NursingCAS Dispatch - January 2026

Reminder: 2024-2025 Cycle Close

The 2024-2025 NursingCAS application cycle will close on January 29, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. This date is the deadline for applicants to submit applications in the 2024-2025 cycle and the last date for deadlines on the current application. After this deadline has passed:

• New accounts cannot be created in the 2024-2025 cycle
• The reapplicant link is removed
• All programs in the cycle are closed
• Applicants cannot request new evaluations for programs in this cycle
• Applicants cannot pay for Professional Transcript Entry for programs in this cycle
• Applicants cannot submit new courses for Professional Transcript Entry for programs in this cycle
• Users cannot purchase coupon codes for the 2024-2025 cycle
• The 2024-2025 cycle will be removed from the landing page

School users will still be able to review applications and access WebAdMIT after the cycle closes. Applicants can carry data and transcripts over to the next application cycle using the Re-Applicant feature.

Call for NursingCAS Enhancements

Do you have ideas for improving the NursingCAS application? Is there a feature, process, or report that can enhance WebAdMIT (the backend admissions platform)? Submit your enhancement ideas by Friday, February 13 for the upcoming 2026-2027 cycle.

Last year, users submitted nearly three dozen ideas for review, many of which were implemented for the most recent cycle. AACN, Liaison International, and the NursingCAS Advisory Group strive to ensure continuous improvement of the NursingCAS platform. The NursingCAS team will review, assess, and prioritize all submitted ideas.

NursingCAS Demo Webinar on February 4

Are any members of your team new to NursingCAS or in need of a refresher? Register now to attend AACN’s NursingCAS Overview: A Demonstration of the Student Application and Admissions Management Portal webinar on February 4, from 3:00 – 4:00 p.m. ET.

Prospective and current NursingCAS users are encouraged to attend this training session, which will provide a walk-through of the platform and introduce users to best practices and useful tools in WebAdMIT. Unable to attend the webinar? All registrants will receive a copy of the recording.

Submit Items to the Member Spotlight Form

Are you a NursingCAS Super User? Submit a Member Spotlight item today to highlight the work that you or a team member have accomplished with NursingCAS! Take this opportunity to spotlight your team’s achievements in student recruitment, admissions, and enrollment. To submit, please provide the information requested in the form below. Approved submissions will be posted in the NursingCAS Dispatch newsletter.

Register Now! Experience: LIAISON | Baltimore

Registration for Liaison International’s Experience: LIAISON | Baltimore is now open! This event will be held from June 8 – 10, 2026, at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront. Join this community of enrollment management professionals, thought leaders, and industry experts to help chart the course forward for higher education!

The registration fee is $795, and group discounts are available. Additional information is available on the conference website.

Featured Liaison Academy Course | Webinar: Are Your Inquiry Responses Helping or Hurting Enrollment? What Students Really Experience When They Reach Out

When prospective students request information from your institution, their experience can shape their view of your campus, your culture, and their future. This webinar explores the latest findings from Liaison’s Undergraduate Inquiry Response Project, including real examples of what students encounter (from thoughtful, timely outreach to silence and dead ends); data on website navigation, response delays, and communication relevance; and trends illustrating the needs and expectations of today’s students. 

View this webinar recording for actionable insights and data-backed strategies to create more human, responsive, and student-centered interactions—starting from the very first point of contact! 

Create a free account with Liaison Academy and become a NursingCAS super user!

NursingCAS Applicant Newsletter

The NursingCAS Applicant Newsletter, provided by AACN, is emailed to 160,000+ NursingCAS applicants the third week of every month. This newsletter is for programs affiliated with NursingCAS only. Program submissions are FREE and due the Friday prior to publication.

Posts must relate to a program’s Open Seats, any Deadline Extensions that have been implemented, or New Programs that have launched in the Application Portal since the previous newsletter.

We recommend including contact information for representatives or links to your website and the NursingCAS application within the announcement. Visit the Newsletter Archive for samples of previous submissions.

