This is an old working copy that is no longer maintained. The official version of this document is located here: http://www.cs.uwaterloo.ca/cscf/decisions/ogsas/PhaseOne.shtml

On-line Graduate Student Admissions System (OGSAS)

Phase One Workflow and Design

Contents

Executive Summary

Objective

The purpose of OGSAS is to increase the speed and efficiency in the workflow of admitting graduate students to the School of Computer Science. This will be achieved by the development of web-based forms to replace the current paper forms. Where on-line forms are not practical, such as the case with diplomas and transcripts, scanning will be used to allow for on-line viewing and retrieval.

Scope

Phase One focuses on the work flow beginning at the point where the applicant begins the application process, to the point where a complete application is available electronically for retrieval. The internal workflow to evaluate applications is part of Phase Two.

Solution

Implementing the solution for this phase involves the following:

1. Make information collected by the OUAC for graduate student admissions available on-line.
2. Develop web-based versions of the Confidential Reference Form, and the Supplementary Reference Form.
3. Provide the ability for supporting paper documentation to be scanned for later retrieval.
4. A means of tracking, electronically, the state of the application through the SchoolÂ’s review process.

Assumptions and Constraints

• It is unknown if/how all data collected by OUAC is stored in UWÂ’s central systems.
• By Fall 2007, applicants will be able to specify a third research interest at the OUAC stage. We expect this will mostly eliminate the need for a Research Interests Form, as research interest details can instead be solicited by the Supplementary Information Form.
• We canÂ’t change the general OUAC application process.
• Not all data collected by OUAC is automatically transferred for import into OGSAS.
• There is no mechanism in place for a “seamless” applicant interface between Quest and OGSAS.
• The SCS Grad Student Filemaker database will be able to import relevant data on accepted applicants from OGSAS.

Core Design Elements

Roles

All users in the system will have one of more roles in the process. Roles are used to define views as well as access controls to the information in the database. In this phase, there are four roles:

• Admissions Coordinator
• Director of Admissions
• Referee
• Applicant

All users (with the exception of Referees) will be identified by their UWUserid, and authenticate using UWDir credentials. All authorization will be handled by a uwuserid-role relation in the database.

States

Every application will have a state in OGSAS to indicate an applicationÂ’s stage in the admissions process. The state of the application should be viewable by all users of the system. The states for this phase are:

• Undefined - The absence of a state. Applications in this state either pre-date this system or are so new that the system is about to change to “Hold”.
• Hold - The application is missing some information/documentation, preventing it from being reviewed or circulated.
• Initial Review - The application is ready for initial review, is being initially reviewed, by the Director of Admissions.

While the following states apply to the workflow Phase Two, they are included here to allow the Admissions Coordinator to track the internal paper workflow:

• Circulate - The application is being reviewed by faculty.
• Acceptance Pending - At least on faculty member has expressed interest.
• Initial Offer - An electronic tentative offer has been sent, waiting to see if the student is interested.
• Declined - An initial offer was made, but the applicant declined.
• Offer Accepted - The applicant has accepted our tentative offer.
• Acceptance Recommended - Details are finalized, student is interested, committed to make an official offer.
• Rejected - No faculty have expressed interest and/or minimum requirements were not met

Data Model

Workflow Summary

The table below summarizes the workflow of an application from the perspective of the Applicant, Admissions Coordinator, Referees, Director of Admissions, and the system itself.

Step in Workflow	Applicant	OGSAS Processing	Admissions Coordinator	Referee	Director of Admissions
Initial Application	Submit On-line Application to OUAC and pay fee	-	-	-	-
Submission of Supporting Documentation	Mail supporting paper documentation to the School	-	-	-	-
Quest Processing	Student receives e-mail invite to access Applicant Quest	E-mail extracts of GSO data are transformed and imported into OGSAS	-	-	-
OGSAS Invitation	-	OGSAS sends e-mail invitations to applicant and referees to complete web-forms	Investigate e-mail failures as required (with help from CSCF as needed)	-	-
Web Form Data Collection	Applicant completes on-line supplementary information form	-	-	Referees complete on-line reference form and forward a signed paper copy to the School	-
Paper Data Collection and Verification	-	-	Test Results are scanned. Data is verified. Checklist is completed.	-	-
Initial Review	-	-	-	-	Review the application
Application Generation	-	Generate Header Page and print complete application	Initiate print of application	-	-
State Tracking	-	-	Record state of the application (rejected, accepted, declined)	-	-
Export Data to FileMaker	-	Export data on accepted applicants to Grad Database	-	-	-

