The incoming program type is primarily used by institutions to collect information about incoming exchange students. Its primary characteristic is that the programs can be restricted to only allow applicants that have identified themselves with a specific partner institution(s). It is also designed to be cyclical and involves publicly marketing the programs to potential applicants. It is commonly involved in exchange balances.
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The location associated with an incoming program will be the city where the institution is located, since foreign students will be coming from abroad to the home campus.
Incoming programs will appear in the public program catalog and applicants will choose an application cycle when beginning an application. Only external applicants will be permitted to start an incoming application. Programs of this type can be configured to allow any external user to apply or could restrict applicants to those from pre-specified partner institutions.
The location associated with an incoming program will be the city where the institution is located, since foreign students will be coming from abroad to the home campus.
Incoming programs will appear in the public program catalog and applicants will choose an application cycle when beginning an application. Only external applicants will be permitted to start an incoming application. Programs of this type can be configured to allow any external user to apply or could restrict applicants to those from pre-specified partner institutions.
Steps to Implement Incoming Programs (see below for a more detailed process):
1) Enable Incoming Programs by marking this category active under Program > Program Types.
2) Click Program > Create New and fill in the relevant information, selecting Incoming as the Program Type, and checking the box next to 'Non- TDU applicants only'
3) Next, indicate whether the applicants must be from a designated partner institution or if no home institution is required
4) Input the relevant information on the Terms, Dates, Brochure, Parameter, Location, and Itineraries tabs
5) Create and deploy any needed process elements for your Incoming program
6) After checking that all is correct, mark the program 'Active' on the General tab in the program builder
| Program Type Name | Incoming |
| Default Name | Incoming |
| Can accept internal applicants | No |
| Can accept external applicants | Yes |
| Can ask external applicants for home institution | No |
| Can require external applicants be from partner institution | Yes |
| Deadlines visible on public pages | Yes |
| Deadline shown to applicants | Yes |
| Applicants can add itinerary records | No |
| Applicants can edit itinerary records | No |
| Applicants can delete itinerary records | No |
| Active programs found through program searches | Yes |
| Can have exchange option | Yes |
| Requires location(s) to be assigned | Yes |
| Can have program itinerary records | Yes |
| Can have testimonials | No |
| Can have ratings-reviews | Yes |
| Can be linked to / published to Study Abroad Directory | No |
| Can have foreign courses | Yes |
| Can enable the alumni phase | Yes |
| Can enable journals | Yes |
| Has a public brochure page | Yes |
| Can have budget sheets | Yes |
| Can have contacts | Yes |
| Can have recommendations | Yes |
| Applicants can receive reminder emails | Yes |
| Can be used with advising | No |
| Deploys decision letters | Yes |
| Accepted applications have commitment panel | Yes |
| Applicants see and select application cycle | Yes |
| Decision dates are displayed on public pages | Yes |
| Applications can be ranked on applicant home page | No |
| OneStep form can be used | No |
| Programs can be saved to user profiles | Yes |
| Programs can be shared via social sharing options | Yes |
| Can have program-specific announcements | Yes |
Implementing Incoming Programs to Existing Site
If you have been using Terra Dotta software to process outgoing applications, and you wish to implement the incoming application functionality of Terra Dotta software for processing incoming international applicants, this can be done by completing the following activities:
1. Add Partner InstitutionsThe first step is to create the list of partner institutions in Settings > Partner Institutions. This is the list of all the international institutions from which your office accepts international applicants. You only need to create the name for these locations - no further information is required.
2. Create process elements and applicant parameters
Your incoming applicants will have a different set of materials and questionnaires assigned to them than your outgoing applicants. Create those process elements in Process > Materials/Questionnaires. Be sure to update your application cycle process maps so that these process elements are included in the current application cycles.
Incoming applicants will also need to have applicants parameters either assigned to them (if they are the same fields as the ones you use for the outgoing applicants), or created for them (if they are not fields that are pre-existing for the outgoing applicants)
3. Create programs
Incoming programs are created in a similar manner to the outgoing programs, but when you create a program that accepts applications for incoming applicants, you must select the partner institutions from which the programs will accept incoming applicants. You may have only one program for all international applicants applying - in which case, all the partner institutions will be selected for a single program. However, if you have different programs at your institution for international applicants and those programs have different application requirements, you can create multiple incoming programs to handle this.
4. Turn 'incoming programs' on
This is done on the Programs > Program Types page. Click the checkbox to activate the 'Incoming' program type. You may also want to click the edit pencil and adjust the custom name of the type to better suit the public facing interfaces.
5. Utilizing exchange programs
If your institution conducts bilateral exchanges, you can flag your outgoing and incoming programs as having an 'exchange' option. Programs flagged for exchange allow the applicants to be marked as participating in exchanges, and they can be implemented in the exchange balances built in the Applicants > Exchange Balances tool. This tool can be used to track numbers of participants/units of exchange between outgoing participants and incoming participants.