Submit an Item to the Applicant Newsletter today!

NursingCAS Applicant Events Calendar

The NursingCAS Events Calendar allows you to publicize your program’s information sessions, virtual fairs, open houses, and other recruitment events that connect you with potential applicants! Submit an Item to the Events Calendar today!

Follow NursingCAS on LinkedIn

NursingCAS is now on LinkedIn! Follow us to stay up to date with all NursingCAS and AACN events as well as the latest NursingCAS application updates, tips on managing application cycles, resources for getting the most out of NursingCAS, and much more. Let’s stay connected!

Experience Description/Key Responsibilities Character Limit Increase

The Description/Key Responsibilities field in the Experiences section of the Applicant Portal has increased its character limit from 600 to 700 characters. This allows applicants to provide more detailed information.

If you extract this data via the CAS API, Liaison Outcomes, or WebAdMIT, you may need to update your data integrations to accommodate the increased character limit.

Coming Soon: TOEFL Scoring Scale Changes

Starting January 21, 2026, ETS's TOEFL exam will have a new 1-6 scoring scale for each section and overall total score. To accommodate this, the following changes will be made:

• NursingCAS Applicant Portal: Applicants will be able to report their scores in both old and new scoring scales in the Standardized Tests section. Students can continue to send official TOEFL scores to their programs via the CAS TOEFL code.
• WebAdMIT: A new set of TOEFL-related fields for this new scoring scale will be available. You must add these fields to any place you may already pull in TOEFL fields (e.g., lists, exports, scoring, etc.).

Important: When you receive official TOEFL scores taken after January 21, 2026, ETS will provide the historical scale equivalent for only the overall total score (i.e., both a 6 on the new scoring scale and 120 on the old scoring scale). ETS is not providing the historical scale equivalent for any section scores (i.e., you will only get a 4 on the new scoring scale for the Reading section). Be sure to review all your templates to accommodate the new scoring scale and capture the data you need.

Hide Applicant Names for Blind Reviews

You can now hide applicant names in WebAdMIT so that users can conduct blind reviews. A new Hide Applicant Names permission is available in Work Groups, and when activated, it removes the applicant names from the Dashboard, search pages, and the following areas on the Applicant Details page:

• Applicant header (first, middle, and last names)
• Personal Information panel, Biographic Information subpanel (nickname and alternate first, middle, and last names)
• Personal Information panel, Biographic Information subpanel (preferred first and middle names) (for WebAdMIT for AMCAS users only)
• Designation panel, Alternate Contact subpanel (name) (for WebAdMIT for AMCAS users only)

Note that this permission does not hide the applicant's name in the full application PDF, reports, or the applicant's email address, where their full name may be listed. You may want to remove access to these sections when conducting blind reviews. 

Applicant name visible

Applicant name hidden

Prerequisite Criteria Fulfilled Added as Scorable Field in Scoring Models

For schools that have Prerequisite GPAs in WebAdMIT or prerequisites in the CAS Configuration Portal, the Prerequisite Criteria Fulfilled field is now available in Scoring models. This allows you to award points based on an applicant’s completion of your desired prerequisites, separately from their calculated prerequisite GPA. Note that this field has a Yes/No value, and you must build a point table to use it with your scoring model.

Coming Soon: Automatic Deactivation for Inactive Accounts

In early January 2026, users who haven't logged in to WebAdMIT in the past 18 months will have their accounts deactivated. This enhances the security of WebAdMIT and ensures only current and active users can access applicants and admissions data. To learn more about this and review best practices, visit the Managing Users page.

Subscribe to WebAdMIT Release Notes

WebAdMIT Release Notes provide a summary of enhancements and new features that are made available in the Applicant Portal, Applicant Gateway, Configuration Portal, Letters by Liaison, and WebAdMIT. Want to receive Release Notes emails? Subscribe here.

Liaison provides monthly updates on new features and enhancements available within the Applicant Portal, Configuration Portal, WebAdMIT, and information on upcoming training opportunities. Please note that these are only a few highlights of Liaison’s recent enhancements. A complete list of recent WebAdMIT Release Notes is available.

