When a student requests to connect with your institution in Handshake, a series of notifications help your team review and respond efficiently. This article outlines when and how career services staff are notified about new connection requests, what each notification includes, and where to manage related settings so you can keep student access accurate and up to date.
Career Services Email Notification
When a student or alum creates their own Handshake account and requests to connect with your school, Handshake sends an email and in-app notification to career services staff so you can review and approve (or reject) the request.
The email includes:
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From: Handshake <handshake@notifications.joinhandshake.com>
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Subject: “You have a new notification on Handshake”
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Message: lets you know that [Student name] has registered as a student from your school and is waiting for approval, with a link to view and respond to the request in Handshake.
If you are not receiving these messages, check your career services notification settings and confirm that “A student from my school has registered and needs approval” is enabled for email (and/or in-app) notifications. For more information on this, refer to Career Services User Settings: Default Notification Preferences.
Student Email Notifications
When a student or alum creates their own Handshake account and requests to connect with your school, Handshake also notifies the student about their request status by email.
While the request is pending
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From: Handshake <handshake@notifications.joinhandshake.com>
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Subject: "Handshake School Registration Information"
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Message:
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Greets the student by name and indicates the school they submitted the request to.
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Confirms that administrators at [School Name] have been notified and will review the request.
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Directs the student to contact their school at the listed email address if they need further assistance.
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While their request is pending, the student has limited access to Handshake until they are approved. For more about this limited access experience, refer to Connect to Your School for Full Handshake Access.
When the request is approved
If the connection request is approved (either automatically or by a career services staff member), Handshake sends a second email to the student:
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From: Handshake <handshake@notifications.joinhandshake.com>
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Subject: "Approved Student Registration"
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Message: Confirms that the request to join [School Name] has been approved.
If a student’s request to connect is rejected, they do not receive an email notification about the rejection.