1. GRADS Advisory Committee
Meeting 7
November 20, 2017
Lori Cottrill
Beth Smith

2. Agenda To Production Since We Last Met Currently in Development
Planned for the Future
Feedback for the Future

3. To Production Since April: discussed at our last meeting
GRADS settings at plan and option level (major and degree) – live 10/17/2017
Semester deadlines for certificates
Multiple notifications per applicant
GRADS Interview Scheduling system – “pilots”
Several colleges have assisted with designing the Interview Scheduling system. While it is available in GRADS to everyone, those who helped design are using it in “pilot” mode this evaluation cycle. If anyone else wishes to use it, please contact the Graduate School via the blue tab in GRADS.

4. Currently in Development
View all applicants in one view
Changing Applicant Account process (Enterprise IT)
Scored rating

5. Planned for Future “Official use only” questions
Different types of program-specific questions, for example, numeric and date
A comment section after each major area ( e.g., academic preparation, letters of recommendation, written statement, GRE, and Language scores)
CC and BCC added to notification configuration

6. Specific Feedback Requested 1
Specific Feedback Requested 1. Timing of Questions/Documents Added and Expectation of Applications Already Submitted
Should the Status page ask an applicant with an application in AP-APPL-MI/VI to complete questions that were not present or upload documents that were not requested at time of application submission?  
Should the Home page ask an applicant with an application in AP-APPL-MI/VI to upload documents that were not requested at time of application submission?
The consensus of the group is to leave this, as is, with the applicants able to answer questions and upload documents. Plans will contact applicants if information is missing and needed, as applicable.

7. Specific Feedback Requested 2. Requirements for CHD Applications
What should the application require for Change Degree (CHD) admit types?
Should the requirements be a program setting in GRADS?
For example, College of Ed has to upload all of the applicant's program-specific answers and references for CHD but they would rather have the applicant have to provide those materials. They require completion of master's prior to PhD so they don't want to keep the same references and program answers.
The group would like to specify CHD requirements via a setting in GRADS so the CHD application is flexible and enables programs to collect information within the application, if desired, instead of having to find other methods.

8. Specific Feedback Requested 3
Specific Feedback Requested 3. Review of "Text Displayed to Applicant" box
This ISIS GRADS feature was not implemented with LionPATH.  Is this still wanted?  
Some of the status_text provided by programs is not suitable for display to applicants:
grammatically incorrect
includes placeholders, e.g., PSU ID# or xxx
tells applicants information that should be coming from official letters
is the same text, often many lines, sent in the
Possible future implementation would include review of notification text that has been entered and standardization of messages so programs could choose from a dropdown
This feature has not been missed by anyone, so the direction given was to not make any changes with this.

9. Specific Feedback Requested 4. Grace Period for Deadline
We received a request to have 2 separate dates for programs to define:
The deadline date
The date the application will actually not be available
This changes the definition of “deadline”. What is the group’s opinion?
Alternatives? For example, ID exceptions
Feedback was that programs want deadline functionality to remain as is. Several group members expressed a desire to have an exception process whereby listed applicants could forego the deadline. This will enable those applicants to proceed while not opening the application to everyone.

10. “Wish List” Prioritization
Completion Functionality
Feature Enhancements
List Functionality
Applicant Notification Functionality
Staff Notification Functionality
This “wish list” grouping was reviewed, along with further details given on the next few slides. A survey will be sent to GRADS Advisory Committee members to give feedback/prioritization of requested items.

11. “Wish List” Prioritization Details
Completion Functionality
Method of applicant and faculty to know which items are missing
Automatically flag applications as complete when they have all the required materials
Feature Enhancements
Ability for letters to be more personalized, produced on letterhead, etc.
Warn applicant if test scores below minimum
Allow programs to set an ad hoc custom description for program-specific documents

12. “Wish List” Prioritization Details cont.
List Functionality
Filter application list on status/payment categories / SAR from search page
Support a "Personal Labels for All Users" entry in the custom application list
Would like to be able to have more than one sort for labels
Applicant Notification Functionality
Create button for reminder sent to whole program for references not received yet. Idea of setting program date for deadline and then send, accordingly.
Date/time stamp of when /reminders sent; log notifications and reference s

13. “Wish List” Prioritization Details cont.
Staff Notification Functionality
Add notification to faculty member assigned if application marked as complete
Trigger letter from SAR change (for example, at point of offer)
Send notification to the Plan when GRADS receives official transcripts

14. Scored Rating Sneak Peek
A number of programs have provided information and examples of rubrics and ratings that they use outside of GRADS to help with the evaluation of applicants. Beth Smith gave a demo and explanation of feature development that is happening in GRADS and is expected to be available by early This functionality includes weightings for both objective and subjective criteria. Programs can choose application values such as GPA, test scores, etc. and provide weightings for them, as well as design weighted questions for faculty input and evaluation of applicants.

15. Additional Wish List Items?to

16. Questions?
A question was asked about transfer credits not having grades on the transcripts for Penn State applicants/students that are viewable in GRADS. We have verified that these grades also do not appear on the PSU transcripts from LionPATH. The data is not available for us in GRADS.
The data is viewable in LionPATH. Users should be able to see the transfer credit grade on the LionPATH Transfer Credit Evaluation page, under the “Incoming Course” section for the course that is being transferred.