Application Priority Rules

Slate automatically ranks applications two ways:

Rank (Overall), which looks at priority (high, then normal, then low) and then submitted date (most recent to latest)
Rank Submitted, which looks at submitted date (most recent to latest)

There isn't a way to manually adjust an application's rank, but you can affect this rank using an application priority rule. A practical reason for altering an application's rank is to prioritize one application over another, such as joining from a person record to their rank 1 application or simply filtering on the rank 1 application. Common considerations for this type of rule are to rank:

Admissions applications over scholarship applications
Applications with a decision (or specific decision) over applications without a decision (or specific decision) in a concurrent period/recruiting cycle

On the Tables
Slate stores the application priority on the [application] table in the [priority] column, [application].[priority]. That column takes on the following values:
-2, for inactive
-1, for low priority
0, for normal priority
1, for high priority

Note:
A person record's application tabs are not ordered by the applications' ranks.

Step 1. Creating the Rule

Click Database in the top navigation bar and select Rules.
Click New Rule.
Enter a Name.
Select Configurable Joins - Application for the Base setting.
Select "Application Priority" for the Rule Type setting.
Specify a Folder, if desired.
Set a Priority.
Set Status to "Preview".
Click Save.
Adjust the Action setting to "Replace Values from Formula".

Step 2. Configuring the Rule

Your next step is to filter on specific records that you want to assign a certain application priority. There are many different ways of prioritizing applications, and we've outlined two common configurations below.

Setting High Priority for Applications in Active Periods with a Specific Decision

This approach is common for graduate schools where applicants typically have concurrent applications, but they want to prioritize ranking applications with a specific decision.

Build a base join from "Application" to "Lookup Round".
Join from "Lookup Round" to "Lookup Period".
Build a base join from "Application" to "Decision by Rank Confirmed", and enter "1" for the Rank Confirmed setting. This will grab the most recently confirmed decision.
Add the "Active Status" filter from the "Lookup Period" join and select "Active".
Add the "Code" filter from the "Decision by Rank Confirmed" join and select the desired decisions.
Select "High Priority" for the Application Priority setting.
Save the rule.

Setting High Priority for Applications in Active Period and Admissions Application

This approach is common for schools that have separate applications for admissions and scholarships. In our example, we're assuming that these two applications will always have different round keys.

Build a base join from "Application" to "Lookup Round".
Join from "Lookup Round" to "Lookup Period".
Add the "Active Status" filter from the "Lookup Period" join and select "Active".
Add the "Key" filter from the "Lookup Round" join and select the desired round key.
Select "High Priority" for the Application Priority setting.
Save the rule.

Step 3. Creating the Default Rule

All application priority rules are automatically placed in the "Application Priority" exclusivity group. You can setup a default rule to set the application priority for any applications that don't meet the filter criteria for one of your other application priority rules.

Create a new rule using the instructions in Step 1. Starting the Rule above. This time, you will want to set the "Priority" to a value above all of your other application priority rules, such as "999".
Do not add any filters.
Select "Normal Priority" for the Application Priority setting.
Save the rule.

Step 4. Testing and Activating the Rule