The CommonAppSuspects Source Format contains information about people who have added your institution to their My Colleges tab in Common App.

The CommonAppProspects Source Format contains information about people who have added your institution to their My Colleges tab in Common App and provided start term and admission plan information.

Common Questions

Do we need Suspects?

Many institutions decide not to activate the CommonAppSuspects import. Remember, this file only contains information about students who added your institution to the My Colleges tab. They did not provide any information beyond that activity.

Do we receive the Common App Suspects and Prospects from the Common Application?

The Common App only sends the suspect and prospect data files for schools with a custom platform. If you have a standard platform, these files are not available. If files are not being received for your institution, follow up with the Common App Member Services team to see if these files are available to you via the Common App SDS process or change your platform.

Remap the Common App Suspects & Prospects File

1. Select Database on the top navigation bar and select Source Formats.

2. Find the CommonAppProspects and Common AppSuspects Format and select Remap to confirm destinations and to set up additional data mappings for this Source Format.

Step 1: Fields

The Fields stage allows you to tell Slate where to store the incoming CommonApp data in a Slate record:

Pre-Mapped Destinations

Technolutions has pre-mapped many of the data points sent by the Common Application. You can edit any of these pre-mapped items if your business process requires non-standard mappings (except Common App ID, as mentioned below.)

Only map items that will be used regularly for query-based business processes. Resist the urge to map everything! Remember that Slate will retain the raw Common App source files for future use if necessary. Only map items that will be used in Slate or further in the student’s lifecycle. For example, will you really report on Step-Parent Institution #6? 

Comma separated values

If commas delimit a source value, a delimiter must be specified in the field mapping. If not set, the comma-separated values will appear as a single prompt value. For example, if “Biology, Chemistry” appears as a prompt value for Program of Interest, setting the comma as a delimiter will update the display to “Biology” and “Chemistry” as unique values in the Value Mappings section.

Before value mapping, go back to Setup Fields and add the delimiter. This will update the Value Mappings page.

Step 2: Value Mappings

Many institutions opt to not map any additional fields in this file since the supplement is also sent as a PDF. If you do decide to map this file, follow these simple guidelines:

• Do not alter the Common App ID destinations. This field should only be mapped
  to Student Record: Slate External ID.

• Do not map application Round information for this file. This file does not include
  application data.

• Do not map applicant data. This was already mapped in the CommonApp Source Format.

Append Values

The Common App data catalog provides all possible prompt values for all prompt-based fields. To ensure that all possible prompt values will be imported as expected, the Append Values section should be used to create value mappings for prompt values that have yet to appear on a source file delivered to your instance.

For example, if you know one of your member questions has ten possible prompts, and only two are displayed in the Value Mappings section, this is your reminder to use Append Values.

To use this section, click “Append Values” on the bottom right of a field mapping, then add all possible prompt values (one per line). Upon clicking save, you will see all possible values available for mapping. All values added must match exactly with the CommonApp values. Also, make sure there are no trailing spaces.

Phone Numbers

While phone number information has been pre-mapped to fields on the student record, some institutions may wish to remove those mappings and choose to map to Device destinations instead.

If you do wish to set the phone types, remove the existing field destinations for these items and map these Device destinations instead:

Then, on the Value Mappings page, pick the following values for the Preferred phone values:

Pick the following values for the Alternate phone available values:

Phone numbers come into Slate with normal priority by default. You can change the priority for phone numbers by setting static values:

Citizenship Status

Be sure to preserve the pre-mapped fields and values for Citizenship Status data:

Citizenship List

Permanent Resident

Parents, Counselors, and Teachers

The CommonAppSuspects and CommonAppProspects files contain data for potential applicants and for parents, counselors, and teachers. To import these records but exclude them from your Slate communication plans, you can set the Opt Out tag when they are imported:

When you map your value destinations, you can set the Opt Out tag for people who are not applicants planning to enroll in the next 12 months. This prevents these records from receiving future communications:

If you would like to exclude these records entirely, you can set the Skip import value when the file is imported:

When you map your value destinations, you can set the Skip import value for people who are not applicants planning to enroll in the next 12 months:

Step 3: Static Mappings

Decide what Person Status you want to assign to your records.

For example, some institutions think of Common Application Suspects as Prospects in Slate since these people have only added your institution to their My Colleges tab. Others think of these records as Inquiries in Slate. It is your choice.

By default, all records will be brought in as Prospects. If you would like to bring in records as Inquiries, you can map a Static Value.

Step 4: Reviewing in the Test Environment

When you are satisfied with your CommonApp mappings, request a refresh of your Test environment and activate the CommonApp source format in that environment by setting “Remap Active” to Active. If you need to make any tweaks, make those changes in Production, and then refresh your test environment and try again. If everything imported as expected, activate the source format in Production.

Step 5: Retroactive Refresh

You can update the field mappings and value mappings at any time. Anytime changes are made or mappings are added, use the Retroactive Refresh stage to update previously-imported data.

Select the specific field and specific source files that should be imported for your previously uploaded records.

Watch for groups. If you need to refresh records with data that is grouped (such as schools, relationships, or activities), select all the items in the group.

Finally, select Retroactive Refresh at the bottom of the page.