FAQ
PSIS Codes and ISO Country/Province Codes
- We have a CSV which has the mapping of all PSIS Codes to the Country/Province codes.
- It’s recommended to store these values in a table in your DB, and you can convert the ISO codes we transmit to you to the PSIS codes upon ingestion.
International Applications don't have a restriction on intakes spanning multiple application cycles
- If the college opens an intake, it is available for the applicant to select. Even if the intake is in the future.
Applicant can have only one active application for each college at a time
- The college must resolve (close) an application, before the applicant can apply again.
Program Selections can be thought of as "wishlist"
- The college can decline all program selections, but still create an “alternate” offer for a different program (one that wasn’t on the wishlist). The program selection is not directly tied to an offer.
Profile ownership
- In most scenarios, the college cannot alter the applicant’s personal information. The applicant owns their info, and it’s up to the college to work with the applicant/agent to update any information that is incorrect. If the applicant applied through working with a college rep (no agent, or no direct applicant), then the college rep is acting in an agent capacity and will then be able to update the applicant profile.
Identifiers
An Application can have multiple active offers, but each offer must be in a different intake. (Constraint: one offer per intake).
| ENTITY | OCAS KEY | COLLEGE KEY |
|---|---|---|
| APPLICANT | Number (length: min 1, max 20; format: X followed by up to 19 digits) | College can assign a “studentId” property. Then with all future transmissions, ocas will also include the “studentId” alongside our two identifiers. |
| APPLICATION | Number (length: min 1, max 20; format: X followed by up to 19 digits) | N/A |
| OFFER (INTAKE) | IntakeId (Guid) + ApplicationNumber OR Composite Key1 OR intakeSisIdentifier + ApplicationNumber | When syncing program catalog, the college can provide an sisIdentifier with the intake. This is the unique key in the college’s SIS for the intake. This key should be unique and immutable for the intake. |
| AGENCY | Id (a guid) OR sisIdentifier | At any time, each college can assign an SIS Identifier to the agency in OCAS’s master list (for themselves only). This identifier is NOT immutable, but it’s not typical to change the identifier once assigned. The OCAS master list might have a more granular list of agency branches, which are all represented by a single agency in the college SIS system. Therefore the college could assign the same sisIdentifier to one or more agencies in the OCAS master list. |