Workflow Details

Initial Application to OUAC

The on-line application starts with the applicant visiting a web site at http://horizon.ouac.on.ca/uw/grad. Note that this is run by OUAC, not directly by UW, although the appearance and questions are UW-customized. This site allows students to create an account and fill out numerous fields that become the electronic part of the application. The OUAC application includes:

Personal Information

• Title
• Legal last name
• Given names
• Preferred name
• Former last name(s) (max 2)
• Gender
• Date of Birth
• Marital Status
• Country of Citizenship
• Canadian Immigration Status
• First language
• Date of arrival into Canada (if applicable)
• Canadian Social Insurance Number

Contact Information

• Home Address
• Mailing Address
• Mailing Address Expiry Date
• E-mail addresses
• Business telephone + extension
• Fax number

Program Choices

• Department
• Program
• Areas of Specialization (max. 2)
• Expected Date of Enrollment
• Full-time or Part-time
• Thesis or Course Work
• Financial Support

Other Information

• Exchange Agreement
• How did you first learn about Waterloo
• Previously in a UW Program? (yes/no)
• Previously in a UW Program (year)
• UW Student ID
• Readmission? (Y/N)
• Awards/External Funding/Financial Support

Academic Background

For each institution:

• Type
• Start and end dates
• Name
• Location
• Degree
• Field of Study
• Date of (Expected) Graduation
• Self-declared Overall Average
• Language of Instruction
• URL
• Student ID Number

Professional Background

For each employer:

• Name of Employer
• Start and end dates
• Position Held
• Language of Business
• Address

Referees

For each referee:

• Title
• First Name
• Last Name
• Position Title
• Department
• Organization
• Telephone
• Fax
• E-mail address

Test Scores

• English Language Proficiency Test
• English Language Proficiency Score and Date
• Written English Score and Date
• Spoken English Score and Date
• GRE/GMAT
• Test Date
• Verbal Score
• Verbal Score (% below)
• Quantitative Score
• Quantitative Score (% below)
• Analytical Writing Assessment Score
• Analytical Writing Assessment Score (% below)
• GMAT Total
• GMAT Total (% below)
• Date, Subject, Score, and “% below” of up to three GRE tests

At the completion of this process, the student downloads and prints and signs the PDF form “University of Waterloo Graduate Application: Submission Summary” which becomes part of the printed application1. OUAC receives the application fee payment from the student, and within one week, forwards the information electronically to UW, where the data is processed and stored in the PeopleSoft student information system (aka Quest). The applicant is notified at this time that he/she can obtain UWDir credentials to login to Quest to view the status of their application.

Submission of Supporting Paper Documentation

The applicant forwards the following paper documentation directly to the School:

• University of Waterloo Graduate Application: Submission Summary, printed from OUAC site
• Official post-secondary transcripts (sealed)
• Permanent residency card (if applicable)
• Test Reports from TOEFL, TWE, GRE etc...

Data Importation into OGSAS

Extracts from Quest are e-mailed daily to a staff member’s e-mail account, then forwarded to a “system” e-mail account where the extracts are transformed into a format that can be loaded into the OGSAS database. All database tables in OGSAS containing imported data from Quest have names with prefix “gso_”. Note that while not all data captured in the OUAC process is included in the extracts, we expect that all data needed for decision making will be.

OGSAS Invitation

After a data import from Quest, OGSAS detects new applications by finding database entries that meet all of the following conditions:

1. The current decision is set to “APPL”
2. No status has been assigned.

When a new application is detected, OGSAS will populate the “reference” table with data from “gso_referee” to provide a way for referees to correct information, and will set the status of the application to “Hold”. It will then send the following e-mail:

• To the applicant confirming that his/her on-line application has been received by the School with request to complete the on-line form at the provided URL.
• To the referees requesting that they complete the confidential on-line reference form at the URL provided.
• To the admissions coordinator indicating that a new application has arrived. The e-mail will provide the UW Student Number, and OUAC ID along with the name and e-mail address of the applicant. Upon receipt of the e-mail, the Admissions Coordinator must check the paper “to be scanned” file to see if there is any paper documentation that needs to be scanned. Any errors in sending e-mails are returned to the Admissions Coordinator for further investigation.

