We are thrilled to announce the relaunch of our platform for the new application cycle, now with exciting new user interfaces for both counselors and students, designed to enhance your experience and productivity. In this article, we focus on what's on the student window, how to use it, and where to find it.
What is the student window?
What is the student window?
Upon clicking on a student's name, or any of the pages unique to their account, you'll find yourself looking through a brightly colored rectangle, we call this the student window.
The student window serves to distinctly highlight to the counselor that they have now entered a view of the platform that is unique to the student, and no longer at the permission level of a counselor or an admin.
Counselor can follow these steps to enter into students window: Go to the Students tab, search for the student and click on the student name. This action will direct you to the student's home page, where you can access and explore their information.
Navigating the Menu
After entering the student's view, the counselor will find various navigation options such as Home, Universities, bookmarks, applications, and cDocs on the left side of the window. If the counselor wants to switch from the student's view, they can conveniently use the "Exit View" option located at the top left corner.
By utilizing the left and right arrows, the counselor can modify the student profile, while the search button in between allows them to look for another student.
At the right hand corner of the page counselor gets two options Notes and To dos list. To-dos, list provides a bunch of features to the students like Tasks, Assessments, Meetings, Visits, and surveys. Let us discuss in short how each of these features works on Cialfo platform.
Counselors can create a new notes by clicking on "Create Note" Button. Notes created by counselors are automatically viewable to the creator and any staff who are assigned to that student.
As counselors, you can assign tasks for your students - whether you need them to start thinking about the courses they'd like to take, to listing down their top 5 schools and even having them do their Personal Statements!
3. Assessments:
Here, Counselor can view the assessments and check the status of assessment assigned to the student. you can also reassign with the "Reassign" tab under Action.
4. Meeting:
To schedule a meeting with a student, Go to "Meetings" from the right navigation menu> click on "Schedule Meeting" in the top right hand corner. The student's calendar will show with available time slots. You will then be able to choose a time slot to meet by click on the calendar.
5. Survey:
Within the Surveys page, counselor can view the progress of the survey assigned to the student and can view their response by clicking on survey title.
Home page :
At the top of the page, there is a search bar for finding students, universities, content, and careers. Below the search bar, two cards are displayed. The first card shows the student's name and profile strength progress bar. Clicking on "Complete Profile" allows the counselor to access the student's Profile page and make necessary updates. The card also shows the number of universities in the Applying, Shortlist, Longlist, and Applied categories.
The second card is labeled as "My University Roadmap". This feature supports students throughout their entire journey on the platform, providing clear guidance and eliminating uncertainties. Students can confidently explore and utilize all available features and resources. Clicking on the "view" option on the My University Roadmap card reveals three categories: Profile, Discover, and Apply.
Student Home page contain various different sections like Personalized recommendation, Suggested careers, Events, Trending videos, Guides to studying abroad, and Latest articles.
Personalized recommendation: Cialfo will provide university recommendations based on the responses provided by the student in University preferences.
Suggested careers: This will help student discover an extensive collection of Careers, encompassing options that align well with the skills and interests of your students.
Events: All the upcoming events will be visible here.
Trending videos: Here, you can find a curated collection of videos that cover a wide range of topics, including academic advice, career exploration, professional development, and more.
Guides to studying abroad: This section will help student in obtaining an overview of studying in a specific country by providing information on various topics like Admission requirements, Scholarships, Accommodation, Visa requirements and so on.
Latest Articles: You have the opportunity to explore numerous articles on various subjects including career, education, and more. These articles provide valuable insights, guidance, and information to help you navigate your career path and make informed decisions about your education.
Universities
To commence your research on various colleges and universities, navigate to the "Universities" tab. To improve the search process for universities, we have super search feature on the university search page. Simply draft a sentence explaining your university requirements, and click on "Search." This will automatically apply the requirement filter on the page and provide you with a list of universities that meet your criteria.
You can also manually apply different filters that allows you to filter a range of universities based on criteria you define. In order to add university to your longlist, shortlist and applying list click on "Add to list" button and select the required option. In order to stay updated on upcoming events, deadline changes, essay prompts etc. of a university you can connect with the university through "Connect" button.
Adding university to Applying , Longlist and shortlist
Sage
Upon clicking on a university name, users can now explore a wealth of information about the university itself, as well as nearby attractions such as shopping and dining options, through Sage.