WebAdMIT Sandbox Environment Refresh

Are you utilizing the WebAdMIT Sandbox? If not, you should be! Sandbox is a duplicate test platform useful for testing and training purposes; any actions performed in Sandbox will not affect the live data in production. This tool provides users with a safe, “near-production” environment to test applications and run sample exports, among other actions. The WebAdMIT Sandbox is a copy of the WebAdMIT production environment with sensitive applicant information (such as surnames, email addresses, etc.) obfuscated.

New Schools that Joined NursingCAS in 2025

In 2025, AACN welcomed twenty-three new institutions into the NursingCAS community! California was the state with the highest number of new members, with three schools joining NursingCAS last year. New York and Virginia followed with two schools each.

The following schools joined the platform in 2025:

1. Baldwin Wallace University
2. Carson-Newman University
3. Coker University
4. Colby-Sawyer College
5. Fairleigh Dickinson University
6. Hood College
7. Hunter College, CUNY Graduate Nursing
8. Manhattanville College
9. Meredith College
10. Morehouse School of Medicine
11. Mount Carmel College of Nursing
12. National University
13. North Central College
14. Old Dominion University
15. Siena Heights University
16. Spalding University
17. Tarleton State University
18. Treasure Valley Community College
19. UC Berkeley, Extension
20. University of California, Irvine
21. University of Lynchburg
22. University of Nevada Reno
23. University of Sioux Falls

Q: How should my team prepare for the closing of the 2024-2025 cycle?

A: With the 2024-2025 cycle closing on January 29, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. ET, NursingCAS users can prepare for the transition from two cycles to one cycle in several ways.

1. Transfer your settings from the 2024-2025 cycle to the 2025-2026 cycle if you have not already done so. Instead of rebuilding templates cycle to cycle, you can use a simple 3-step process to pull templates forward from one cycle to the next. Once your templates are in the new cycle, you must review and edit them to reflect any updated processes.
2. Communicate with your applicants about any remaining deadlines to ensure that they are prepared in advance of the cycle close. This includes not only your application deadline, but also the 2024-2025 deadlines for:
   • Receiving transcripts and official test scores (February 13, 2026, at 5:00 p.m. ET)
   • Approving PTE (February 13, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. ET)
   • References to submit their recommendations (February 13, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. ET)
   • Re-submitting your application if you are in Undelivered status (February 18, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. ET)
   • Verification (February 19, 2026, at 5:00 p.m. ET)
3. Ensure that applicants will be directed to the correct (and open!) cycle by including clear language on your school’s website describing which semesters a program is accepting applications for and highlighting any relevant deadlines. A related best practice is to provide a link to the application portal landing page instead of to specific cycles to avoid having to update your website between cycles.
4. Learn about the re-application process that allows applicants with existing accounts to copy their application data to the new cycle. This is helpful for applicants who started the application in the previous cycle and need to move it to the new cycle but don't want to lose existing data.
5. Use the Cycle Switcher in the upper right corner of the WebAdMIT dashboard for quick access to either cycle. This allows WebAdMIT users to toggle easily between cycles.

Note that users will still be able to review applications and access WebAdMIT after the cycle closes. Additional information can be found in the Tips for Managing Overlapping Cycles resource in the WebAdMIT Help Center.

Support for WebAdMIT School Users

As always, the dedicated WebAdMIT Client Support Specialist Team is available Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. ET to assist with questions about WebAdMIT features. The team can be reached at (857) 304-2020 or webadmitsupport@liaisonedu.com. Training is also available via webinars, on-demand courses, and the Liaison Academy. Please visit the WebAdMIT Help Center for further information.

Make sure to sign up to receive important notices through the Liaison CAS Status page for updates on future CAS and WebAdMIT outages.

If you have any questions, please contact Taylor Jaczko, AACN's Director of Application Services, at tjaczko@aacnnursing.org.