National Student Clearinghouse
National Clearinghouse
The AdmissionPros National Clearinghouse tool gives schools the ability to electronically communicate with the National Clearinghouse in order to proactively verify their applicant post-secondary school history. As of summer 2016, a minimum of 11 records on a file is required for the batch (import) process. This is a Clearinghouse requirement, not an AdmissionPros requirement.
The client must already be signed up with the Clearinghouse, and have both a Clearinghouse identifier and an official Clearinghouse school name. AP needs both to be defined in the following constant fields.
CLEARINGHOUSE_IDENTIFIER
CLEARINGHOUSE_SCHOOL_NAME
Both of these values can be found on an existing file a client has sent previously. Both are on the H1 line. Once you get the file, it will be obvious what they are. Format is H1{tab}CLEARINGHOUSE_IDENTIFIER{tab}00{tab}CLEARINGHOUSE_SCHOOL_NAME{tab}date{tab}PA{tab}I{tab}{tab}{tab}{tab}{tab}
Clearinghouse uses school FICE for matching. When a FICE (school) on the file is not found, a new education record is added using the school name on the clearinghouse import.
Exporting
The AP National Clearinghouse export menu item screen, GENERATE EXPORT button, generates a file of education records for applications that need to be verified. The format of the file generated follows the Clearinghouse specified file format, and AdmissionPros appID which is the reference back to the specific application. The school codes sent are FICE codes.
Steps:
- Select TO BE SENT from ‘application clearinghouse status’ drop-down
- Click the GENERATE EXPORT button
- Respond to prompts
- Send file to National Clearinghouse
When the file is generated, each application included is flagged with ‘clearing house sent date,’ indicating the app has been sent to the Clearinghouse. The client does the actual work of sending the file to the clearinghouse.
Importing
The response from the Clearinghouse is received via a file which will be imported into AP. NOTE: appID is critical to the matching process, so only those files returned by Clearinghouse IN RESPONSE TO a file generated by AP and sent to Clearinghouse can be imported into AP.
Steps:
- Receive file from Clearinghouse
- Import file into AP, via the PROCESS IMPORT button
When a FICE (school) on the import file is not found to be in place on the education record associated with the appID:
- a new education record is added using the school name on the clearinghouse import
- the transcript required box is checked according to rules defined on the app type screen (i.e., if college transcript is not required, transcript required flag is not checked)
- if transcript required flag is checked, a corresponding transcript missing item is added
- where there is a ‘clearinghouse email notification’ email template defined, an email is generated to each applicant for whom a new school record is added, informing them that you have received new information concerning their schools attended
- a new school was a ‘clearinghouse received date‘ is added to the application record, indicating that the application has been verified by the clearinghouse.
NOTE: new schools added where the corresponding transcript is checked as required could result in an app status reverting back to incomplete.
NOTE: the assumption is that the college transcripts would be received and verified by the client, so there is no need to validate the dates returned via the clearinghouse, just that the school exists.
Clearinghouse Missing Item
If a client chooses to require completion of Clearinghouse review before an application can become complete/ready for review & decision, an app completion missing item of Clearinghouse Review can be added to the missing item template for the relevant applicant type(s). The Clearinghouse Review missing item is automatically removed when the clearinghouse received date is set on the applicant’s record (at import of Clearinghouse containing that appID). As long as the Clearinghouse Review missing item remains on the applicant’s checklist, the application will not proceed to complete/ready for review & decision status, even if all other required application materials have been received.
Email Notification
Where there is a ‘clearinghouse email notification’ email template defined for a client, an email is generated via the import process for each applicant where one or more new schools attended is added to their education record. The message of this email is crafted by each client, but in general the email serves to inform the applicant that new information has been received concerning their post-secondary schools attended, and instructs the applicant to log on to their portal to see an updated list of transcripts required.
These emails are generated per applicant, not per new school added, so if multiple new schools are added only 1 email is generated.
The ‘new school found email’ is NOT flagged as send immediately, so the new emails generated by each import will await your review in the emails. These emails serve as the ‘heads up’ regarding applications for which a new school has been found, and give you the opportunity to review new schools added before communicating with the applicant. Each email should be opened, and the school added verified (is the school already recorded on the app but with a different FICE, is the new school needed, etc.). Emails for those apps where new school found by Clearinghouse is NOT relevant, and transcripts from that school are not needed should be deleted, and the applicant’s education record updated appropriately. The remaining emails, where a new school was found by Clearinghouse is relevant and a corresponding transcript is needed, should be approved.
Matching
Clearinghouse uses school FICE, only, to do its matching.
Both the file exported from AP and subsequently sent to the Clearinghouse, and
the file returned in response by the Clearinghouse and subsequently imported
into AP, must include the AdmissionPros appID#.
