Before you can invite applicants to complete their personal statements through Puddin, you need to add them to your admissions cycle. You can add applicants one at a time for small cohorts or import a CSV file when onboarding larger groups. If your institution uses a connected student information system, you can also pull applicants directly from that integration.
Add Individually
CSV Import
Connected Systems
Adding a single applicant is the quickest option when you’re onboarding a small number of people or filling in gaps after a bulk import.Open your admissions cycle
From the Puddin Admissions dashboard, select the cycle you want to add applicants to. If you haven’t created a cycle yet, go to Cycles → New Cycle and complete the setup wizard before continuing.
Navigate to the Applicants tab
Inside the cycle, select the Applicants tab. You’ll see the full applicant list for this cycle, or an empty state if no one has been added yet.
Click Add Applicant
Select Add Applicant in the top-right corner of the applicant list. A slide-over panel will appear.
Enter the applicant's details
Fill in the following required fields:You can also add an optional applicant reference number to match your internal records. Save the applicant
Click Add Applicant to confirm. The applicant is added to the list with a status of Not Invited. You can now send them an invitation immediately or return to do so later.
Use CSV import to add tens or hundreds of applicants at once. Puddin validates your file before import and reports any rows with errors so you can correct them without losing the clean data.Download the CSV template
Go to Applicants → Import and click Download Template. The template includes all required and optional column headers with example values in the first row. Delete the example row before uploading your real data.
Prepare your CSV file
Populate the template with your applicant data. Follow these formatting rules to avoid import errors:Each row represents one applicant. Do not merge cells, add extra header rows, or include columns that aren’t in the template — Puddin will reject files with unrecognised columns.
Upload your CSV file
Return to Applicants → Import and either drag your file into the upload zone or click Browse to select it. Puddin will validate the file immediately.
Review the validation report
After validation, Puddin shows a summary of:
- Rows ready to import — valid entries that will be added
- Rows with errors — entries Puddin could not process, with a reason for each
Download the error report if needed, correct the flagged rows in your file, and re-upload just those corrected entries. You don’t need to re-import rows that already passed validation. Confirm the import
Click Import [N] Applicants to complete the process. All valid rows are added to the applicant list with a status of Not Invited. A confirmation email is sent to your account address once the import finishes.
If an email address already exists in this cycle, Puddin will flag it as a duplicate and skip that row. The same email address can appear in different cycles without issue.
If your institution has connected a student information system (SIS) or CRM to Puddin, you can import applicants directly from that source without preparing a CSV file.Check your integration is active
Go to Admin → Integrations and confirm your connected system shows a status of Connected. If not, contact your Puddin administrator to complete the integration setup.
Open the import panel
Inside your cycle, go to Applicants → Import → Import from [System Name].
Select a cohort or filter
Use the filters provided by your connected system to narrow down the applicants you want to pull in — for example, by programme, intake year, or application status.
Review and confirm
Puddin displays the applicants that match your filter. Deselect any you don’t want to include, then click Import Selected. Applicants are added to the cycle with a status of Not Invited.
Available filters depend on the data your connected system exposes to Puddin. Contact your system administrator if you need additional filtering options.
After adding applicants
Once applicants are in the list, your next step is to send them invitations. Head to Sending and Managing Invitations to get started.
You can add more applicants to a cycle at any time — even after invitations have already been sent to others. New additions always start with a status of Not Invited.
