The final draft of the Scholar Snapp v3.0 data standard for the 2017-2018 application cycle was published on May 15, 2017. The Snapp Central API currently accepts and emits Snapp v2.0, the previous version. Development on the Snapp Central API to accommodate v3.0 is in progress (ETA July/August 2017). We encourage all new integrators to use v3.0.

Overview

The Student entity is where the magic happens: this entity contains information about the student as well as the scholarship application data.

Details

This section contains detail and usage notes about the elements in the Student entity:

Student.Activities

Detail about a student's community service, hobbies, volunteering and other extracurricular activities. Optional.

Supports detail about hours/week and days/month, information about the organization affiliated with the activity, whether the activity was a graduation requirement, and so forth.

Student.ArmedForcesCharacteristics

Characteristics related to armed forces programs, a student's armed forces service record, and other attributes common to armed forces scholarship applications. Optional.

Student.BirthDate

The student's date of birth. Optional.

Student.BirthPlace

The city, state/province, and country where the student was born. The state/province value is the only required value. Optional.

Student.Citizenship

The student's current citizenship status, the status date, and the country to which the status applies. Optional.

Student.ClassRank

A student's class ranking, including the school to which the ranking applies, the system used (e.g., integer, decile).

Note that 1 is highest (so 98th percentile would look awesome in this context).

Student.CollegeReadinessProgram.ProgramName

The Snapp Data Standard has a structured list of common college readiness programs based on the CollegeReadinessProgramList enumeration. The list was compiled from implementers and desktop research.

Other. The list includes an "Other" option, in which case sending systems should populate the ProgramOtherDesc element with the name or description of a College Readiness Program not found on the list.
None. The list includes a "None" option. "None" is reserved for affirming that the applicant has not participated in a college readiness program. Do not use the selection to mean "not indicated" – instead, simply omit the optional CollegeReadinessProgram complex type altogether.

Student.ContactInfo

One of only two required entities on the Student entity. Every valid XML data file should have a ContactInfo entity with an Email element.

Student.CurrentAddress

The student's current address. This is the place where the student is residing at the time of the application, which may be a dorm, boarding school, or similar. Contrast with Student.PermanentAddress.

Student.CurrentMajors

The student's current field of study. By convention, applies to current college students only – meaning scholarship programs targeted at graduating high school students will usually not include this information. Contrast with Student.IntendedMajors.

Student.CurrentEnrollments

Each application may note zero, one, or multiple CurrentEnrollment entities. As the name implies, these are intended to reflect the current status of a student as of the application date, along with an expected graduation date.

Contrast this with the Student.GraduationInfo element which contains information about a graduation that has already happened.

Student.CollegeChoices

The student's college choices. Includes ranking information (to indicate first, second, etc., choices) and the application status (e.g., applied, accepted, declined).

Compare to Student.FinalCollegeChoice.

Student.CollegeReadinessProgram

The college readiness program or programs in which a student has participated (e.g., AVID, NMSI). Optional.

Used by some scholarship programs as an eligibility requirement.

Student.Disabled

Whether or not the student has a disability.

By convention, implies a formal disability classification per law or regulation such as the Americans with Disabilities Act. In that context, the definition is a person who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activity.

Student.DisabilityDesc

A brief description of a student's disability, if the Disabled element is set to true.

Student.EducationLevel

Student's highest completed level of school.

Student.Employed

An indicator for whether the student was currently employed at the time the application was filled out. Intended for paid employment (vs. unpaid or volunteer work).

Student.Essays.EssayContent

The Snapp Data Standard supports the exchange of essays. This element contains a student's essay text. It's assumed that some essay modification and customization by the applicant may be necessary.

The text is limited to 4000 characters. The design intent is to handle a reasonably large maximum length while not requiring receiving systems to handle arbitrarily large essays.
The essay content should be unformatted, without HTML markup or other text tagging.
If a sending application allows text longer than the allowable 4000 characters, senders can supply truncated text. Sending applications are encouraged to clip whole words to get the text down to 3996 characters and insert a space followed by a faux ellipsis (i.e., "...") at the end of the essay. This is not required, but provides a visual clue to applicants that there was additional text without assuming anything about the program flow of the receiving system.

Student.Essays.EssayTypeList

The Snapp Data Standard supports the exchange of essays. From a student's perspective, this is perhaps one of the most useful pieces of information to share between applications. The EssayTypeList enumeration values provide the means of identifying the subject or type of essay – usually defined by an essay prompt.

To establish the list of essays, the Snapp team reviews use by current implementers and also does an annual survey of essay prompts in the scholarship application space.

