July 2025
The NursingCAS Dispatch is a monthly newsletter designed to update you on current happenings involving nursing’s centralized application service. The newsletter features:
- NursingCAS Know-How including key features, resources, recruitment opportunities, and reminders
- NursingCAS by the Numbers featuring application statistics and other relevant metrics and data
- User Updates to keep you in the loop, so you can keep your team and applicants in the loop
- Q&A providing answers to some of the most frequently asked questions from school users
NURSINGCAS KNOW-HOW
️ Required Webinar: Steps to Ensure a Successful 2025-2026 NursingCAS Cycle on August 18
Register to attend our upcoming webinar, NursingCAS: Steps to Ensure a Successful 2025-2026 Cycle. This webinar will be held on Monday, August 18 at 2:00 p.m. ET. The following topics will be discussed:
- WebAdMIT best practices and efficiency measures: local statuses, list manager, faculty/committee member review feature, automated scoring features, and more
- Steps to managing your applicant pool
- Tips for analyzing your applicant pool and recruitment efforts with the Report Manager and Analytics by Liaison tools
- AACN and NursingCAS recruitment tools
- NursingCAS and WebAdMIT training resources for new team members
At least one member from each institution must attend. If you cannot attend, please register to receive a copy of the recording. The 2025-2026 NursingCAS cycle will launch on Thursday, August 7.
️ ️ NursingCAS for Nurse Anesthesia Programs Webinar on July 14
Are you looking for a more efficient way to manage your nurse anesthesia program applications? Join us for an informative webinar designed specifically for nurse anesthesia programs to learn how AACN’s NursingCAS, the centralized application service for nursing programs, can enhance your admissions process. Register today for the webinar planned for Monday, July 14 at 2:00 p.m. ET.
Webinar topics include:
- How NursingCAS works specifically for nurse anesthesia programs
- Benefits for faculty, staff, and applicants
- Q&A with current users from peer nurse anesthesia programs
Reminder: NursingCAS 2025-2026 Configuration Portal
The Configuration Portal for the NursingCAS 2025-2026 cycle opened on Monday, May 19. For programs going live on the day of the cycle launch (August 7), the deadline to complete configurations and submit your programs for review is Friday, July 4.
To access the NursingCAS 2025-2026 cycle, make sure you have selected the 25-26 cycle from the drop-down menu in the upper right of your dashboard in Prelaunch. Once the 25-26 cycle is selected, click “CAS Configuration Portal” from the left-hand navigation under the “Management” tile.
For a complete list of steps to complete configuration, please reference the email sent from info@nursingcas.myliaison.com on May 19.
Recording Available: NursingCAS Configuration Training Webinar
AACN recently hosted the NursingCAS: Configuration Training Webinar to prepare users for the upcoming 2025-2026 cycle. If you were unable to attend, please be sure to review the webinar recording and presentation slides. The following topics were discussed:
- Configuration portal terminology and the CAS rollover process
- Features to efficiently maximize application reviews
- Best practices for closing out a cycle and tips for preparing for a new cycle, including suggestions for improving a program’s homepage to increase recruitment efforts
- Updates and enhancements for the 2025-2026 cycle
Access to the Configuration Portal in the Prelaunch environment is required for all programs and allows you to edit program pages, features, and requirements for the upcoming cycle. Configuring and submitting your pages is required every year for your program to launch.
️ Featured Liaison Academy Course | Getting Started in Outcomes
Upgrade your admissions process with the Liaison Academy Course: Getting Started in Outcomes. Liaison International’s Outcomes CRM is engineered specifically for higher education admissions and enrollment management teams. Easy to manage and customize, Outcomes frees up resources to build a best-fit class and ensure positive student outcomes.
This introductory webinar provides a brief overview of Outcomes’ core features and guides users through their first steps when working in the software. It covers:
- What is Liaison Outcomes?
- Logging in and navigating the software
- Understanding Contacts and Applications
- Working with Roles
- An overview of key tools: Segments and Phases
Create a free account with Liaison Academy and become a NursingCAS super user!
NursingCAS Applicant Newsletter & Recruitment Event Calendar
The 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 on the Friday prior to publication. Posts must relate to one of the three topics below or they will be removed. Please submit an announcement using the form on our website.
Here is some additional information on how schools can leverage each section of the Applicant Newsletter:
- Open Seats: Use this section to provide notifications to applicants about NursingCAS programs with available space. You can share information about one specific program or multiple programs in one announcement. You can highlight the program by providing information relevant to your nursing school, specific program requirements, location, accreditation, program cost/scholarships, specialties, etc.
