Working with Early Decision Applicants

Last updated
Save as PDF

Best Practices for Managing Your Applicant Pool

If you're just getting started with managing your applicants, we recommend you review the following information.

Track applicants during each stage of your admissions process. Review the Local Statuses Best Practices page for additional tips.
Feature select fields and add an applicant photo to the Applicant Header.
Add and manage internal admissions notes to applications.

Depending on your CAS, you may also have access to these additional features:

Add an alternate program to an applicant's file using the Manual Designations feature.
Enter applicants and their basic application data directly into WebAdMIT through the Direct Applicants feature.
Identify and manage Early Decision (ED) applicants.

Overview

Some application services offer an Early Decision feature. This is where applicants select one program to apply to and must wait until the program makes a decision to accept or deny them. If a program denies the applicant, the applicant is then free to submit their application to as many alternate programs as they would like.

Identifying Early Decision Applicants

Early Decision applicants are labeled with a blue Early Decision indicator in their Applicant Details page header.

WebAdMIT early-decision-indicator.png

They'll also have an Early Decision Status column in their Designations panel.

WebAdMIT early-decision-status-column.png

There are three Early Decision statuses in WebAdMIT:

Applied Early Decision: for programs that offer early decision and have applicants who have chosen to apply Early Decision. If your program does not offer Early Decision, then Applied Early Decision will not appear.
Applied Early Decision but Returned to Regular Pool: for applicants who applied Early Decision for a program but were not admitted. The applicant will have this status for the program that did not admit them and also for any program to which they apply to in the future.
Not Early Decision

These statuses can be searched by in the Search feature and List Manager.

Making Final Decisions on Early Decision Applicants

You must submit final decisions for Early Decision applicants at a certain point in the cycle, which is predetermined with the CAS and association. To submit final decisions, create a Local Status and tie it to the applicable Decision Code. The applicant must remain in this Decision Code for at least 24 hours for WebAdMIT to process your final Decision Code.