Of the many items displayed on the applicant status page, one of the most important to the applicant is their checklist. This section shows the applicant items they’ve submitted and those yet to be received. These items might include materials like transcripts or recommendations.

Depending on the application's related population, a checklist can grow rather quickly. Dividing the checklist into sections lets an applicant see their list in manageable categories. You might include specific checklist sections for areas like matriculation and scholarship-specific requirements. Any item outside the admissions checklist might have its own section.

For example, you might have an admitted, matriculated applicant being considered for a scholarship, and each of these categories (admitted, matriculated, considered for scholarship) exists in their own population. Belonging to this many populations could generate a lengthy checklist, potentially overwhelming the applicant. Dividing the checklist into sections lets you compartmentalize checklist items by categorizing them within different sections.

Custom Checklist Sections are available in Database → Portals. For more information on how to configure a custom status portal, refer to the Custom Applicant Status Portal article. Note that system generated checklist items, such as References, will always display in the admissions checklist section.

Applicant Experience

When a student visits their status page, they will dynamically see different sections. Your institution can define the criteria determining what an applicant will or will not see.

An applicant can visit their status page by visiting yourinstitution.edu/status. 

Without sections

Without sections in place, an applicant would see a checklist that looks like the example below:

With sections

In the example above, the Housing Agreement is an item that could potentially reside in a Matriculation section. In this case, it might make sense to display a checklist section that includes only matriculation items. In the following example, the checklist has been split to show matriculation items separate from admissions items. The checklist defaults to display the tab for Admissions checklist items upon initial load, but allows the user to select the Matriculation tab to instead display those items.

📝 Note

Checklist section tabs are dynamic. If an applicant does not have a checklist item for a particular section, the tab will not appear to the user even if the section has been included when configuring the checklist in Database → Portals.

Configuring a checklist section

1. Go to Database → Checklists.

2. Select Insert to add a new checklist item, or click to edit an existing item.

3. To create a new checklist section:

   • Section: Select Other as the section and enter the name of the section as it should appear externally (for example, Matriculation). This will be the name of the tab when the checklist section displays to the student on their status portal.

   • Subject: This is the name of the checklist item that will appear to the student on their status portal.

   For information regarding the other checklist settings, refer to the Checklist Item Settings article.

4. Once a section is created, that section is selectable for any future checklist items.

Configuring the status portal

Once you have created a custom checklist section, the section can be added to the status page by editing the corresponding portal.

1. Select Database from the main navigation.

2. Under Portals, select your existing Application Status Portal. (For information on how to configure a new custom status portal, refer to the Custom Applicant Status Portal article.)

3. Select the View where the checklist should be displayed.

4. Drag the Checklist By Section module onto the page and configure:

   1. Section Tabs Insert: Select from the list to specify the sections that appear within this widget.

   2. Section Tabs: Once selected, drag the items to reorder. This will determine the display order on the status page.

Other checklist portal widget settings:

• Name: This value is not visible to students, but is required administratively to save a portal widget.

• Checklist Instructions: These instructions appear for all sections.

• Honor Decision Hiding: Specify if the checklist widget should hide specific items until the relevant decision is released. Selecting Yes retains the default hiding behavior (typically used to prevent pending admission outcomes from being implied or spoiled before the decision has been finalized), whereas No displays the checklist regardless of the released status of any decisions on the record.

 💡 Tip

The Checklist by Section module can be used any number of times on the same portal view. If a particular custom section should show separately instead of within a tab, or if you prefer all sections to display simultaneously with no tabs, configure multiple Checklist by Section widgets on the portal—one for each section that you want to display independently. (Note that when taking this approach, the word “Checklist” is appended to the name of the section automatically when used as a heading, such that the “Matriculation” section becomes “Matriculation Checklist”.)