Declined by a School

Each school is independently responsible for approving or declining employer requests to connect, and every school has different deciding factors when selecting which employers to connect with and which roles to provide to approved employers.

This article provides insight into how a decline is processed, notifications to the requestor, and what options are available if you'd like the request to be reconsidered. 

Topics: 

• Overview of declined requests
• Decline notifications
• Submit a second request for approval 
• Following up with a school
• Review all school declines

Overview of declined requests

If a school declines your request to connect, they are prompted to: 

• select a reason for the decline.
  • This provides sufficient information for you to correct any errors or awareness of any moral, ethical, or state-specific legal reasons for the decline.  
  • The selected reason is added as a comment to the school's overview page and is visible to other to other team members in Handshake.
    • Note: if the decline occurred prior to the release of this feature, the reason displays N/A.
• choose to allow a second request for approval.
  • If the school has chosen to allow a second request for approval:
    • a blue button Request approval again appears above the comment text box. 
    • you may submit the second request after taking action on the specific decline reasons. 
  • If the school has not allowed for a second request for approval, or if the decline occurred prior to this feature's availability, refer to the steps in the section Following up with a school. 

Decline notifications

At the time of the decline, an automatic notification is sent to the requestor in Handshake and via email (depending on your notification preferences). 

In Handshake

1. In Handshake, click the globe icon in the upper-right corner of the screen, to the left of your name. The notification reads "A staff member at SCHOOL NAME has declined your school approval."

2. The school name is hyperlinked–click the school name to be directed to the comment history.

Example of Handshake notification:

Via email

1. Email notifications are sent to the requestor's email address (connected to the Handshake user account). 

2. Click the red button View Decline Details to access actions in Handshake.

The email notification details are: 

Sent from: "handshake@notifications.joinhandshake.com"

Subject: "Your request to connect with a school has been declined."

Content: 

"SCHOOL NAME declined your school approval request.

Hello NAME,

Example of the email notification: 

Submit a second request for approval

1. Navigate to the comment experience via one of the notifications described above, or via the steps described in the section Following up with a school. 

2. Review the decline reason and any comments from the school, then complete relevant follow-up actions. 

• Note: a second request for approval (re-requesting) is only available for a one-time use. Please double-check that any follow-up actions have been completed prior to taking this step! 

3. Click the blue button Request approval again, which appears above the comment text box on the school's page.

• If there is no button in this location, that indicates either: 
  • the school has not opted to allow a second request OR
  • the decline was processed prior to this feature becoming available.
• Use the steps described in the section Following up with a school to connect with them for more information!

4. In the popup that appears, the decline reason and any comments display, followed by a text box. Enter the actions you've taken in the text box, then click the blue button Request to send your second request to the school.

Once you've submitted the second request, the status will update to Pending, and the details entered for actions taken are added as a comment. 

Following up with a school

We recommend that you reach out directly to the Career Services center at the declining school if: 

• you'd like to request more information on a decline.
• a second request for approval isn't available, but you'd like to be reconsidered for approval.

To work with the school directly, search for and click on the name of the school in the blue global search bar at the upper-middle of the screen. 

The school overview page provides the comment experience, and each Career Services center's contact information is listed on the left of the overview page. 

Review all school declines

If you'd like to review all existing school declines, click on Schools from the left navigation bar, then click the tab More Schools on Handshake.

On the left of this page, select the filter Approval Status > Declined. A list of schools that have declined to connect will be displayed, and the number of existing comments (if any) will be listed to the immediate left of the Declined status.

Click on the name of the school or the comment count to access the school overview page.