The Snapp EssayTypeList enumeration mapped to a sample of real-world application prompts follows, along with annotations on which version(s) of the Snapp Data Standard includes the type.

Snapp EssayType	Common App Prompt	Dell Scholars Prompt	Other Application Prompts	v2.0	v3.0
Post graduation and career goals		What do you want your education to achieve? What are your goals after you graduate from college?	Describe your academic and career goals and your plans to achieve them. (Paraphrased from multiple example applications.) Where do you see yourself in 10 years? (Paraphrased from multiple example applications.)	Y	Y
Education plans beyond graduation				Y	Y
Leadership experiences			Describe an event in which you took a leadership role. What did you learn about yourself? About others? (Paraphrased from multiple example applications.)	Y	Y
Organizational leadership roles and outcomes				Y	Y
Lifetime goals and objectives				Y	Y
Personal background or history	Q1. Some students have a background, identity, interest or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story. [No change]			Y	Y
Family background or history		Describe how your family history and relationships have shaped who you are today.	How has your family history affected the way you view the world? (Paraphrased from multiple example applications.)	Y	Y
Affecting the lives of others				Y	Y
Community contribution		Have you spent time volunteering in your community or school (examples may include: community center, senior center, church, school, etc.)? Share with us how often you volunteer and what you've learned through these experiences. If you haven't volunteered, please explain reasons why.		Y	Y
Community leadership				Y	Y
~~The~~ Community impact upon the student				Y	Y (Removed "The" from v2.0 value)
Favorite activity	Q6. Describe a topic, idea or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more? [New]			Y	Y
Home responsibilities		Please provide more detail about your home responsibilities and how that has impacted your ability to manage your academic work.		Y	Y
Overcoming adversity	Q2. The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience? [Revised]	Describe some of the hardest things you experienced while growing up? How did you overcome those challenges? What did you learn from those experiences?	What challenges have you overcome in achieving your education (e.g., financial, personal, medical)? (Paraphrased from multiple example applications.)	Y	Y
Work responsibilities		Please provide more detail about your need to work. How has it impacted your ability to focus on school work?		Y	Y
Personal achievements, awards, and honors	Q5. Discuss an accomplishment, event or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others. [Revised]	Describe your most meaningful achievement to date and how it has influenced your life.		Y	Y
Special circumstances affecting college finance		(Other) How do you think your family's financial situation will impact your ability to be a full-time college student? State any ongoing financial responsibilities you have and how you plan to manage them.		Y	Y
Why student deserves the scholarship				Y	Y
How ethnicity shaped the student				Y	Y
How college readiness programs helped the student		How has this program better prepared you to be successful in college? Please provide some examples of skills or strategies you will use.		Y	Y
Problem or issue in the world student would like to address			What do you consider to be the single most important societal problem facing the world today? Explain. (Paraphrased from multiple example applications.)	Y	Y
Athletic involvement, achievements, and impact on the student				Y	Y
Special programs participation and outcomes				Y	Y
Explanation of student's college choices		Please tell us what reasons you considered in selecting these schools as your top choices. Elaborate on the factors you considered such as academic fit and financial affordability.		Y	Y
Explanation of student's major choices		What inspired you to choose this major and study the degree you are planning to enroll in?		Y	Y
Failures and the resulting lessons learned				Y	Y
How the student challenged herself	Q4. Describe a problem you’ve solved or a problem you’d like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma — anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution. [No change]			Y	Y
Disciplinary or legal problems		Have you ever been subjected to disciplinary action (such as probation, suspension or dismissal) by any school you have attended?		Y	Y
Other				Y	Y
Financial need or hardship		What personal financial hardships have you had to overcome to be the person you are today? State any special personal or family circumstances to explain your financial need.	Explain why you need financial assistance.(Paraphrased from multiple example applications.) From a financial standpoint, how would this scholarship impact your education? (Paraphrased from multiple example applications.)	N	Y (Proposed)
Challenges foreseen with college		(Other) Describe the most significant challenges you may face transitioning to and while in college and what steps you may take to address those challenges.	Many college freshmen are overwhelmed by the transition from home to independent life. What challenges do you foresee? How will you overcome them? (Paraphrased from multiple college applications.)	N	Y (Proposed)
		(Other) Please provide more detail about why you did not work.		N	N
Why student is applying for scholarship		(Other) Use this essay to give us more information about who you are and why you want to be a Dell Scholar.	In NN words or fewer, please tell us about yourself and why you are applying for this scholarship. Please be clear about how this scholarship will help you achieve your goals. (Paraphrased from multiple example applications.)	N	Y (Proposed, meant to be distinct from "Why student deserves the scholarship")
		(Other) Please provide an explanation of your housing and living situation.		N	N
Challenging or questioning ideas	Q3. Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome? [Revised]			N	Y (Proposed)
Topic of student's choice	Q7. Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you’ve already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design. [New]			N	Y (Proposed, meant to be distinct from "Other")
Role model or influential person in student's life			Who has been the most influential person in your life so far? (Paraphrase from multiple example applications.)	N	Y (Proposed)
Book or other artwork influential in student's life			Choose a book that has affected you profoundly and explain why. (Paraphrase from multiple example applications.)	N	Y (Proposed)
Personal attribute or quality			Does any attribute or skill distinguish you from others? How did you develop this quality? (Paraphrase from multiple example applications.)	N	Y (Proposed)

