phone: 857-304-2012
Cycle Timeframes
Applicant Portal
The Applicant Portal opens in early August and closes in early August.
Configuration Portal
Between late April and early July, configurations are entered in the prelaunch environment.
WebAdMIT
You can view new applicants and initiate a transfer settings shortly after the new cycle opens in early August.
Program Participation Requirements
BU requires all programs to designate two contacts at your institution who will receive all communication from BU and BU School of Social Work, including the configuration, application, and WebAdMIT launch notifications.
Applicant Portal
The first three sections of the BU School of Social Work 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 School of Social Work application and BU School of Social Work 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.
- Requirements for the BU School of Social Work Complete application status can be found here.
You can direct any applicant inquiries related to the application to BU School of Social Work Application Support.
Configuration Portal
Use the Configuration Portal Quick Start Guide to make sure you configure your program(s) efficiently and completely in the prelaunch environment. Be sure to check out your CAS's configuration options and review the best practices found throughout. If any optional sections of the application are required for your program (e.g., experiences, test scores, etc.), you'll want to note this on your program home page.
WebAdMIT
Review the WebAdMIT Manual for any questions related to working in WebAdMIT. The Documentation and Reference Guides and WebAdMIT Training and Support sections are additional resources as you configure WebAdMIT for your needs. Documents commonly requested include:
- API Overview: learn how to set up an API and schedule automatic data exports from WebAdMIT into your SIS/ERP.
- Application Coupons Reference Guide: learn how to request coupons to offset application fees and disperse them to applicants.
- Custom Export Field Layout: a comprehensive list of all fields available in the Export 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.
- 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.
- Master College Code List: a comprehensive list of all college names and their respective Liaison, MDB, CEEB, FICE, and/or IPED codes.
- 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, Configuration Portal, and WebAdMIT, in addition to upcoming training opportunities.
For any questions, contact the Client Support Specialist Team.
Cycle Enhancements
2022-2023
The table below contains enhancements for BU School of Social Work 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 |
Personal Information – Biographic Information |
The Preferred Name question was added. The Preferred Pronouns question was renamed to Pronouns. Additionally, the Gender Identity question was updated. |
No action required by participating programs to use this enhancement. |
Available at cycle launch |
|
Applicant Portal |
Personal Information – Race & Ethnicity |
The Race question was updated. |
No action required by participating programs to use this enhancement. |
Available at cycle launch |
|
Applicant Portal |
Personal Information – Other Information |
The questions were reordered. The First Generation Students question was updated. The Language Proficiency question was added. Additionally, the What were the most important features/factors you looked at when researching MSW programs question was added. |
No action required by participating programs to use this enhancement. |
Available at cycle launch |
|
Applicant Portal |
Academic History |
The Academic History quadrant was reordered with the GPA Entries section now appearing after the Colleges Attended section. |
No action required by participating programs to use this enhancement. |
Available at cycle launch |
|
Applicant Portal |
Academic History – Colleges Attended |
If an applicant selects Unlisted French Speaking Canadian or Other Foreign Institution, they must complete a new required field for the college’s country. If you created exports to pull a college's country data, you must edit and select the new college country fields. Review the Country Field for Manually Entered Foreign Institutions release note for more information. |
No action required by participating programs to use this enhancement. |
Available at cycle launch |
|
Applicant Portal |
Academic History – Standardized Tests |
The instructions text was updated to better assist applicants. |
No action required by participating programs to use this enhancement. |
Available at cycle launch |
|
Applicant Portal |
Program Materials |
The Delivery and Program/Department sections were removed. |
No action required by participating programs to use this enhancement. |
Available at cycle launch |
|
Configuration Portal |
Organization Details and Program Details |
You can preview your programs in the application using the Preview feature and continue making edits as necessary. |
Action required by participating programs choosing to use this enhancement. |
Available now |
|
Configuration Portal |
Organization Details |
Instead of rebuilding your program in the prelaunch environment, you can import your program from a previous cycle's production environment into the prelaunch environment. You can access the Import from Previous Cycle button in the Configuration Portal prelaunch environment. Visit the Import Your Programs page for more information. |
Action required by participating programs choosing to use this enhancement. |
Available now |
|
Configuration Portal |
Organization Details |
You can only access the Add Program and Copy Program buttons in the Configuration Portal prelaunch environment. |
Action required by participating programs choosing to use this enhancement. |
Available now |
|
WebAdMIT |
Export Manager List Manager |
The Applicant Gateway Activities field grouping and associated fields were removed. Be sure to review your existing lists and exports to review and update your criteria, if applicable. |
Action required by participating programs choosing to use this enhancement. |
Available at cycle launch |
|
WebAdMIT |
PDF Manager |
If you create a list that searches for applicants based on any field in the Designations field grouping (e.g., Designation, Application Status, etc.), you can now extract the full application PDFs that adhere to your list's criteria. For more information, see the PDF Manager page. |
Action required by participating programs choosing to use this enhancement. |
Available at cycle launch |
|
WebAdMIT |
Applicant Details Page |
You can view TOEFL MyBest scores in the Standardized Tests panel of the Applicant Details page. Additionally, you can view scores in the Full Application PDF under the Documents panel of the Applicant Details page. All TOEFL iBT score reports sent after August 1, 2019, will include the applicant's MyBest scores as well as the individual scores from each test date. |
No action required by participating programs to use this enhancement. |
Available at cycle launch |
2021-2022