Applicant Data Collection

When applicants click on the link provided in the e-mail invitation, they will be prompted for their UWDir credentials. Once successfully authenticated, they are presented with a screen showing the status of their application along with a link to click on to complete the necessary supplementary information. The supplementary information form will give them the option to save (to complete at a later time) and to submit, which tells the system that they are finished submitting the information. The form collects the following information:

• Description of the applicantÂ’s research interests
• ApplicantÂ’s C.V.
• Academic background (area, course, grade)
• GRE/TOEFL scores (if missing)
• Awards/Funding information (if missing)

Referee Data Collection

When referees click on the link provided in the e-mail invitation, they will be immediately presented with a web-based version of the Confidential Reference Form. The form will already have the applicant’s particulars (name, program, areas of study) filled in along with the contact information of the referee. In addition to answering questions on the form, the referee will be able to correct any personal contact information, cut-and-paste a letter of reference (text), and attach/upload a letter of reference. Referees will be able to save the data submitted and return to complete it at another time. When the referee clicks on “Submit”, the data is stored permanently and the referee is requested to print the submitted information (including attachments if applicable), sign it, and mail it to the School. Whenever a referee or applicant click “Submit” on a web form, e-mail is sent alerting the Admissions Coordinator to check the on-line application for completeness.

Although it won't be advertised, the CS grad office may choose to accept a non-electronic reference should an applicant make a good case for it.

Paper Data Collection and Verification

When the paper documentation for an application arrives, the Admissions Coordinator does the following:

1. Open all documents of application package, keeping all envelopes and making note of the OUAC ID.
2. Query OGSAS for the application, using the OUAC ID.
3. If the application doesn’t exist on OGSAS, file the paperwork in a “to be scanned” paper file and skip all steps below.
4. If the application does exist, check that the information on paper is consistent with information in OGSAS.
5. Gather all the test scores, and diplomas together, place in the scanner, and initiate a bulk scan, saving the documents to a folder named with the OUAC id.
6. Click on the “Attach documents to this application” button in OGSAS.
7. Update the Checklist web-form to indicate what paper documentation has been received/scanned.
8. File the paperwork and the envelopes.

The Admissions Coordinator will have the following checklist viewable on-line in OGSAS, with the ability to indicate either received/complete or missing/outstanding:

• Signed Application Summary
• ROL or IMM 1000 Card (if applicable)
• Transcripts (with original+envelopes in paper file)
• Diploma (with original+envelopes in paper file)
• TOEFL (if required)
• GRE (if required)
• On-line Reference Forms
• 3 signed reference forms/letters (signatures on all forms and letters, with envelopes in paper file)
• On-line Supplementary Information Form (includes research interests, statement of purpose, and resume/c.v.)

Generation of header sheet and application

The following events will prompt the Admissions Coordinator to check if an application is complete and ready to be printed for initial review:

• E-mail sent to the Admissions Co-ordinator indicating that an applicant or referee has submitted a web-form
• The Admissions Coordinator has finished scanning all required supporting documentation.

When the Admissions Coordinator is satisfied that the application is ready to be reviewed by the Director of Admissions, the status in OGSAS to is changed to Initial Review and the entire application is printed. When printing the application, OGSAS will generate a proper header sheet for the Director of AdmissionsÂ’ initial review. Note that printing is a temporary step and will not be necessary when Phase Two is completed.

State Tracking

Using a web interface, the Admissions Coordinator will be able to modify the state of the application using OGSAS as changes are communicated by the Director of Admissions.

Data Export

While the scope of this phase is limited to the generation of a paper application for review, it would be of great value to be able to have OGSAS populate the SCS Grad Student Database with data on accepted students. The data transfer would be implemented essentially as a scripted data import in Filemaker via ODBC.

-- JasonTestart - 03 Aug 2007