This feature is also accessible for the Direct Apply program, providing insights into the program, job-related details, and other pertinent information. Notably, Sage now enables users to ask questions in any language, facilitating a more inclusive and user-friendly experience. All you need to do is click on "Sage " button present on university page and Ask a question. In addition, you have the opportunity to delve further into a specific university by exploring various tabs available on the university data page. These tabs include Profile, Admissions, Courses, Student Life, and Student Data. Each tab provides valuable information to help you learn more about the university's background, admission requirements, academic programs, campus life, and relevant student statistics.
Bookmarks
From dream universities to safety universities, Bookmarks is the place for students to organize their longlist, shortlist, and applying list, so they can have meaningful conversations with their families and counselors and start planning their applications with greater confidence. Students can conveniently add universities to their list by utilizing the '+ Add' button, which allows for direct inclusion without any hassle.
You have the option to apply various filters based on likelihood status and the country of the university. This enables you to easily filter out the universities for which the student has submitted applications.
Application
The counselor has the ability to view ,edit , change the portal and delete the applications displayed on this page. The applications are categorized into two sections: "In progress" and "Submitted". These applications are further organized under their respective portal names which are displayed at the top. To streamline the process, there is a convenient filter option available for counselors to sort applications based on their status, such as Deadline approaching filter, submitted, pending action, and missing information. Additionally, there is a separate filter specifically for "Direct apply".
Deadline approaching filter: The filter will be displayed when there is at least one application with a deadline occurring within the next 14 days.
Direct Apply filter: The filter will only be visible if there is at least one Direct Apply or UK-DA application.
Submitted filter: The filter will only be visible if there is at least one application that has been submitted.
Pending action filter: The filter will appear only when there is at least one DA application in either the "pending info" or "pending decision" status.
Missing info filter: The filter will appear only if there is at least one submitted application that is lacking tagging details.
Download applications list: The counselor has the ability to download the application list as a CSV/Excel sheet using the "Download" option.
Request LOR: By clicking on the "Request LOR" button, the counselor will be directed to the student's recommendation page. There, they can view whether the student has made a request for a Letter of Recommendation (LOR) and check the status of the LOR request.
University Application card in detail
We recommend that counselors complete as much information as possible on each application to ensure that all other connected features like cDocs, Reports, and Scattergrams should be properly populated.
In all applications, the following data points are available:
Course or Major: Course or Major can be changed by the dropdown just below the university name, this Indicates the specific course or major the student is applying for.
Round: Indicates the application round (EA, RD, Spring Transfer, etc.), if applicable.
Deadline: Auto-generated based on the selected round, but can be manually changed later.
Application Portal: Identifies the method of application submission (Direct Apply, Common App, Other, etc.). You can change the portal by clicking on the three dot on the top- right corner of the card and click on "Change Portal". The user can use the "Mark as Submitted" button to indicate that the application is sent.
Test Submitted : The test scores (ACT, SAT, IELTS, TOEFL, BMAT and LNAT)submitted for the particular application should be selected from the "Test Submitted" dropdown. This Indicates whether a test was submitted with the application or if none were submitted (for test-optional colleges).
Scholarship: Indicates whether the student is applying for a scholarship and, if awarded, the quantity of the scholarship.
Result: Indicates the result of the application once received.
Notes: Provides a field for counselors to add information about the application, including any additional application portals or other relevant details. The notes are visible to students, while private notes are for counselors only.
Flags: Allows counselors to track specific characteristics of student applications through application flags. These flags are visible only to counselors and can be selected from a drop-down menu of preset options. Custom flags can be created in the Account - Configure section if needed, and multiple flags can be added per application if necessary.
cDocs:
Documents
You have the ability to conveniently handle all documents directly from the student's document manager. To access the documents tab, go to cDocs> click on the 'Documents' button located beside the Submission tab button. This feature allows for seamless management of documents.The document checklist below provides a summary view of all documents at a student level. The ‘blue’ checkmark indicates that the item has been completed/uploaded.
Submission
After ensuring that all your documents are prepared and uploaded, you can simply click on the "send" button to complete the process. To make things even more convenient and time-saving, we have included a "Send all" button for those who have already completed all the necessary document preparations.
Sending Documents:
We offer four methods for sending applications and documents:
Common App - Cialfo Integration: In order to send documents through common app make sure the student has linked their Common App with Cialfo. Send documents when your students are applying through the Common App.
Parchment: Send documents as supplements to your student's applications for universities and institutions that use Parchment.
Direct Apply: Send documents for students who are using Cialfo's Direct Apply feature to submit their applications.
Mail: Mark documents as "sent" when you have sent them outside of Cialfo.
Note : You need to send the document using the method accepted by the university or institution. Even a single document sent through a particular portal (Common app, Parchment, Direct apply or Mail)will not allow you to change the portal to apply for that university.