Opportunities

This document provides an introduction to the opportunities object in Salesforce.

Opportunities help us track students through the application cycle. While we have a lot of detail in a prospective student’s contact record, it doesn’t tell us whether they are a first year or transfer prospect, and what term they may be applying. This information is housed in their Opportunity record. 

At the top of each Opportunity record is a summary that includes opportunity name, term, admit type, and program status. Below the summary is the opportunity's stage ribbon. Our Opportunity stages are: Prospect, Inquiry, Application in Progress, Applied, Admitted, Intending to Enroll, Enrolled, and Closed. 

Opportunity Stages Defined
Stage Descriptor
Prospect A student whose information we purchased from a service
Inquiry A student who has raised their hand in some way to say they are interested. Examples include being scanned at a fair, filling out our online interest form, and registering for a campus event on Visit Bucky
Application in Progress A student who has added the UW-Madison supplement to their Common Application or Universities of Wisconsin Application for a specific application term
Applied All students who have submitted an application and have not been admitted. Students could have an incomplete application, be under review with a complete application, or have received a defer, wait list, or deny decision
Admitted A student who has been admitted
Intending to Enroll A student who has confirmed intent to enroll
Enrolled A student who has attended SOAR and enrolled in classes
Closed Students are moved to Closed each year at the conclusion of the cycle. A student who was previously in any of the above stages and did not persist is marked Closed-Not Enrolled. A student who is in enrolled status when the opportunity is closed is marked Closed - Enrolled. Those in Prospect through Applied stages are closed in July and everyone else is closed at the end of September

An important thing to know about opportunity stages is that an opportunity can never go backwards. Think of the ribbon as a one-way street: once a stage has happened it cannot be deleted. This is especially important to remember when you see an opportunity in the Applied stage. Being in the Applied stage does not specify whether the application is complete. Being in the Applied stage may also mean that the applicant received a decision other than Admit.  To know these important details you must look at SIS Program Action and Program Reason information. 

Below the stage ribbon are two tabs: Details and Related. The Details tab displays the primary information about the opportunity. The student's name (Student) will be hyperlinked to their Contact record. Their Admit Type will be listed as Freshmen (first year) or Transfer. We can also see how we first acquired the opportunity (Initial Source) and their latest interaction (Most Recent Source).

In the Prospect, Inquiry, and Application In Progress stages, information about the student's interests are stored in the Interest Information section, and availability of this information will vary, depending on how we acquired the opportunity. 

Once a student has applied, the Applicant Information section of the opportunity record is a great place to find information including their first and second majors (labeled Application Plans in Salesforce) as well as their SIS Program Action and Program Reason. Please note that applicant and/or admitted student information comes directly from SIS and is updated every workday morning. Remember that SIS is the authoritative record once a student has applied so it is a good idea to check SIS if ever in doubt.

Continuing in the Details tab, the Academic Data section will link to the most recent school they've attended (Last School Attended). The Recruitment Milestones section will give you the dates the opportunity stage changed for each stage the opportunity has existed in. If the student has applied, Source Information will give you their application number(s), and System Information is Salesforce administrative information. Here is a screenshot of the details tab of an opportunity in the Prospect stage.
 A screenshot of the details tab of an opportunity in the Prospect stage. The opportunity name is at the top: Rosales-Fall 2027, followed by term, admit type, and program status fields. The opportunity ribbon is below with Prospect shaded blue. Below are the sections of the Details tab: Interest Information, Academic Data, Application Information, Recruitment Milestones, Source Information, and System Information. All sections are closed so that only the header is visable.

The Related tab includes Notes, Related Recruitment Categories, Stage History, Opportunity Field History, Interactions, and Files sections. At this time these sections either contain information that is also on the Details tab or are not commonly used by OAR.  To the right of the Details and Related tabs is an activity pane that enables the user to post an update about the opportunity.

Opportunities never stand on their own - they are always linked to a student’s contact record. Opportunity names consist of the student’s last name plus the term they are applying. Because opportunity names are not unique, it is best practice to access a student’s opportunity from their contact record, unless you are working from an opportunity report.

In OAR, opportunities are based on the application term, so contacts may have more than one opportunity associated with them if, for example, the student applied as a first year student and again as a transfer. However, students will only have one open opportunity at any given time.



Keywords:
stage, status, prospect, inquiry, contact, applicant
Doc ID:
152376
Owned by:
Emilie D. in Office of Admissions and Recruitment
Created:
2025-06-25
Updated:
2025-07-16
Sites:
AdmissionsRecruitment-internal