Admissions Processes
Purpose: Use this document to complete admissions processes in ctcLink.
Audience: Admissions & Enrollment Services staff
Admissions staff should be familiar with the unique processing requirements for special student populations—such as Basic Education for Adults (BEdA), College in the High School (CiHS), Department of Corrections (DOC), International, and Running Start students—to ensure their applications are handled accurately and consistently. Always refer to the most current SBCTC guidance documents when processing these populations.
Tasks
- Running Search/Match before creating any application.
- Ensuring no duplicate EMPLIDs are created.
Key Activities
Tasks
- Accessing the Application Entry page and beginning a new application.
- Entering core application identifiers and institution details.
- The system automatically populates the Application Number field with 00000000. Do not modify this value. A unique, incremental number will be assigned after the application is saved.
- The system defaults this field to NEW.
- If the person does not already exist in ctcLink, do not change “NEW.” A unique ID will be assigned automatically when the application is saved.
- If the person does exist in ctcLink, replace NEW with their ctcLink EMPLID.
- Remove hidden spaces when pasting EMPLIDs
- Manually typed EMPLIDs → double-check accuracy
- Identify correct Academic Career (CE → Academic, etc.)
Key Activities
Address Rules for Special Populations
Citizenship & Visa Requirements
In compliance with state policy, best practices, and the guidance provided by the Washington State Attorney General’s Office on data collection, SBCTC has discontinued the collection of citizenship and visa information in OAAP. This change aligns with the requirements of the Keep Washington Working Act.
Before manually entering citizenship or visa data in ctcLink, colleges should evaluate whether retaining this information is truly necessary. For example, in some cases visa information may still be required because SBCTC Data Services’ Mass Assign job populates the SINT student group for students with specific visa types, as outlined in the SBCTC Student Course and Coding Manual.
For ctcLink SEVIS batch processing citizenship and visa requirements, refer to the SEVIS Bio/Demo processing QRGs.
Admit Types For Special Populations
Program Requirements for Special Populations
Plan Requirements for Special Populations
Enter External ID for Special Populations
Tasks
- Matriculating applicants into students.
- Ensuring effective dating for enrollment eligibility--before the term start date.
Key Activities
Tasks
- Assigning residency is required for tuition and term activation.
- Reviewing documentation and applying tuition exceptions.
Key Activities
Tasks
- Activating students for registration.
- Reviewing whether batch activation already occurred.
- If batch term activation has already run, manually activate the student.
Tasks
- Identifying when Student Groups must be manually assigned for paper or staff-entered admissions applications.
- Reviewing which Student Groups would have been assigned automatically through Online Admissions (OAA) Supplemental Questions.
- Manually assigning the correct Student Group codes to ensure accurate reporting and downstream processing.
- Referencing the SBCTC standard coding documentation for appropriate Student Group usage.
Key Activities
Tasks
- Entering external credential information tied to an institution.
- Associating degrees with the correct transcript source row.
- Entering test scores on the Test Results page in ctcLink.
Key Activities
You are done. Great job!
