On the highway to higher education, sometimes applicants pull out, either by requesting the withdrawal of their applications or by simply discontinuing a started application. Learn how to handle this in Full Fabric!

➜ When should I withdraw an application from a class?

➜ What happens when I withdraw an application?

➜ How can I withdraw an application?

➜ Why must I record the reason for withdrawing?

➜ Can I get a list of everyone with withdrawn applications?

➜ Can I withdraw or unwithdraw applicants in bulk?

You should withdraw an application from a class whenever you're notified that, for whatever reason, the applicant has lost interest in it, as this allows you to capture the precise moment and cause of their loss of interest. Potentially – and this is entirely up to you – you could also do it as a strategy to distinguish which started applications should be chased and which are dead weight from candidates who gave up midway. The ability to withdraw an application is one of many mechanisms to assist staff in managing the intricacies of the ever-shifting landscape of an admissions cycle, so incorporate it into your team's workflow in the way that best serves your institution. Please note that applicants cannot withdraw applications, only staff members.

When an application is withdrawn, the respective candidate is removed from the intake that they're no longer intent on pursuing. To be clear, they're not dissociated from the class per se; rather, they're separated from the active candidates, now occupying a different niche – that of withdrawn candidates. This is most obvious in the lifecycle state widgets on class overview pages, where the applicants are switched from the total number of applicants in a given lifecycle state and substate to the total number of withdrawn candidates in a given lifecycle state and substate, discreetly displayed in light grey:

In essence, active applicants and withdrawn candidates are viewed and treated as distinct groups of data, ensuring that the counting stats are accurate, up-to-date and easy to monitor.

Withdrawing an application does not delete it or prevent the applicant from resuming it. In fact, withdrawing an application changes nothing on the applicants' end. Applicants retain access to their applications as usual on the off chance that they might change their minds about withdrawing. If an applicant does end up submitting a withdrawn application, the system will then proceed to remove its withdrawn status automatically, as if the applicant had never withdrawn at all. Withdrawn applications can also be reused for different classes.

Withdrawing an application takes three simple steps:

1) Go to the applicant's profile

2) Scroll down to the class widget on the profile sidebar, click the vertical ellipsis next to the name of the programme and choose Withdraw

3) Lastly, select the reason from the drop-down menu, add a more thorough explanation (optional) and click Withdrawn from this class

The above data will then be displayed on the profile sidebar for easy consultation. Withdrawn applications are collapsed by default in order to divert attention to any (hypothetical) active ones, leaving only the most vital details visible – the name of the programme, the class, the lifecycle state and the withdrawn status:

However, you may expand the application, of course. Just tap the bar to do it, like so:

If the Withdraw button is not available, it's likely because the application is not linked to a class, either because staff accidentally or purposefully deleted it. To fix this, click Add to class, pick one and then reload the page. The Withdraw button should immediately reappear.

To make it known for posterity that this person once applied to this intake, which is useful in the context of tracking trends and having the complete history of an applicant in the event of a reapplication. Hence, not only must you accurately record why it happened, but the system also captures the exact date that it happened. 🗓

Speaking of which, the drop-down list of withdrawing reasons features 6 broad and standardised categories from the get-go, but you can replace them with your own. Just get in touch with us to make with changes! ✨

You sure can! Create a shared segment, apply the rule "profile ⇢ has withdrawn" and select one or more reasons to get the corresponding results.

In addition, if you combine the aforementioned filter with a second one, "profile ⇢ is in ⇢ [choose class/es]", you can narrow down every applicant who withdrew from a specific class and even a specific campus.

To export the list, press the three-dotted button on the search list bar and then Export profiles.
​

You can also build a shared segment with the opposite information: "profile ⇢ has not withdrawn". This could be helpful to identify active prospects to keep an eye on and nurture.

Yes. Access a class overview, locate the profiles you want to withdraw by building a view, press the three-dotted button on the search list bar and then click Withdraw or Unwithdraw, as appropriate.

For example: suppose you wanted to clean up the list of started applications by discarding the stuff that's not going anywhere. The course of action would be the following:

     1) Filter by started applications on the lifecycle state board

     2) Launch the segment builder and set up a login-based rule to discover which profiles have no recent activity

     3) Report the motive and finally Withdraw

You can find more information on how to build a view and execute bulk actions in this article.

You have reached the end of this article. Thanks for reading! 🤓 If you have any questions or comments on the topic at hand, or if you enjoy reads like this and have article requests, feel free to start a chat or email us at support@fullfabric.com. Also, please leave a rating below. Your feedback is highly appreciated! 💖

PUBLISHED: June 26, 2019
LAST UPDATED: December 31, 2022 at 2:58 p.m.