The table below contains enhancements for BU School of Social Work 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 | Login Page | The LinkedIn link in the page footer was updated. | No action required by participating programs to use this enhancement. | Available at cycle launch |
|
Applicant Portal |
Reapplying |
The instructions text was updated to better assist applicants. |
No action required by participating programs to use this enhancement. |
Available at cycle launch |
|
Applicant Portal |
Personal Information – Biographic Information and Contact Information |
Liaison utilizes the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) for a variety of standard "lookup" values, such as country names, states, etc. By default, the Country drop-down lists Taiwan as "Taiwan (Province of China)." This enhancement allows CASs to use an alternate name for Taiwan. Note that this enhancement does not affect WebAdMIT or Admissions by Liaison, which will continue to display the ISO standard lookup value, Taiwan (Province of China). |
No action required by participating programs to use this enhancement. |
Available at cycle launch |
|
Applicant Portal |
Personal Information – Biographic Information |
A new Preferred Pronouns question was added. Additionally, the Sex question text was updated to While we understand that your sex may not necessarily be binary, this information is required for reporting purposes to the U.S. Federal Government using these values only. What is your sex? |
No action required by participating programs to use this enhancement. |
Available at cycle launch |
|
Applicant Portal |
Personal Information – Other Information |
The Additional Questions section was moved out of the conditional Degree Option question. |
No action required by participating programs to use this enhancement. |
Available at cycle launch |
|
Applicant Portal |
Various |
You can now set a minimum number of characters on certain custom (i.e., essays) or numeric question types (i.e., Social Security Numbers). A message will notify applicants that they cannot save an answer until they enter the specific number of characters. This can be combined with maximum character limits. |
No action required by participating programs to use this enhancement. |
Available at cycle launch |
|
Configuration Portal |
Question Rules |
You can choose to request or require a document upload based on an applicant’s response to an Extended Profile or program-level question using the Show Document Question Rule. |
Action required by participating programs choosing to use this enhancement. |
Available now |
|
Configuration Portal |
Organizations and Programs |
Association users can batch activate or reset programs to draft in the Configuration Portal. A new Organization column is added so association users can filter by organization and perform these batch actions more easily. |
Action required by participating programs choosing to use this enhancement. |
Available now |
|
Configuration Portal |
Program Details |
PHD was updated to PhD in the Degree drop-down. |
No action required by participating programs to use this enhancement. |
Available now |
| Configuration | Program Documents | An Additional Document Document Type was added. | No action required by participating programs to use this enhancement. | Available now |
|
WebAdMIT |
Applicant Details Page |
You can now view which applicants reapplied from a previous cycle in WebAdMIT. The Applicant Previously Applied to CAS field populates as Yes or No. |
No action required by participating programs to use this enhancement. |
Available at cycle launch |
2020-2021
The table below contains enhancements for BU School of Social Work 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 |
Academic History – Colleges Attended |
The workflow for entering colleges has been improved. Enhancements include:
|
No action required by participating programs to use this enhancement. |
Available at cycle launch |
|
Applicant Portal |
Academic History – Standardized Tests |
The instructions font is now uniform. |
No action required by participating programs to use this enhancement. |
Available at cycle launch |
|
Applicant Portal |
Add Program Page |
Degree is added as a column to the Add Program search results. |
No action required by participating programs to use this enhancement. |
Available at cycle launch |
|
Applicant Portal |
Personal Information – Other Information |
The How did you hear about us? question has updated answer options. The Financial Aid question was updated with clearer instructions. Two new questions, Language Proficiency and Did you connect with the Admissions Team?, were added. |
No action required by participating programs to use this enhancement. |
Available at cycle launch |
|
Applicant Portal |
Personal Information – Release Statement |
A new Privacy Statement has been added. |
No action required by participating programs to use this enhancement. |
Available at cycle launch |
|
Applicant Portal |
Submit Application Page |
The Submit Application page lists the term on each program’s tile. Previously, applicants needed to click the additional information icon to view the program’s term. |
No action required by participating programs to use this enhancement. |
Available at cycle launch |
|
Configuration Portal |
Questions |
When you create a question in the Configuration Portal, you can choose to hide the question in the full application PDF in WebAdMIT. These questions will still display on the Applicant Details page in WebAdMIT and be available in the List Manager and Export Manager. |
Action required by participating programs choosing to use this enhancement. |
Available now |
|
WebAdMIT |
Assignments |
Previously, when a reviewer was assigned an Assignment in WebAdMIT, they received an email the next day, listing all Assignments given to them, regardless if the reviewer already completed them. Now reviewers only receive the daily Assignment email if they have incomplete Assignments from the previous day. |
No action required by participating programs to use this enhancement. |
Available at cycle launch |
|
WebAdMIT |
Export Manager |
The Hispanic field in WebAdMIT aligns with the Do you consider yourself to be of Hispanic/Latino Origin? optional question from the Applicant Portal. Currently, when users export this field from WebAdMIT, an applicant’s response populates as:
A new Hispanic (Yes / No / Blank) field has been created to accurately reflect an applicant’s response to this Do you consider yourself to be of Hispanic/Latino Origin? question:
The Hispanic (Yes / No / Blank) field is available in the:
The original Hispanic field is still available in WebAdMIT. |
No action required by participating programs to use this enhancement. |
Available at cycle launch |
|
WebAdMIT |
Report Manager |
A new Applicant-based report is available: Local Status History. This report includes the applicant’s:
Every Local Status change for an applicant is listed on one row. If an applicant has multiple Local Status changes, the report will include multiple rows with this information. This information can still be accessed under the History panel on the Applicant Details page. |
No action required by participating programs to use this enhancement. |
Available at cycle launch |