Holly S How to S: Review, Accept, & Excite!

Holly’s How To’s: Review, Accept, & Excite!

Tis the Season to be…Accepting students to your team! Once students have completed their essays & application, it’s time to look over their info & go ahead and accept them if you want them to be on your team. The quicker you accept, the more time they have to start fundraising over the holidays & get serious about committing to your team!

Here’s a quick refresher course on how to use BearsAbroad to review your potential applicants, accept new team members, & excite them about joining your mission team!

#1: Reviewing Applications (Who’s finished What?)

Want to know who’s applied for your trip? Be able to see their applications and not have to search for new students every time someone new adds?

FIRST, create a Saved Query! (you should only have to do this once!)

Once you have logged into the site: https://bearsabroad.baylor.edu, the first screen that you see after you log in is called “Admin Home” (If this does not come up automatically, click the little house icon in the top left corner). Admin Home will serve as a hub of your searches, queries, and reports (if you do not have an Admin option, contact Holly to edit your settings!)

Creating Searches & Queries (aka Magic Lists!):

To search and save your list of students for the upcoming term, you will need to follow the steps listed below.

1. On the black toolbar, you will choose Applicants> ADVANCED search

2. Under New Query Wizard, Select to Search by Application Parameters and click NEXT.

3. The following Sections will need you to make a selection, others can be left alone:

 Application Cycles : Select the term of your trip (make sure to double check the year!)

 Application Status: Check PENDING/ACCEPTED/COMMITTED

 Program: Select your team! Everything should start with the following:-BUMissions; BUMDomestic, BUMOrgs, or BUMLHSON 4. click SEARCH the…TA DA!! A magical list of all the students who’ve started applying for your trip!

Make sure to SAVE SEARCH AS: (ie. 2017 Country + Team ALL Applications) and click SAVE SEARCH.

NOW, from your Admin Home, you’ll able to access this list any time you like AND it will keep updating itself as new students apply!

From this list, you can: send emails to everyone, create reports, look at group & individual applications, and so much more!

#2: Run Reports to see Who’s finished What?

From your Admin Home, go to the saved query you have for seeing your 2017 applicants. Don’t’ have a saved query? See #1 above.

Once you open the list, you should see all of the students who have started applications for your team but it wont show you what they’ve actually finished in this list.

From this list, find the white drop down menu right above the roster for Progress Audit & select “Pre-Decision”

Now, you’ll see a list of materials & questionnaires to choose from (select all that are available for your team). For your selection process, students need to complete all signature docs and the application & essay to be considered fully. Click “next” to see results!

On this page, you should see the list of applicants & boxes checked off. If both boxes are checked off, they are ready to be reviewed by you. If not, you might want to send an email to the student & follow up on their progress. (if you check next to their name, there’s the option to send them an email there!)

#3: Seeing an application & essay answers for INDIVIDUAL student:

From the progress audit, or by just searching for a student by name, Click on the students name to go to their profile Find the tab labeled “Questionnaires: If a document is complete, it will have a submitted date next to it. Click on the document to view. #4: Reviewing Applications IN BULK:

From your Admin Home, go to the saved query you have for seeing your 2017 applicants. Don’t’ have a saved query? See #1 above.

Once you open the list, you should see all of the students who have started applications for your team (however much or little they have finished…)

From this list, find the drop down menu for OPTIONS & select “Create Report”

Next, Scroll down until you see a section called “Questionnaires & Questions” BUMissions: DOMESTIC Application BUMissions: DOMESTIC Essays BUMissions: INTERNATIONAL Application BUMissions: INTERNATIONAL Essay Questions BUMissions: LHSON Missions Application BUMissions: Student Org Missions Application (International Teams) BUMOrgs: AED extra questions BUMOrgs: AMSA DOMESTIC Mission Trip Application BUMOrgs: AMSA Mission Trip Application BUMOrgs: KKG Only Questions BUMOrgs: MAPS ONLY questions Select whichever of the above apply to what you want to see

Click “next” to see results!

*if you’d rather see it in Excel, check off the following boxes right above NEXT “Export as Excel” AND “Export Essay Content” before clicking next (i find it hard to read essays that way though)

*Baylor Missions will run these reports for you after the due date for your review. If you’d like earlier versions of it, use the process above or email Holly_Tate and she’ll send you a copy 

Accepting Your Newest Team Members:

Within 2 weeks of the deadline (if not earlier) : you can send Jennifer_Crosslin your accepted/rejected/waitlist and she’ll update it in the system for you 

You are responsible for communicating with your students about their acceptance to the team. If you want to email those who are rejected, that is a nice gesture if they completed the application. If they did not finish the application, they will just get an automated email from Bearsabroad updating their status. Exciting Your Students About Missions

Once you have accepted a student, YOU need to email the student and inform them of their acceptance ASAP. In addition to congratulating them on their acceptance, use that email as an opportunity to encourage the student to start fundraising and remind them of the deadline for their first payment! (refer to www.baylor.edu/missions/deadlines for dates and there are to-do lists for students to keep them organized from here on out available on that site!

Keep in mind, the student may be considering multiple trips…or still debating on going on the trip at all, so you are still recruiting them for your team. Keep encouraging, providing them more information about the trip to get excited about, and remain in contact with the student leading up to deadlines. Some helpful resources to provide students can be found on the Missions website such as www.baylor.edu/missions/supportraising

If you need help writing acceptance emails, Holly_Tate has samples you can borrow!

Need Help or Troubleshooting? Contact [email protected] , ext. 3827