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Study Abroad: Applicant Parameters vs. Question Items for Data Collection

This article provides information about collecting applicant data with integrated applicant parameters versus question items.

Deciding where to store information inside Terra Dotta software is important to consider. Information about an applicant should be stored as an applicant parameter whereas information about an application may vary depending on the program or location. The UUUID, First Name, Last Name, Email, *Gender, and *DOB are considered core fields and are available after an applicant creates a profile in your Terra Dotta site.

Application Parameters

Applicant parameters are attributes regarding the applicant, not the application, meaning that this information is the same for that person even if they have several different applications in the system. Generally, applicant parameter values do not change very often and are located in the applicant’s profile. Here are a few examples of applicant parameters:

  • **Major 1

  • Major 2

  • Minor 1

  • Minor 2

  • **Class level (First Year, Sophomore, etc.)

  • Academic level (Bachelor's, Master's, etc.)

  • Expected graduation date

  • College of enrollment

  • Current credit hours

  • Name suffix

  • Preferred name

  • Student ID number

  • Academic advisor

  • Athletic sport

  • Country of citizenship

  • Visa status

  • Cumulative GPA

  • Veteran status

  • Student phone number

  • Department

  • Supervisor

  • Campus Phone

  • Major cumulative GPA

  • Transfer GPA

  • **Ethnicity

  • **Disability status

  • Financial hold

  • Academic hold

  • Pell Grant status

  • Campus Address

  • Emergency Contact

  • Permanent Address

  • Allergy Flag

 

 

Question Items

A question item is an individual question that will be available for use when creating questionnaires. Once all the question items have been created, putting a questionnaire together is just a matter of selecting the desired question items. Question items are found within questionnaires as part of an application. Here are a few examples of question items:

  • Passport Number

  • Passport Expiration Date

  • Passport Issue Date

  • Housing Preference

  • Health/Immunization

  • Flight Information


*DOB can be provided as core data or the next day as custom data (deferred fetch). Per the deferred fetch process, if DOB is provided in the custom data file, applicants will not be able to sign signature documents when they initially login. Instead they will need to wait until the next day, when DOB is provided.  

If DOB cannot be provided, there are a few alternatives when the passing of birth dates from SIS into the software is not an acceptable option:

  1. Provide a dummy date of birth for all applicants, using an improbable date in the past, such as Jan. 1, 1900. Use a conditional material submission to obtain a blanket approval from parents of applicants who are not of age to sign documents.

  2. Program special logic into the SIS data provisioning script such that anyone over 18 years old is given a dummy DOB (as in 1) and anyone under 18 is given an impossible future birth date, like 1/1/2050.

  3. Provide no DOB and use Terra Dotta’s feature to prompt for manual entry of date of birth as a required element, similar to the required Student Parameters feature.

Security and legal policies of your institution will dictate which approach is most suitable.
**These are common parameters used in Open Doors reporting in Study Abroad offices.