Student.FinalCollegeChoice

An indicator of the college a student intends to attend. Includes an application status, so implementers can infer a difference between intent and a likely future.

Compare with Student.CollegeChoices.

Student.Gender

Student Gender refers to the current biological sex of the applicant.

Student.GenderDetail

The Gender Detail for a student provides detail about the biological sex of the applicant. (Contrast with the Orientation List, which provides detail about the applicant's sexual identity.) The list in Snapp was developed from implementer input, UCLA best practices for gender identification in surveys (here), and various government sources.

Student.GovernmentAidParticipation

Information about the program or programs in which a student participates. Optional.

Used by some applications as eligibility criteria.

Student.GPA

A student's grade point average information.

Can be reported for each grade level on a variety of scales (e.g., 4.0, 100, Alphabetic). Averages reported for multiple grades are cumulative. Can indicate weighted or unweighted GPA.

Student.GraduationInfo

The GraduationInfo entity conveys information about an applicant's graduation record. It also conveys information about graduation-equivalent certifications such as the GED program.

Worth noting is that the GraduationInfo is intended to support historical graduation information, that is, a graduation event that has already happened. Contrast this with the Student.CurrentEnrollments entity that notes an applicant's present enrollment status and future-looking expected graduation date.

Student.Income

The student's current income at the time the application was completed. Intended for income earned by the student. Optional.

Information about a parent's income is contained in Student.FAFSA and Student.Relatives.

Student.IntendedDiscipline

The student's intended line of work or field of expertise after graduation. Usually relates to a current or intended major, but is not the same thing. For example, a student majoring in French Literature might list "Education" or "Foreign Relations" or some other line of work as their intended discipline.

Student.IntendedMajors

The student's intended areas of study when in school. Contrast with Student.CurrentMajors.

Student.Name

One of two always-required entities on the Student entity – every valid XML data file should have a Student's first and last name.

Student.Orientation

The student's reported sexual orientation.

Student.Race

The student's race or races.

Student.PermanentAddress

The student's permanent home, often the address of their parent or guardian. Contrast with Student.CurrentAddress.

Student.ScholarshipPurpose

The type of school for which the student seeks a scholarship (e.g., 2-year program, 4-year program).

Student.SimpleTranscript

A container for structured transcript information. Optional.

As the name implies, it's a fairly basic/simple list of transcript entries identifying a class name, grade level, grade achieved, class properties (e.g., AP, Pre-AP, Honors, IB), class status (e.g., complete, in progress).

Student.SimpleTranscript.ClassNameOtherDesc

The SimpleTranscript contains a ClassName enumeration which has a structured list of class types. The list is fairly general.

Implementers may use the ClassNameOtherDesc element to house a more specific name for a class – even when the type selected by the student is not "Other." There should be no expectation that a receiving system will have a matching algorithm to handle unstructured text, but if the receiving system uses unstructured text to populate its transcript data then it may get value from the ClassNameOtherDesc element.

Student.StudentReferences

The student's references, such as school counselors, registrars, and recommenders. Optional.

Includes basic contact information, length of time the student has known the individual, the type of relationship.

While the type of relationship accounts for a relative/family member, this entity is usually reserved for non-familial references.

Student.TestScores

A student's results on tests such as the PSAT, SAT, ACT and other exams. Allows students to specify a test type, a score, a test date. Contains an "Other" value (e.g., for statewide test results). Optional.

Student.TimeAtCurrentAddress

The length of time the student has lived at their current address (i.e., the Student.CurrentAddress).

This element uses the fun and seldom-seen xs:duration type. For example:

P2Y6M means 2 years, 6 months
P30M means 30 months (i.e., 2 years, 6 months)
P3Y means 3 years

By convention, implementers generally use years and months. Note that the xs:duration type allows days, minutes, seconds.

The xs:duration also supports time differentials like 30 minutes ago, and other durations that are invalid in the context of Snapp, so implementers should check this carefully when importing information.

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Student Entity Usage