School-level feature — managed within your school portal at
yourschool.deandesk.com.How admissions works in DeanDesk
The admissions process has three parts:- Configuration — Admins set up requirements in the Onboarding Policy Manager (registration rules, required forms, fees, statuses, and reviewer permissions).
- Application — Applicants sign up at your school’s portal and work through a step-by-step dashboard to complete all requirements and submit their application.
- Review — Your admissions team reviews submitted applications in the Admissions Queue, updates statuses, and approves or rejects applicants.
Configure admissions with the Onboarding Policy Manager
The Onboarding Policy Manager is located at Admin Dashboard → Onboarding Policy Manager. It contains five tabs that control your entire admissions flow.Tab 1: Registration Settings
This tab controls who can apply, what information is required, and how applications are processed.Tab 2: Required Forms
This is where you attach forms to your admissions process. Forms are created in the Form Manager page and then selected here in the Onboarding Policy Manager.1
Create your forms in the Form Manager
Go to Admin Dashboard → Form Manager and create the forms you need (e.g. “Parent Questionnaire”, “Health & Emergency Contact”, “Student Essay”). Each form can include multiple question types: multiple choice, short answer, long answer, and file upload.
2
Assign forms in the Onboarding Policy Manager
Go to Admin Dashboard → Onboarding Policy Manager → Required Forms tab. You will see three form categories:
- Required Forms (Adult) — Forms that adult applicants must complete before submitting.
- Optional Forms — Forms shown to applicants but not required for submission.
- Child Application Forms — Forms that must be completed for each child application (when parent-child enrollment is enabled).
Tab 3: Application Statuses
Application statuses define the stages of your review pipeline. DeanDesk includes four locked system statuses:
You can create custom intermediate statuses to match your school’s workflow (e.g. “Interview Scheduled”, “Waitlisted”, “Scholarship Review”). For each status you can configure:
- Title and description
- Color for visual identification in the queue
- Email template that is automatically sent to the applicant when their status changes (supports placeholders:
{{firstName}},{{lastName}},{{email}},{{statusTitle}},{{statusDescription}})
Tab 4: Permissions & Committees
Control who on your team can access and manage applications.1
Set the Admissions Head
Select a user to serve as the admissions head. This person has full oversight of the pipeline.
2
Add Full Process Teachers (optional)
Select teachers who should have visibility into all applications at every stage.
3
Assign teachers to stages (optional)
For each custom status (e.g. “Interview Scheduled”), assign specific teachers. Those teachers will only see applications that are currently in their assigned stage.
Tab 5: Application Rollout
This tab is for schools migrating from the legacy admissions mode to the cycle-based admissions system. The cycle-based system supports multiple admissions rounds, application tracks, and per-track requirement overrides. See Admission Cycles below for details.Application fees
You can require applicants to pay fees before submitting their application. Fees are configured in the Onboarding Policy Manager under Registration Settings.1
Enable application fees
Toggle on application fees and configure one or more fee line items. For each fee, set a name, amount, and description. You can also enable fees separately for child applications.
2
Mark fees as waivable (optional)
If a fee is marked as waivable, applicants can request a fee waiver during the application process. Waiver requests appear in the admin queue for approval or rejection.
3
Connect Stripe
Application fees are processed through Stripe. Make sure your Stripe account is connected under Admin Dashboard → Stripe Configuration before enabling fees.
Fee waivers are managed at Admin Dashboard → Admissions. When a waiver is approved, the applicant’s fee requirement is marked as resolved and they can proceed with submission.
Preview pricing with the Review Simulator
The Review Simulator (in the Finance area of the Admin Dashboard) previews the application Review & Submit order summary for any user — without creating a test application. Pick an applicant, a family member, a tuition product, and a price plan, and the simulator shows exactly the order summary and discount behavior that applicant would see at review time.Apply Now flow
Visitors can begin an application before they have an account. Clicking Apply Now on your school’s public site does the following:- The visitor selects a cycle and (if applicable) a track first.
- DeanDesk prompts them to log in or sign up. Their cycle/track choice is preserved across the auth flow.
- After signing in, they land directly inside the application workspace for the cycle/track they chose — no need to navigate back.
The applicant experience
Applicants access your school’s portal (e.g.yourschool.deandesk.com), create an account, and are presented with the Application Workspace — a guided, single-screen view of their entire application with a stepper, progress bar, status chips, and a requirements summary.
The workspace shows every step the policy requires, the current status of each, and back/next/submit controls along the bottom. The steps shown depend on the policies you configured in the Onboarding Policy Manager.
