NursingCAS Dispatch

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March 2024

The NursingCAS Dispatch is a monthly newsletter intended to keep you up to date with current happenings at NursingCAS. The newsletter features:


 NURSINGCAS KNOW-HOW

NursingCAS Student Webinar on April 2

AACN is offering a webinar for prospective NursingCAS applicants. This is a terrific opportunity to engage with your applicant pool by keeping them well-informed with helpful tips and best practices. AACN encourages admissions and recruitment teams to join the webinar and learn about NursingCAS from the applicant’s perspective. Schools can consider hosting similar webinars to support their applicant pool as well.

Find answers to your questions about the NursingCAS application and available resources by attending the upcoming Preparing and Strengthening Your NursingCAS Application webinar on Tuesday, April 2, 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. ET! The webinar provides current and future applicants the opportunity to hear from representatives with NursingCAS and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. Save your spot and register now!

Webinar content includes:

  • Detailed overview of the NursingCAS application
  • Guidance on requesting transcripts and submitting coursework entry
  • Answers to FAQs (application statuses, references, etc.)
  • Tips to avoid common mistakes
  • Recommendations to ensure quick application processing times
  • Resources available for NursingCAS applicants

Unable to attend at this time? Register to receive a copy of the webinar recording.

NursingCAS Demo Webinar on April 8

Are you, or any members of your team, new to NursingCAS? Register now to attend AACN’s NursingCAS Overview: A Demonstration of the Student Application and Admissions Management Portal webinar on Monday, April 8, at 2:00 p.m. ET for an overview of AACN’s Nursing Centralized Application Service. Prospective and current NursingCAS users are encouraged to attend!

Join Us at experience: LIAISON | Anaheim

Registration for experience: LIAISON | Anaheim is now open! This immersive two-day experience will elevate your approach to admissions, enrollment, and student success. Presented by Liaison International, this event will take place from June 10–11, 2024. Registration is $495/person, and group pricing is available when purchasing four conference registrations. Please consult the event’s help center for additional information.

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 in NursingCAS only. Program submissions are FREE and due on the Friday prior to publication. However, 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:

  1. 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.
  2. Deadline Extensions: Use this section to share announcements about deadline extensions for your NursingCAS programs. You can share information about the program, the new deadline, and any requirements that might have changed (if applicable).
  3. New Programs: Use this section to highlight any new programs that have joined/launched in the Application Portal since the last newsletter.

We recommend including contact information for representatives or links to your website/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 can be student information sessions, virtual fairs, open houses, and other recruitment events that can help your institution engage 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.

Creating a Test Student Account

AACN recommends that all NursingCAS school users create a test applicant account. This allows schools to explore the applicant experience of the NursingCAS platform and your institution’s presence within it. Creating a test account allows users to view peer programs and collect ideas for future efficiencies. The test account also can be used to provide workshops to help students understand how to complete the application. Utilizing a test account enables schools to easily view all the NursingCAS application questions asked of students. Please ensure that everyone on your team creates a test student account by following these guidelines: 

  • Visit the NursingCAS landing page
  • Click the “Create an Account” button
  • Follow the account creation instructions (Note: your name should have the word “test” in it – ex. TestJoe or TestSmith)
  • Make sure to use your personal email account, not your school email account
  • Add your specific programs (and any other benchmarks) to your shopping cart
  • Progress through the application just as a student would, and make note of ways in which you can brand/personalize your school’s page, help streamline the application process for candidates, better describe program requirements, and otherwise enhance your school’s NursingCAS profile

Analytics by Liaison

Analytics by Liaison provides data-driven insights to help programs spot trends and shape their class. The platform is provided by AACN to NursingCAS member schools at no charge. The dashboard gives schools a secure and robust way to explore multi-year applicant and application data using visual representations, making it a complete solution for admission offices looking to optimize their efforts for growing or shaping their classes. Through this Tableau-based dashboard, schools can easily visualize applicant numbers, race, ethnicity, age, and geographic diversity of applicants in a year-over-year visualization.  For more information, visit the Analytics Help Center.

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 for testing or training purposes. For example, you can submit test applications and run sample exports. 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. This deployment 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.

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.comTraining is also available via webinars, on-demand courses, and the Liaison Academy. Please visit the WebAdMIT Help Center for further information.

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

 


 BY THE NUMBERS

2022 – 2023 NursingCAS Cycle Overview

The 2022 – 2023 NursingCAS cycle closed on January 31, 2024. Please see the graphic below for a helpful overview of our final numbers. AACN looks forward to the 2023 – 2024 cycle being another success and appreciates working with you to promote the nursing profession!

 

 


 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.

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.

Configuration Portal – Sorting Now Available When Bulk Editing

When making bulk edits to programs in the Configuration Portal, column headers now feature sort icons. This allows you to more easily find the programs you are looking for. With this enhancement, you can sort programs based on their:

  • Program Name
  • Term
  • WebAdMIT Name
  • Start Date
  • Deadline
  • Status
  • Date Updated

 

Line Breaks and Carriage Returns Now Honored in Long-Form Question Answers

When typing a response to an Essay, Personal Statement, or other long-form question, applicants can use a line break or carriage return to create a new paragraph of text. With this enhancement, WebAdMIT now honors these line breaks and carriage returns, so they are displayed properly when viewed on the Applicant Details Page and the full application PDF.

 


If you have any questions, please contact the NursingCAS Team at nursingcas@aacnnursing.org.