General Overview

Several professional schools at Tufts participate in organizations/associations which require them to use Liaison’s Centralized Application Services (CAS) to collect applications from potential students. Data and documents collected by CAS are then transferred to the University’s admissions system of record, Slate, via API, SFTP, or manual data imports (depending on the school/program).

CAS is a cloud-based application service which allows the applicant to create a single profile (biographic and demographic information, academic history, resume, etc.) and then use that profile to apply to one or more of the participating schools/programs in the CAS.

Liaison is the name of the company and CAS is the product; professional organizations purchase the CAS service from Liaison and then work with Liaison to build and offer a “CAS application.” There are dozens of different “CAS” applications, each referred to (usually) by an acronym related to the professional field it represents. Each CAS is managed by the professional organization which offers the CAS as a “service” to future professionals. (e.g., PTCAS is the CAS, which is managed by APTA, the American Physical Therapy Association).

In addition to managing the CAS application as a way to collect applicant data and documents, the professional organization contracts with Liaison to provide document receipt and processing, test score and transcript verification, and customer service for applicants. This is operations work which otherwise would need to be done by the participating program.

Once all requirements established by the professional organization for a complete and reviewable application have been met, the application is considered complete; once Liaison ensures all of an individual’s coursework was entered correctly and consistently, and the standard gpas are calculated, the CAS status is verified. Note that individual participating programs can and do establish other requirements for the application to be considered complete and reviewable for their specific program. For example, most CAS applications no longer require official standardized test scores, but individual programs may require test scores from applicants in order to be eligible for review.

Liaison also offers a different product called WebAdMIT, which is an “admissions management solution/portal.” CAS is the application itself, and WebAdMIT is the tool which admissions offices can use to view application data and documents as they are created, submitted and move through the rest of the recruitment and enrollment cycle.

WebAdMIT is roughly the equivalent of Slate, in that it is an admissions management system. Programs that participate in the CAS have access to WebAdMIT to process their applications; some programs at Tufts use WebAdMIT functionality for this purpose, and others do not.

CAS Application Overview

The CAS application contains four sections: personal information, academic history, supporting information, and program materials.

The first three sections contain the data elements and questions that are common across all participating programs (i.e., the veterinary school CAS, VMCAS, has the exact same data elements/questions for all vet programs in those three sections, determined by the AAVMC, the American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges).

The fourth section is customizable by each participating program, and contains:

1. A “branding” page which includes program information and admissions requirements.

2. Organization or program-specific questions for the applicant.

3. Document/materials upload.

4. Prerequisite requirements.

Other configurations may be possible but these are the most common ones seen at Tufts, and the options depend on how the CAS is configured by the professional organization which manages it.

Participating programs are not able to make any changes or updates directly to the first three sections (they can request a change through the professional organization) but they are required to configure the fourth section each year.

When an applicant creates an account with the CAS and selects a program from the available list of participating programs, data and documents for that applicant and their application become available to the participating program(s) in the CAS. It can be sent to another application management system at this point by an API or the program(s) can view the information in WebAdMIT directly.

CAS Application Cycle Overview

Each CAS has an annual application “cycle” which represents a discrete set of configurations for a single period of time (usually an academic year, e.g. 2022-2023 or 2023-2024).

Depending on the CAS, a single “application” might exist in one cycle, or there may be many “applications” offered in one cycle (representing different degree/program offerings, entry terms, formats, etc.). For example, the 2023-2024 CASPA cycle contained one program option at Tufts (the PA program) but the 2023-2024 SOPHAS application contained a dozen programs at Tufts, representing combinations of the MPH, campus vs. online format, and different concentration options.

Since each “cycle” is discrete, there is an annual process that must be done to set up and open the cycle each year. This schedule is determined by the professional organization managing the CAS, depending on when their application opens and closes each year, but always includes the following “phases” or steps in the process:

1. Configuration Portal

2. Application Open / Applicant Data available

3. WebAdMIT Setup

Typically the settings from the previous cycle are carried over to the new cycle and then made available for editing in the “CAS Configuration Portal.”