GOapply for Third Party Responses is a series of features that capture external responses, namely, letters of recommendation and transcripts.
form editor and pre-defined panels
Two key functions of GOapply for Third Party Responses are its transcript and recommendation form editors and pre-defined dynamic panels.
The form editors live in the Phase: Transcript Form Editor and Recommendation Form Editor.
The pre-defined panels live in the main Application Form Editor, in the toolbox, and are named Recommendation and Transcript.
We will look more closely at these elements later in this document.
Create the Forms
The best place to start is creating the Transcript and Recommendation forms. Navigate to the Phase, choose the Form Editor tab, then open the Transcript Form Editor.
GOmanager will launch a blank form. Drop in the fields and create the form like you would go GOapply Applications. Then Save the form. Repeat this process for the Recommendation Form Editor.
You may note that the heading of the Transcript and Recommendation form editors says Phase: Transcript/Recommendation. This is to denote the form that you are working on, it does not signify that a new phase of the application has been created.
Transcript and Recommendation Form Definitions
Back in the main Phase form, there are two fields: Transcript Form Definition and Recommendation Form Definition. Once each form is created and saved, these form definitions will populate.
Pre-Defined Dynamic Panels
In the Application Form Editor, drop in the Transcript and Recommendation panels. Give each panel a name and, optionally, a description.
Important: these panels are pre-mapped. The information collected from them will be mapped to an entity called GOapply Third Party Responses that will be available in the Related tab of the main Status Tracking Record. Responder information will also be stored in an entity called Third Party Responses.
Submit the Phase
The scholarship applicant will then fill out the dynamic panels and submit the phase.
Upon clicking Submit, an email will go out to external responders inviting them to upload their transcripts or letters. These emails are being sent through our code and can be altered to your liking via the email templates GOapply Recommendation Request and GOapply Transcript Request. Below is an example of what the third parties might see in their inbox.
In the time between the applicant’s phase submission and the external responder’s submission, the status tracking record will be in Status = Waiting for External Reply and the Request’s Special Request Status will be set to “awaiting third party reply”. Once all external replies are submitted, the status will change to Submitted.
A new record will be created for each third-party response. Note that while the external party has their form open, the Current Status field will read as In Progress. Once they submit their form, that field will flip to Completed. This record can be accessed from the main status tracking record, from a tab called Third Party Responses, or in the Third Party Responses entity.
Upload Requested Materials
Next, the external responders will submit their forms and upload any requested materials. Please note that these uploads will move to a new folder in the SharePoint location of the Request. This folder will be created upon submission of the form by the third party.
Entity: Third Party responses
In the GOapply workspace, there is an entity called Third Party Responses where you can see each third-party response that has been submitted or is still pending.
In a Third-Party Response record, you’ll find:
- the third-party name and email
- the current status
- Sent: email request sent
- In Progress: form opened but not submitted
- Complete: documents uploaded and submitted), the PDF of their responses
- External Form Response: the PDF of their responses to the form
- Submitted File: the file that the third party uploaded (if applicable)
- Relationship: for recommendation requests
- School: for transcript requests
- Response Type: Transcript or Recommendation
- Request: a lookup to the corresponding request record
- GOapply Status Tracking: a lookup to the corresponding status tracking record
- GOapply User: the scholarship applicant
Third-party responses in request
Another area where you can find the third-party response records is in the GOapply Tab of the corresponding Request. At the bottom of the page, there is a subgrid called GOapply Third Party Responses that will display the response records.
attachments
When external parties submit materials, those documents will move to the Documents tab on Request. They will also live in the Status Tracking Attachments of the Status Tracking record. Please note that the form submission PDFs and the attachments they submitted will live here.
Name = Name of the field in the Form Editor. Value = name of external party’s attachment or submission PDF.
Each attachment and submission has a corresponding record.
On the Scholarship tab of Request, there is a section for Transcripts and References. A future enhancement will include functionality to move the third-party information and documents here automatically.
notifications of submission
While waiting for third-party responders to submit their forms, the GOapply Status Tracking Record will read "Waiting for third party reply" and the submission will appear in their Submissions dashboard with the status Pending.
The applicant will receive an email each time a responder submits their form and another to confirm their application submission once all third-party responders have completed their forms. For example, if the application requires a transcript and three letters of recommendation, then the applicant will receive five emails – one for the transcripts, three for the letters, and one submission confirmation. The status tracking record will also change to Submitted.
Resend Third party requests
Applicants have the option to resend requests to their transcript or letter of recommendation providers. If, for example, the request got lost in their inbox, or if the applicant accidentally entered their email address wrong, they can change it and resend it.
In the applicant’s submitted dashboard, under their main submission, they will see a grid listing the third parties that requests were sent to for that application. They can choose to Resend Email or Edit.
Resend Email will send the request to the email address in the grid.
Edit will open the form and the applicant will be able to change any information except for the request type.
Important: Once they click Update Request, the request will be resent to the third party.
flows
A flow exists on the GOapply Status Tracking record to send the applicant a reminder that the application deadline is approaching. From the Status Tracking record, click Flows and choose GOapply Send Individual Applicant Reminder Email. This will generate an email to the applicant with the application name and due date.
Third-Party Response activities are stored in the GOapply logs. From the Activities Entity, choose GOapply Logs in the activity type.