Create Applications on Behalf of Students

The Create Application on Behalf of feature allows housing administrators to bulk-create applications for hundreds or thousands of students at once. You don't need to manually complete applications individually—this tool handles mass application creation in seconds.

This is essential when you need to associate non-residents (commuters, off-campus students) with a housing cycle for meal plan assignment purposes. Even if students won't be selecting housing, they need an open application in the cycle before you can assign them a meal plan.

This action overrides standard eligibility criteria, giving admins control over who can apply to any cycle regardless of automatic rules.

When to Use This Feature

Common scenarios where admins create applications on behalf of students include:

• Commuter students — Associating commuters with a cycle so you can assign them a meal plan without requiring housing
• Off-campus students — Creating cycle records for students living off-campus who need meal plan access or other housing services
• Late additions — Backfilling applications for students who missed the eligibility window but need to be included
• Special arrangements — Opening applications for students in unique situations (exchange programs, special needs housing, staff dependents)

Navigate to the Profiles Table

Go to Admin > Profiles. This opens the student profiles table where you can select which students should receive applications.

Use filters to narrow down your list before selecting. For example, filter by class year, housing status, or custom tags to find all commuter students quickly.

Select Student Profiles

Use the checkboxes in the leftmost column to select students. You can:

• Click individual checkboxes to select specific students
• Select all filtered results using the checkbox in the table header
• Select multiple students across different pages of results

The selection toolbar appears at the top of the table once you've selected at least one profile, showing how many profiles are selected.

Open the Bulk Actions Menu

In the selection toolbar, click the ellipsis icon (three vertical dots) to open the bulk actions menu.

Select Create Application on Behalf of Profile from the menu.

Choose the Housing Cycle

A modal appears with the title "Select Cycle For New Applications." Use the dropdown to choose which housing cycle should receive the applications you're creating.

This dropdown shows all active housing cycles in your system. Select the cycle that matches the academic period or meal plan term you're managing.

Submit and Monitor Progress

Click the submit button to create applications. The system displays a progress overlay with the message "Performing operation..." while it processes your request.

The system automatically checks each student profile:

• If the student already has an application for that cycle, no duplicate is created
• If no application exists, a new one is created and the student gains access to that cycle in their portal

When complete, the table refreshes and the applications appear in each student's record.

Verify Applications Were Created

After the operation completes, you can verify the applications in two ways:

From the Profiles table: The Latest Meal Plan column updates if you're using this feature for meal plan assignments. Click on individual student names to view their full profile.

From individual student profiles: Navigate to Admin > Profiles > select a student > Applications section. The newly created application appears in their application history with the cycle name and creation date.

Create a Single Application (Optional)

If you only need to create one application rather than processing multiple students, you can do this from an individual student's profile:

1. Go to Admin > Profiles and click the student's name
2. Scroll to the Applications section
3. Click Create Application
4. Select the cycle from the "Select Cycle For New Application" modal
5. Submit

This creates the application immediately without needing the bulk selection workflow.

Common Use Case: Meal Plans for Non-Residents

One of the most frequent uses for this feature is associating non-resident students with a housing cycle so you can assign them meal plans. This applies to commuters, off-campus students, or anyone who needs meal plan access without housing.

The requirement: Students must have an application in a cycle before you can assign them a meal plan in that cycle. Without an application, the meal plan assignment will fail.

Here's the typical workflow for processing thousands of non-residents:

1. Tag or filter your non-resident students in the Profiles table (by housing status, custom tags, or class year)
2. Select all non-residents who need meal plan access—this can be hundreds or thousands of students
3. Use Create Application on Behalf of Profile to add them all to your Non-Resident Cycle (or whichever cycle manages meal plans)
4. Then use the Bulk Assign Meal Plans action to assign their meal plan tier

This two-step process ensures non-residents are properly enrolled in the cycle before meal plan assignment, preventing errors and maintaining clean records. You don't need to manually complete any applications—the bulk creation handles everything automatically.