We’re excited to be pushing out new versions of our Dossier and Letter Writer accounts on Sunday, June 9th. Based on a combination of our own research and direct user feedback, both products will be revamped to ensure a better, more streamlined user experience for each audience. All existing functionality that users already love about Interfolio will remain the same. Dossier users will still be collecting, storing, and delivering application materials. Letter Writer users will still have one central place to upload and manage their letters.
One change that will be part of the release of the new Dossier is how individual users affiliate themselves with an Interfolio partner institution when signing up for an account. In the past, we’ve had the individual user make this selection at signup, without providing a lot of context for the ramifications this has for their account.
This was alternatively confusing, unclear, or nonsensical, depending on what information, if any, the (potential) user came armed with when hitting the registration page. Beyond not doing the best job of communicating what affiliation meant to you as a new user, we also made it a “required” field. Required in that you needed to put something there, but “No School Affiliation” and “My School is Not Listed” were acceptable options.
To clarify the process for all of our users, we’ll be removing this selection from the registration workflow. This change will not impact the affiliations associated with any existing Interfolio accounts. For users that are not at all associated with a university career center or academic department partnered with Interfolio to provide the Dossier service to their students or alumni, this should be a welcome, clarifying change.
However, many users are associated with one of our Dossier partners, and will need to have their account affiliated with an institution. There are two primary ways to have your account automatically associated with the proper institution:
- Signing up with a unique registration link that is provided by your institution.
- Signing up using a special offer code that your institution or department has set up to subsidize some or all of the costs of using Interfolio.
That link or code, depending on the partnership that your career center or department has with Interfolio, can be provided by the person administering Interfolio at your institution.
Of course, if all else fails, just get in touch with our support folks and they’re happy to help you add the appropriate affiliation to your existing account!