WAAVblog

By now, you should have all received an e-mail from us outlining our new alumni interviewing process.  We understand that this brings with it some small changes in the way that we have organized alumni interviews in the past.  Ultimately, we believe that this system should be much easier to use for everyone.  We ask for your patience and flexibility as we implement this new system.  There will be an opportunity at the end of this cycle to provide feedback about this system as we look forward to improving the experience for alumni volunteers moving forward.

What’s really great about this new system:

• No more WesNet login or password necessary – this was our number one problem with our old system
• The ability to control, for WAAV, when they do interviews on a timeline that is most convenient for them, as opposed to just responding to requests from students as they come
• Access to information about the student, such as what round they are applying (transfer, early decision, regular) and, later in the cycle, you will be able to quickly view a student’s admission decision

We hope that you will let us know when you have questions and we will do our best to assist you.  As you can imagine, with over 600 WAAV members across the globe, your questions are keeping us very busy!  We will post frequently asked questions to this blog as we receive them, so we ask, for the sake of our ability to give everyone the support they need in this process, that you first check the blog to see if your question is answered here.  If not, please feel free to let us know how we can help!

Thank you all for your energy and commitment to the admission effort.  We know that change often comes with challenges, and we are working to make sure that this is a positive and smooth experience for our prospective students and volunteers alike.

Below are step by step instructions on how to use your WAAV portal.  We would encourage you to read through these instructions carefully before calling or e-mailing us for help.  To see the images larger (and far more clearly!) just click on them.  We hope this will be helpful as you move through the rest of the interview cycle.

First, go to your WAAV portal via your secure link.  This link has been sent to you via e-mail, and will be sent to you also in our weekly reminder e-mails.  We highly encourage you to bookmark this link on your computer, smartphone, etc….wherever you might find yourself able to check your portal!  If you need your portal link, please let us know at waav@wesleyan.edu and we can resend it.

On this page you will see your name, currently location information we have on file for you (if this is not accurate, please let us know via e-mail ASAP!) and a list of students who have requested interviews.  These students have filled out a form via the Admission website saying that they wish to have an alumni interview.  The portal is set to display students who live within 50 miles of your location, although it is also limited to 15 students, so if you see students much closer to you than 50 miles only, then there are a number of outstanding requests in your area that are limiting your list.  This is generally only an issue in larger, metropolitan areas.

Quick tip: If you want the information on the screen to be bigger, so that you can see it better, click Control and + until it is the size you want it.  Control – will make it smaller.

To select a student, click on their name.  You will then see the box below pop up on your screen.  Next to “Round” will be information about whether or not the student is applying through Questbridge, Early Decision 1 or 2, Regular Decision, or Transfer.  If this is blank, the student is not yet an applicant.  This information will be helpful to you as the deadlines for early decision rounds arrive.

If you wish to claim this student, please click ‘Claim.” The student’s name will then move to your list of “My Interview Assignments” in your portal, as shown below.

The student will receive an automatically generated e-mail within 24 hours of your claim, with your contact information and instructions to be in touch to set up the interview.  You will be CCed on this e-mail as well.  You may reach out to the student on your own but there is no need to initially.  You can access their contact information by clicking on their name in your portal.

Once you have met with the student and completed the interview, click on their name under “My Interview Assignments” in your portal.  The window below will pop up.  Please click on “File Report”.  You will the navigate away from your portal.  Quick tip: if you want to be able to leave your portal open while filling out the evaluation form, please right click on the “File Report” link and the evaluation form will open in a new tab.  This may be helpful as you will need the student’s birthdate, full legal name, and e-mail to complete the form.

The interview evaluation form is shown below.  Please click the “This student did not show up for their interview/we were not able to successfully schedule an appointment” box for those students who never followed up on initial requests after trying to follow up with them, or didn’t show up for your appointment.  You will still need to fill out the lower portion of the form as well.

For more information about what we want in an interview evaluation, please go here: http://www.wesleyan.edu/admission/volunteers/interviewing.html.

It is critical that all of the information on the form be accurate, as that is how the evaluation is matched up with the student’s record in our system.  Failure to do so will cause you not to see the student’s evaluation as completed in your portal, and create duplicate records in our system.  Please take a couple of minutes to make sure that you have completed this part of the form accurately.

Once you complete and submit the form, you should receive confirmation that your form has been submitted.  The student’s status should change from “Pending” to “Completed.”  If it does not, then you have not filled out the form properly.  Please contact us at waav@wesleyan.edu if this occurs.

When the evaluation is completed, that’s it!

In response to feedback we have heard from WAAV, we have added the date the student made their alumni interview request to the portal.  That way, you will be able to see which students in your area have been waiting the longest, and hopefully be able to request those students first.

Here’s an example of what your portal should look like now:

In any area of your alumni portal, you can use the Control key and the “+” key to increase the size of the text until it is at a size that you would like it to be to read it properly.  Similarly, you can use Control and – to decrease the size of the text.  This should work on a Mac or a PC.

If you have submitted your evaluation form, but it says “pending” and not “completed” next to the student’s name, then your evaluation form was not filled out correctly.  You need the student’s birth date, e-mail address, and full legal name on the evaluation form.  This information will clearly show when you go to file your report, on the pop up window on your portal.  We recommend that you right-click on “File Report” so that the interview evaluation form will open up in a new window, and you can reference the necessary information while submitting your evaluation.

If you have submitted an evaluation and the record still says “pending” please try again with the correct information from your portal.  If you are still having any problems, e-mail waav@wesleyan.edu.

If you have been corresponding with the student and some time has passed without hearing from the student and you do not have an interview time set, we would encourage you to reach out one more time to ask the student if they still wish to have an interview.  If you still do not hear from them, please go into your portal, click on “File Report,” then check the box next to “This student did not show up for their interview/we were not able to successfully schedule an appointment.”  Then, fill out your name, the student’s name and birth date at the bottom, and click submit.  We will record it in our system.

Tags: alumni portal, faq

Every couple of weeks, we will be checking on those students who are unclaimed.  For those students in areas without any or sufficient WAAV, we will reach out to them about the possibility of scheduling a Skype interview.  For those who do have alumni available in those areas, we will reach out to WAAV to get those students claimed.  This is why it is very important to claim as many students up to your interview limit as you can, so that we can clear out the requests in a timely manner.  There will be more requests and we move through the semester, but we expect them to come more gradually.

This is the last time we are conducting our annual shredding of application materials, as Wesleyan admission will be going paperless for this upcoming admission cycle!  This is an exciting time in our office as we transition many of our processes in order to move in this direction.  We hope this will be an upgrade in the experience for the students who are applying to Wes.

Tags: paperless

When you claim a student, you will see their contact information.  You will also be CCed on an e-mail that goes to the student with your name and contact information, and they are encouraged to reach out to you to schedule the interview.  You may also reach out to them as well.  We recommend that you contact them if you have not heard from them after a reasonable amount of time.

Tags: alumni portal, faq

While you are welcome and encouraged to check your portal as often as possible, we will be sending out an e-mail reminder on a regular basis (at least every other week) to all WAAV letting them know that interviews are available to be claimed in their areas.  We may also be in touch more individually if there are unclaimed interviews so that as many of the students as possible who would like an alumni interview can have one!

Tags: alumni portal, faq