The CommonAppSuspects Source Format contains information about people who have added your institution to their My Colleges tab in Common App.
The CommonAppProspects Source Format contains information about people who have added your institution to their My Colleges tab in Common App and provided start term and admission plan information.
Common Questions
Do we need Suspects?Many institutions decide not to activate the CommonAppSuspects import. Remember, this file only contains information about students who added your institution to the My Colleges tab. They did not provide any information beyond that activity.
Do we receive the Common App Suspects and Prospects from the Common Application?The Common App only sends the suspect and prospect data files for schools with a custom platform. If you have a standard platform, these files are not available. If files are not being received for your institution, follow-up with the Common App Member Services team to see if these files are available to you via the Common App SDS process, or change your platform.
- Select Database on the top navigation bar and select Source Formats.
- Find the CommonAppProspects and Common AppSuspects Format and select Remap to confirm destinations and to set up additional data mappings for this Source Format.
Best Practice
Decide what Person Status you want to assign to your records.
For example, some institutions think of Common Application Suspects as Prospects in Slate since these people have only added your institution to their My Colleges tab. Others think of these records as Inquiries in Slate. It is your choice.
By default, all records will be brought in as Prospects. If you would like to bring in records as Inquiries, then you may map a Static Value.
The Fields stage allows you to tell Slate where to store the incoming CommonApp data within a Slate record:
| Configurations | Description |
|---|---|
| Source Field | On the left side of the page is the data that was included in the CommonApp file. Slate also displays a sample value for each data point (if one is available). |
| Destinations | On the right side of the page is the Slate field (or fields) that will eventually contain the source value. Select a data row to choose a destination field or to edit a destination field for a data point. |
Not seeing any fields?
Confirm with the Common Application that your institution uses Slate. If files were not delivered, this step cannot be completed.
Background field
The Background field is comma-delimited in the data feed, so be sure to set this delimiter!
If your institution does not need to bring in the racial sub-categories, then mapping just the Hispanic Latino field and the Background field is sufficient.
If your institution needs to map more detailed racial information, this is supported. The race-specific background fields (such as Hawaiian background) are also comma-delimited.
Comma separated values
If a source value is delimited by commas and a delimiter has not been set, comma separated values will display as items to map to Slate values.
Before value mapping, go back to Setup Fields and add the delimiter. This will update the Value Mappings page.
Pre-Mapped Destinations
Technolutions has pre-mapped many of the data points sent by the Common Application. You may edit any of these pre-mapped items if you have a business process that requires non-standard mappings.
Only map items that will be used regularly for query-based business processes. Resist the urge to map everything!
Important
Do Not Alter CommonApp ID Destinations!
Do not edit the Common App ID destination. Other pre-mapped destinations may be edited.
For CommonAppProspects, CommonAppSuspects, and CommonApp source formats, the CommonApp ID source field will be mapped to the person-scoped Slate External ID only.
CommonAppRecommendations, CommonAppPayment, CommonAppWriting, and CommonAppCourses should not have the Common App ID source field mapped at all.
Many institutions opt to not map any additional fields in this file since the supplement is also sent as a PDF. If you do decide to map this file, follow these simple guidelines:
- Do not alter the Common App ID destinations. This field should only be mapped
to Student Record: Slate External ID. - Do not map application Round information for this file. This file does not include
application data. - Do not map applicant data. This was already mapped in the CommonApp Source Format.
Append Values
Sometimes a complete list of values that need to be mapped for a destination field may not be displayed (Be sure to access the CommonApp data catalog to determine the proper format for any values you might append. It is critical that any appended values exactly match the Common App value in the data catalog). For example, one of your Common App questions may look like this:
Since the values pre-populated on the Value Mappings page are the distinct values that appear in the CommonApp files uploaded so far, you may only see a subset of the possible options.
Select Append Values to add the missing source values to finalize mappings. Add missing values (one per line) and then complete the value mappings in Slate. Any values added must match exactly with the CommonApp values. Also make sure there are no trailing spaces.
Don’t want to search the data catalog for just the missing values? Append all values and Slate will only add the appended values for those not already available.
Phone Numbers
While phone number information has been pre-mapped to fields on the student record, some institutions may wish to remove those mappings and choose to map to Device destinations instead.