- Deadline Extensions: Use this section to share announcements about deadline extensions for your NursingCAS programs. You can share information about your programs, the new deadlines, and any requirements that might have changed (if applicable).
- New Programs: Use this section to highlight any new programs launched in the Application Portal since the last 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.
The NursingCAS Events Calendar is a great platform for publicizing your program’s recruitment events. These events include student information sessions, virtual fairs, open houses, and other recruitment events that connect your institution with potential applicants. You can submit items to the Events Calendar using the Applicant Event Form. This calendar is distributed to 160,000+ students each month.
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.
The WebAdMIT Sandbox is refreshed between 9:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. ET every Monday. If Monday is a US or Canadian holiday, deployment is the next business day and includes all system changes from the preceding release. The WebAdMIT Sandbox environment is refreshed with current (cleansed) production data and program configurations. Any test exports, custom fields, etc., in the current Sandbox will be overwritten.
BY THE NUMBERS
NursingCAS Applicants by State of Residence (2023-2024 Cycle)
In the 2023-2024 NursingCAS cycle, 64,443 students from all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, four U.S. territories, and 145 countries submitted applications through NursingCAS.
The top feeder state was California, with 9,071 applicants (14.1% of the total applicant pool), followed by Texas, Florida, New York, and Illinois. Please see the graphic for more information on other top feeder schools for this cycle.
Are you looking to expand your reach to students in a specific geographic area? Echo Targeting (an AACN partner) is a digital banner advertising tool that allows member schools to exclusively reach NursingCAS students while they surf the internet. This digital marketing program is flexible, affordable, and most importantly, effective. There are no spending minimums, no minimum number of months schools must participate, and each school can select the states in which they want to reach an audience of future students. AACN hosted an informational webinar on this tool in May. For more information, review the recording today!

USER UPDATES
This section 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.
Program Short Name Field Renamed
When creating programs in the NursingCAS Configuration Portal, you have two fields to record your program name:
- Program Name: your official program name that is visible to applicants in the NursingCAS Applicant Portal.
- Program Short Name (formerly WebAdmit Name): an internal, alternate name for your program that only you can see in WebAdMIT and Liaison Outcomes. This is useful if you want to give your program an internal nickname or code it for internal reporting/integration purposes. For example, your official program name may be “Masters of Science in Athletic Training” for the Fall 2025 term, and the internal nickname may be “MS AT FA25.”
With this enhancement, the former WebAdmit Name field is renamed Program Short Name to better clarify its use and emphasize that it can be used in both Liaison Outcomes and WebAdMIT.
Configuration Portal
You can view the updated Program Short Name field under the Program Details section.

WebAdMIT
The following areas have been updated to reflect this field name change:
- On the Admissions User search page, the Program Label column is renamed Program Short Name.
- In the List Manager and Export Manager, the Designation Label field is renamed Program Short Name. Note that the default identifier name (i.e., the column name within the export document) for this field remains designation label. You can change this, if desired.
Updated Liaison Analytics Link
In 2025 Release 5, the Analytics by Liaison product was renamed Liaison Analytics. To align with this update, the Analytics by Liaison link under the Reports & Exports panel now says Liaison Analytics. It also directs you to the Liaison Analytics Help Center, where you can access the Liaison Analytics URL.
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.
Q&A
Q: Can I make edits to my program once it has gone live in an application cycle?
A: After a program is available to applicants in the CAS Applicant Portal, only select changes can be made to it. Some of the most frequent edits requested for programs that are live in the CAS Configuration Portal production environment include:
Information on the process for additional post-live program configuration changes can be found in the CAS Configuration Portal Help Center’s Update Your Approved Program page.
We recommend that you test and review changes in the prelaunch environment first to confirm that they work as desired. If you are satisfied, you can then make the change in production (i.e., the “live” environment) to update the live application. Note that once a program is live, changes made in the prelaunch environment can’t be activated; only changes in production are activated.
With any changes, you should maintain records of the original and edited content, and the applicants who completed information for one or the other. We also recommend contacting all in-progress applicants when a change has occurred so they can update their applications to your program appropriately.
For assistance in updating your approved programs, please contact WebAdMIT Support, who can flag any unforeseen effects a change may have on your program and applicants, and – if feasible – help you implement the update.
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. |