Dates and itineraries play key roles in how operations occur in Terra Dotta Study Abroad. This article serves as a quick reference tool for administrators on the following:

Application Deadline

What is the application deadline?

The final day on which the software will allow a potential applicant to apply to a program.
Applicants are expected to have completed their existing applications by the application deadline. After this deadline has passed, the application page will be locked. Applicants will only be allowed to view the application, but they won't be able to take action on any incomplete requirements.
This date is not used to determine what phase an application is in (i.e. pre or post decision).
This date does not affect a recommender's ability to submit a recommendation.
The deadline is defined as until 11:59 PM local time of the site setting on the assigned date. If my deadline is March 2, then applicants have until 11:59 PM on March 2 to complete the program application.
Example:
- The program Study in Canada accepts applications for the Fall and Spring Terms. The Fall 2023 deadline is March 2, 2023.
- Nina Mustang starts an application for the Fall 2023 term for the Study in Canada program on December 1, 2022. She will be able to access the application and submit requirements until 11:59 PM on March 2.
- On March 3 (12:00 AM), Nina will no longer be able to submit requirements for this application. In addition, other potential applicants will no longer be able to apply to the Study in Canada program for Fall 2023 as of March 3.

How is a deadline assigned?

When you create an app cycle in App Cycle Management, you are required to assign a deadline to that app cycle. This is the deadline date that populates by default in the "Dates" tab in Program Wizard for the app cycle.
A program-specific deadline can be assigned in the "Dates" tab in Program Wizard. This is often referred to as a program-level "override" because it takes precedence over the default deadline used for the app cycle.
This means my Spring Term 2023 app cycle can have a deadline date of November 1, 2022. I can override this deadline date at the program level specifically for my Study in Canada program by setting the deadline date to October 15, 2022.

Decision Date

What is the decision date?

Primary Function: the date which determines if an accepted application is in the pre-decision phase or post-decision phase.
The first date on which the applicant will be permitted to learn if they have been accepted/rejected/waitlisted.
- If a decision is made prior to the decision date, then the applicant will continue to see their pre-decision application with a status of "Pending" until the decision date has been reached.
- If a decision is made after the decision date, then this is considered to be "rolling admission". In this case, the applicant will be immediately notified of the status change and allowed access to their post-decision application if accepted.
The first date on which an accepted/committed applicant will be allowed into the post-decision phase of the application.
This date does not affect whether or not an applicant can apply/continue applying to a program in a given app cycle.
A scheduled task runs nightly to check for any accepted/committed/rejected/waitlisted applications that have reached the decision date. These applicants are notified via email that there has been a status change on their application and directs them to go to the site to learn what the decision has been. The Contact 1 email address is sent a report listing of all the applicants that were sent this notification.
For applications without itineraries, the system looks at the decision date for the purpose of the SIS Refresh and considers the application "active" until the decision date is reached. If the SIS Mapped Parameter Data Refresh has been enabled, then this refresh "window" will begin after the decision date has passed.
Example:
- Marine Martin has applied to the Study in Berlin program for the Spring 2023 app cycle. The program has a decision date of November 1, 2022.
- On October 31, 2022, a staff member changes Marine's application to the status of "Accepted". Marine does not receive any notification of this status change at this time.
- Marine continues to see the status of her application as "Pending" through October 31, 2022. On November 1, 2022, the site sends an automated email to Marine Martine notifying her that there has been a status change on the application and that she needs to go to the site to learn what it has been.
- When Marine navigates to her application home page, the application is displayed as "Decision Reached". When Marine clicks on the application, she is shown the acceptance decision letter and is prompted to click "Continue". This navigates her to the application page, and the application is now in post-decision phase. Marine sees all of the post-decision requirements added to her application.

How is a decision date assigned?

When you create an app cycle in App Cycle Management, you are required to assign a decision date to that app cycle. This is the decision date that populates by default in the "Dates" tab in Program Wizard for the app cycle.
A program-specific decision date can be assigned in the "Dates" tab in Program Wizard. This is often referred to as a program-level "override" because it takes precedence over the default decision date used for the app cycle.
This means my Spring Term 2023 app cycle can have a decision date of November 1, 2022. I can override this decision date at the program level specifically for my Study in Berlin program by setting the decision date to October 15, 2022.

Date Record

What is the date record?

This refers to the application deadline and decision dates assigned to a specific app cycle in App Cycle Management.

Program Date Record

What is the program date record?

This refers to the application deadline, decision date, start date, and end date assigned to a specific program for a specific app cycle from the "Dates" tab in Program Wizard.
This program-level date record takes precedence over the deadline and decision dates used at the app cycle level.
If there is not an assigned program date record, then the system uses the date record (i.e. deadline and decision dates) at the app cycle level.

Itinerary Record

What is an itinerary record?