Onboarding steps
The applicant dashboard walks applicants through the following steps (each step only appears if the corresponding policy is enabled):1
Complete profile
The applicant fills out their personal information. If Require Full Profile is enabled, all profile fields must be completed. If Require Profile Picture is enabled, a photo must be uploaded.
2
Register children (if enabled)
If Parents Enroll Children is enabled, the parent creates one or more child applications. For each child, they provide the child’s name, date of birth, emergency contact, medical information, and complete any child-specific forms configured in the Onboarding Policy Manager.
3
Complete required forms
The applicant fills out all required forms and any optional forms they choose to complete. A progress indicator shows how many forms are done.
4
Add payment method (if required)
If Require Payment Setup is enabled, the applicant adds a credit or debit card via Stripe.
5
Select program enrollment (if required)
If Require Program Enrollment is enabled, the applicant selects the tuition or program products they are enrolling in. Payment can be collected now or deferred, depending on your policy settings.
6
Pay application fees (if enabled)
If application fees are configured, the applicant pays the required fees or submits a fee waiver request (for waivable fees).
7
Accept terms and submit
If the application’s cycle or track has Terms & Conditions configured, the applicant sees them on a dedicated review step. They must check the box accepting the terms before the Submit button is enabled. Once submitted, the status changes from Draft to Under Review and your admissions team is notified.
Applicants can move past the program selection step without picking a program at that moment. Where a program selection is required, it is still enforced at review and submission — the applicant just isn’t blocked from exploring the rest of the application first.
Single-page application layout
By default, applicants move through the application one step at a time. If you prefer a single scrollable form, enable Make Application Single Page in the Onboarding Policy Manager under Registration Settings. A summary line in the settings shows the current layout — Single scrollable page or Step-by-step. When single-page mode is enabled:- All application steps render as sections on one scrollable page.
- The sidebar checklist becomes a table of contents — clicking an item scrolls to that section instead of navigating to a separate step.
- Per-step save buttons disappear. Profile answers auto-save shortly after the applicant stops typing, with a saving/saved indicator so applicants know their work is captured.
- Review & Submit remains its own page, reached from a single call to action at the bottom of the application (or from the checklist).
Post-submission donation prompt
After an applicant submits, you can have DeanDesk show a Post-Submission Donation Prompt screen that surfaces your active donation campaigns. This is an opt-in nudge for new families who have just completed signup and may be motivated to support your school.1
Create or pick a donation product
In Finance → Products, create one or more donation campaigns you want to surface. See Products for donation campaign settings.
2
Enable the prompt
In the school configuration, enable the post-submission donation prompt and select which donation campaign(s) to show.
3
Applicants see the prompt
After submitting their application or a major form, applicants are shown the prompt with a quick-donate flow. Skipping the prompt is always an option.
Application Process Preview
Admins can preview the entire applicant flow without signing up as a test applicant. From the Onboarding Policy Manager, click Preview Application Process to walk through every step exactly as an applicant would see it — including the steps the current policy adds for adults, children, and any selected track.The Admissions Queue
The Admissions Queue is where your team reviews and manages submitted applications. Go to Admin Dashboard → Admissions.Viewing applications
The queue displays all applications with:- Applicant name and contact information
- Current status (color-coded to match your configured statuses)
- Submission date
- Assigned reviewer
- Fee payment status
Reviewing an application
1
Open the application
Click an applicant’s name to open their application details.
2
Review submitted information
View the applicant’s profile, all completed form submissions, child applications (if applicable), program selections, and fee payment status.
3
Leave a review note
Add internal notes with your assessment. Notes are timestamped and attributed to the reviewer. If you are a stage-assigned teacher, you can also include a recommended status (e.g. recommend approval).
4
Assign to a reviewer (optional)
Assign the application to a specific team member for review. You can also set a default assignee for incoming applications.
5
Update the status
Change the application status from the status dropdown. If the status has an email template configured, the applicant is notified automatically. You can add a custom message and file attachments to the notification email.
Approving an applicant
When you set an application’s status to Approved:- The applicant receives the acceptance notification (if an email template is configured for the Approved status).
- For child applications, admins can convert the child record into a full student account, which creates a new user with the
studentrole. - The student can then be enrolled in courses either manually through User Management or automatically if program enrollment was completed during the application process.
At schools where only children enroll, approved adults receive the Accepted Parent role instead of the Student role. See The Accepted Parent role below.
Admission Cycles
For schools that run multiple admissions rounds, DeanDesk supports a cycle-based admissions system. This is an advanced feature that builds on top of the standard onboarding flow.What cycles and tracks are
- Admission Cycle — A single admissions round with its own open/close dates, policies, and statuses (e.g. “Fall 2026 Admissions”, “Spring 2026 Early Enrollment”).