If you do wish to set the phone types, remove the existing field destinations for these items and map these Device destinations instead:
| Source Value | Device Destination | Groups |
|---|---|---|
| Preferred phone | Device: Device : Type | This item should have Group=1 |
| Preferred phone number | Device: Device: Value | This item should have Group=1 |
| Alternate phone available | Device #2 Device: Type | This item should have Group=2 |
| Alternate phone number | Device #2 Device: Value | This item should have Group=2 |
Then, on the Value Mappings screen, pick the following values for the Preferred phone values:
| Source Value | Device Destination |
|---|---|
| Home | Primary Phone |
| Mobile | Mobile Phone |
Pick the following values for the Alternate phone available values:
| Source Value | Device Destination |
|---|---|
| Home | Primary Phone |
| Mobile | Mobile Phone |
| No other telephone | |
Important
It is not necessary to map No other telephone.Phone numbers come into Slate with normal priority by default. You may change the priority for phone numbers by setting static values:
| Destination | Value | Group |
|---|---|---|
| Device Device-Priority | High Priority | This item should have Group=1 |
| Device #2 Device-Priority | Mobile Phone | This item should have Group=2 |
Citizenship Status
Be sure to preserve the pre-mapped fields and values for Citizenship Status data:
Citizenship List
| Source Value | Destination Value |
|---|---|
| Other (Non-US) | |
| U.S. Citizen or U.S. National | United States |
| U.S. Dual Citizen | United States |
| U.S. Permanent Resident | |
| U.S. Refugee or Asylee |
Important
Leave the following values unmapped:
- Other (Non-US)
- U.S. Permanent Resident
- U.S. Refugee or Asylee
Non-U.S. citizenship will be derived from your Citizenship mappings.
Permanent Resident
| Source Value | Destination Value |
|---|---|
| Other (Non-US) | |
| U.S. Citizen or U.S. National | |
| U.S. Dual Citizen | |
| U.S. Permanent Resident | Yes |
| U.S. Refugee or Asylee |
Important
Leave the following values unmapped:
- Other (Non-US)
- U.S. Citizen or U.S. National
- U.S. Dual Citizen
Non-U.S. citizenship will be derived from your Citizenship mappings.
Parents, Counselors, and Teachers
The CommonAppSuspects and CommonAppProspects files contain data for potential applicants as well as for parents, counselors, and teachers. To import these records but exclude them from your Slate communication plans, you may set the Opt Out tag when they are imported:
| Source Value | Destination |
|---|---|
| Plan to enroll=Applicant planning... | Tags Tag: Opt Out |
When you map your value destinations, you may set the Opt Out tag for people who are not applicants planning to enroll within the next 12 months. This prevents these records from receiving future communications:
| Source Value | Destination Value |
|---|---|
| Applicant planning to enroll within the next 12 months | |
| Teacher | Set |
| Counselor | Set |
| Parent | Set |
| Other Student | Set |
If you would like to exclude these records entirely, you may set the Skip import value when the file is imported:
| Source Value | Destination |
|---|---|
| Plan to enroll=Applicant planning... | System Custom: Skip Import |
When you map your value destinations, you may set the Skip import value for people who are not applicants planning to enroll within the next 12 months:
| Source Value | Destination Value |
|---|---|
| Applicant planning to enroll within the next 12 months | Do not skip import |
| Teacher | Skip import |
| Counselor | Skip import |
| Parent | Skip import |
| Other Student | Skip import |
Important
Selecting Skip import for non-applicant records prevents these records from being created in Slate.
Decide what Person Status you want to assign to your records.
For example, some institutions think of Common Application Suspects as Prospects in Slate, since these people have only added your institution to their My Colleges tab. Others think of these records as Inquiries in Slate. It is your choice.
By default, all records will be brought in as Prospects. If you would like to bring in records as Inquiries, then you may map a Static Value.
When satisfied with the CommonApp mappings, launch (or refresh) a test instance and activate the CommonAppSuspects and/or Prospects source formats in that environment. If you need to make any modifications, make those changes in production, refresh the test environment and try again. If everything imports as expected, activate the source format in production.
You may revisit the Format Definitions for your import and map additional fields and values at any time. If you map new fields and values or alter existing field or value destinations once active, use the Retroactive Refresh stage to update previously imported data.