A schedule of planned travel.
It determines when an applicant begins actively participating in a program (i.e. start date), when they've completed participation in a program (i.e. end date), and where the applicant is during the start and end dates (i.e. location). Itineraries also play a role in ensuring applicant information is updated in the SIS Refresh.
An itinerary record always consists of a start date and end date. Depending on the type of itinerary record, a location may or may not be required.
Itinerary records are specific to an app cycle.
There are two types of itinerary records in Terra Dotta Study Abroad: program itinerary record and application itinerary record.

Program Itinerary Record

What is a program itinerary record?

This consists of an assigned location for a program along with a start and an end date for this program. These dates are entered for an app cycle in the "Dates" tab of Program Wizard.
The program itinerary record is used as the template from which application itinerary records are created when an applicant applies to a program that uses program itineraries.
It is possible to create a program without itinerary dates (i.e. start date and end date). Best practice is to use itinerary dates from as early as possible.
When a program itinerary record is modified directly in Program Wizard, these changes are automatically cascaded to existing applications.
There are some program types that do not use program itineraries.

Application Itinerary Record

What is an application itinerary record?

This consists of the start dates and end dates for an application.
An application itinerary is automatically created when an application is created.
If a program has a program itinerary record for an app cycle and an application is created for that app cycle, then an application itinerary will be created from the program itinerary record. In this way, the program itinerary record serves as a template from which the application itinerary record is created.
If a program does not have a program itinerary record for an app cycle and an application is created for that app cycle, then a blank application itinerary record will be created.
Admins can view, add, and edit application itineraries for an application from the "More Application Actions" menu in Application Admin Manager.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is a "location-less" itinerary?

An itinerary record that has start and end dates but no location is known as a location-less itinerary.

2. Do I need to have itinerary dates entered before I open my app cycle to start accepting applications?

It is not required, but the recommended best practice is to enter start and end dates for a program as soon as possible. Many features in Terra Dotta rely on application itinerary records, such as the SIS Refresh and AlertTraveler®.

3. For program types that don't use program locations, what information should I be populating in the "Dates" tab in Program Wizard?

Managing dates in the "Dates" tab for program types, like Risk Management and Travel Registration, would be ensuring you use the desired deadline and decision dates. There would be no functional reason to enter a location, start, and end date in this tab since itineraries are submitted by the applicant.

4. What program types do not use program itineraries?

The following program types do not use program itineraries:

Risk Management and Travel Registration

These program types don't use program locations and don't have any program-level start and end dates.
When a user creates an application for either of these program types, an application itinerary is created.

Scholarship and Program Enrollment

If a date record exists with start and end dates when the application is created, then a location-less application itinerary will be created using the start and end dates provided.
If no date record exists - or a date record exists with no start and end dates, then no application itinerary will be created when the application is created.

Incident Report

This program type does not use a program itinerary or an application itinerary.
There are no program-level start and end dates for this program type.
When an application is created, no application itinerary is created. A user can create an application itinerary for each application individually.

5. If an application has a location-less itinerary and a change is pushed out from Program Wizard, does this change replace the location-less itinerary with the on that has a location?

No. A second itinerary would be created, and the application would now have two itineraries.

6. My applicants have completed their pre-decision phase requirements, and their application status has been changed to "Accepted" (or an alias of "Accepted"). Why isn't the Commit Panel appearing on their application?

This is likely occurring because the decision date is in the future, either at the app cycle level or program level. If you wish for applicants to have access to the Commit Panel or post-decision materials, you will need to change the decision date to a date in the past.

7. How do rolling admissions work with dates in the software?

When an application cycle has an application deadline that occurs after the decision date, then that application cycle is labeled as a "rolling admission" app cycle. When this happens, the functionality of the application deadline and decision dates are not changed, but they are configured in a way that provides the accepted/committed applicants with access to the post-decision phase prior to the application deadline. The applicants are "rolled" into the post-decision phase even though there may be other applicants who are still in the pre-decision phase for that app cycle.

Note that even though an app cycle is listed as having "rolling admission", the decision date is still the deciding factor for whether or not an accepted/committed application is in the pre-decision or post-decision phase.

Example:

The program Study in Brazil has a Fall 2022 app cycle with an application deadline of May 15, 2022 and a decision date of March 1, 2022.

Ralph Fox applied to the program on March 2, 2022, and he was accepted into the program that day. He was notified of the status change via an automated email. When he navigated to his applicant home page, Ralph saw the application display the notice of "Decision Reached". When Ralph clicked on his application, he was shown the acceptance decision letter and prompted to click "Continue". From his application page, Ralph was now in the post-decision phase and could see all the post-decision requirements added to the application even though the application deadline of the app cycle is still in the future.

Related to

The Knowledgebase

Study Abroad: Dates and Itineraries