- Application Track — A pathway within a cycle with its own requirements, forms, and fees (e.g. “Elementary K-2”, “Online Certificate Program”, “In-Person Bootcamp”). Tracks let you customize the admissions experience for different applicant groups within the same cycle.
Creating a cycle
1
Create a new cycle
Go to Admin Dashboard → Admissions → Cycles and click New Cycle. Set the cycle name, open and close dates, and optionally link it to an academic year or term.
2
Configure cycle statuses (optional)
Each cycle can have its own set of application statuses, or it can inherit the school-wide statuses you configured in the Onboarding Policy Manager.
3
Set as active
Mark the cycle as the active cycle so that new applicants are directed to it.
Creating tracks within a cycle
1
Open the cycle
Navigate to the cycle you created and go to Tracks.
2
Add a track
Create a track with a name, description, and audience type (
adult, child, family, or mixed). You can link the track to specific programs, courses, or products.3
Override requirements (optional)
Each track can override the school-wide onboarding policies. For example, a track can require different forms, charge different fees, or use a different status workflow than the school default. Track overrides cover both required forms and optional forms — so you can show a track-specific optional form (e.g. “Volunteer Interest Survey”) without making it a hard requirement.
How cycle-based applications work for applicants
In cycle-based mode, applicants see a dashboard that lists all their applications. They can start a new application by selecting a cycle and optionally a track. Each application has its own set of requirements (based on the track’s overrides or the school defaults) and progresses independently through the review pipeline.Parent and child applications
When Parents Enroll Children is enabled in the Onboarding Policy Manager, the admissions flow supports a two-layer application structure:- Parent application — The parent completes their own profile, forms, and fees.
- Child applications — The parent creates one or more child applications within their own application. Each child has their own name, date of birth, medical information, and dedicated set of forms (configured as Child Application Forms in the Onboarding Policy Manager).
student role, linked to the parent.
If Require Child Registration is enabled, the parent must register and submit at least one child application before they can submit their own application.
The Accepted Parent role
At schools where Parents Enroll Children is on and Allow Adult Enrollment is off — that is, only children actually enroll — an adult approved through admissions receives the Accepted Parent role (together with Parent and Member) instead of the Student role. Accepted Parents keep the same access they had before: they can reach everything a student-gated area allowed. The difference is that they are no longer labeled as students and don’t receive student resources. The Accepted Parent role appears everywhere roles are selectable, including:- Role editing in User Management
- Email recipient role lists
- The Approve Applicant dialog (as a checkbox)
- Bulk user creation
- Page visibility settings
Parents adding more children later
Parents are not limited to the children they register during their initial application. They can add additional children at any time from two places in their portal:- Profile → Family tab — the Add Child button creates a new child application directly from the family view.
- Profile → Program Enrollment — parents can pick a family member (themselves or a child) and run them through program selection + checkout in a single flow.
Cycle-based application review
In addition to the standard review tools described in the Admissions Queue section above, cycle-based admissions have a few extras:Filter by track
The queue and the Email Applicants dialog can be filtered by track, not just by status. Status counts are shown both per-track and across all tracks so you can see at a glance where each cohort is in the pipeline.Private review notes
For each cycle-based application, reviewers can leave a private review note (up to 4,000 characters) and optionally include a recommended status — either Rejected or the immediate next stage in the workflow. Notes are visible to all reviewers on the application but never to the applicant.1
Open an application
From the Admissions Queue, open the application you’re reviewing.
2
Add a review note
In the Review notes panel, type your assessment. Optionally pick a recommended status from the dropdown.
3
Save
Save the note. It’s added to the application’s note history with your name and timestamp.
Admissions-only schools
If your institution is using DeanDesk for admissions only — without the LMS, gradebook, or course tools — your school is provisioned in Admissions Suite mode. In this mode, the Admissions Setup workflow walks an admin through everything needed to launch:1
Stripe setup
Decide whether the school will collect payments. Pick Accepts payments (connect Stripe) or No payments (skip the Stripe wiring entirely).
2
Application system
Pick the cycle and track structure that matches your admissions process. The wizard creates the initial cycle and tracks for you.
3
School branding
Upload your logo, set your colors, and configure your school’s public landing page — all without leaving the wizard.
4
Program Setup Wizard
Walk through a guided builder that configures your application requirements, forms, fees, statuses, and reviewer permissions for the cycle you just created.
In Admissions Suite mode, new signups default to the applicant role rather than student or member. LMS, courses, and gradebook are hidden from the school portal.