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Managing when your AI Recruiter stops engaging students

Updated over 3 weeks ago

⚠️ Removing students from your CRM query or export does not stop your AI agent from engaging them. As long as a student's record exists in CollegeVine and meets criteria set by your agent’s responsibility, the agent may continue outreach based on the last data it received.

There are different ways to control whether your AI agent engages with a student — and most of them do not require removing the student from CollegeVine.

This article explains when to use data fields to stop outreach, when to request a full deletion, and how both approaches work.

Option 1: Always ensure all students and applicable data fields are included in your recurring imports

In most cases, the best way to manage your AI agent's behavior is to keep students in your recurring import and send complete and updated data. Your agent uses these fields — like application status, opt-out flags, and consent — to determine how and whether to engage each student.

When a student's data changes in your CRM, those updates flow to CollegeVine through your regular import and adjust your agents behavior accordingly.

This is the approach we recommend for the majority of scenarios. It gives your agent the most current context, avoids gaps in visibility, and prevents situations where the agent continues outreach based on stale information.

💡 Think of it this way: your import file tells your agent who to know about. Your data fields tell your agent what to do with them based on the guardrails you set within its responsibilities.

Here are a few examples of how this works:

  1. Email marketing responsibility is configured for outreach to only prospects and inquiries

    • Email marketing responsibility criteria: Lead stage = inquiry or prospect

    • Student Jane Doe is an inquiry and receive marketing emails from your Agent

    • Jane Doe decides to apply to your campus

    • Her lead stage in your CRM updates from inquiry to applicant

    • This updated lead stage is sent back to CollegeVine via your import

    • Jane Does no longer receives marketing emails from your Agent, since her lead stage no longer matches the set criteria

  2. A Mission is launched to guide students to fill out their FAFSA form

    • Mission audience criteria: FAFSA form on file = false

    • Student John Smith has not filed their FAFSA and receives recurring reminders via SMS from your Agent reminding him to do so

    • John Smith successfully files his FAFSA

    • His FAFSA file status on your CRM updates from false to true

    • This updated status is sent back to CollegeVine via your import

    • John Smith no longer receives reminders from your Agent to file his FAFSA since he no longer matches the criteria set for this Mission

  3. Aligning opt outs

    • The agent will automatically suppress communications to students who have opted out of comms

    • See partner opt outs here

Option 2: Leverage CollegeVine to delete leads (if applicable)

There are a small number of situations where student records should be permanently removed from the CollegeVine platform entirely. These typically involve a clean break rather than a change in agent behavior.

  1. You're starting a new term in your contract and need to refresh your lead population. If your agreement with CollegeVine is resetting and you need to clear out existing records before loading a new population, request a deletion.

  2. You're starting a new academic year and want to clear out old leads. When transitioning between admissions cycles, you may want to remove the prior year's students entirely rather than carry them forward.

  3. You accidentally uploaded the wrong records. If incorrect or unintended student records were sent to CollegeVine, contact your CollegeVine team immediately to have them removed.

How deletion works

Once a student record is sent to CollegeVine, it is retained unless it is actively deleted. Your recurring import file adds and updates records, but it does not automatically remove students who are no longer included.

For example: if you upload 100 students on Monday and then the following Monday send a new file with only 80 of those original students, the 20 who were dropped from your file will still remain in CollegeVine. The import is additive — it never deletes on its own.

To have students permanently removed, contact your CollegeVine team and provide:

  • A list of all students to be removed or retained (with the following fields: First Name, Last Name, Email)

  • Confirmation of whether you want to delete specific students, or keep only a specified group and remove everyone else

Your CollegeVine team will process the deletion and confirm once it's complete. Once removed, those student records no longer exist in the platform and your agent will stop all engagement with them.

What happens if my student falls off my import?

If a student is removed from your CRM export but not deleted from CollegeVine, their record persists in our system. Your agent will still have their information and may continue engaging them based on the last data it received — even though you've stopped sending updates.

This is why we always recommend keeping students in your import with current data, rather than simply dropping them. If you do need to stop outreach to certain students, the right approach depends on the situation.

Lets say your import query includes all applicants and excludes anyone who has been rejected. You have a mission targeting applicants to submit their transcripts. If a student applied, and met criteria set for the mission, they would be encouraged to submit their transcripts. If that student was rejected, they would not be included in your next import to CollegeVine, meaning your agent never learned of their rejection status. They will continue to receive communications about submitting their transcripts.

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Have questions? Reach out to your CollegeVine account team for help.

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