Getting Started with Applications

Slate was tailor-made to process applications:

• 👩‍🎓 Applicant-centric: Designed with users in mind, Slate offers an intuitive, mobile-optimized interface, easy document uploads, and nudges to encourage completion.

• 🏠 Self-hosted: The Slate-hosted application streamlines and hyper-personalizes your application process. You can also import applications from external sources.

• ✨ AI-enabled: Use Slate AI to analyze application materials, perform calculations on transcripts, and more.

This video provides an overview of the features available in the Slate-hosted application. It is comprehensive: feel free to jump around using the timestamps in the accordion below.

Building an application in Slate in three phases

There are three main phases to building the Slate application:

• Phase I: Core Components: Create Slate objects that store application data.

• Phase II: The Slate-Hosted Application: Build out and test the applicant experience.

• Phase III: Checklists, Automations, & The Status Page: Configure the automations that keep your application humming along.

We break these phases down into the following checklists.

Phase I: Core components

In the first phase of application building, you establish the fundamental data structures on which your application will run. You’ll also prepare Slate to receive external applications, test scores, and payments.

1. Read Introduction to Periods and Rounds.

2. Create periods. A period must be active in order to use the application editor.

3. Create rounds. Rounds should be inactive until ready to go live.

4. Create application-scoped fields, person-scoped fields where necessary, and prompts for prompt-based fields.

5. Create the materials to be collected as part of the application.

6. Create the forms that store metadata associated with materials.

7. Create a material to store application data on the student record upon submission.

8. Configure Slate to import external applications and test scores by adding source formats from the Source Format Library. Create custom source formats as necessary.

9. Configure your database to accept payments.

With these foundational elements in place, you can move on to crafting the applicant’s experience in Phase II.

Phase II: The Slate-hosted application

In the second application building phase, you create the interface that applicants use to complete your application. You’ll also test the application from the user’s perspective and set up submission requirements.

Application structure

1. Get an overview of the Slate-hosted Application.

2. Explore the Application Editor.

3. Consider creating a form that creates applications.

Application pages

1. Explore the application pages that come with your database.

2. Learn how to create a custom application page and a custom application widget.  

3. For each existing application page, learn how it can be customized or replaced as necessary.

4. When you’ve finalized your application pages, learn how to show or hide them conditionally.

Application submission requirements

1. Learn how submission requirements work in Slate.

2. Create submission requirements as needed.

Application testing

Learn how to test the application by impersonating an applicant.

Phase III: Checklists, automations, & the status page

Lastly, you configure the application checklist, set up the rules that automate the hard stuff for you, and flesh out the applicant status portal.

1. Create checklist items and assign fulfillment requirements.

2. Organize all checklist items into checklist groups.

3. Create checklist rules to assign items in checklist groups.

4. Add and activate application status rules from the Slate Template Library; adjust as needed.

5. Use Application Editor to modify the Slate delivered status page or create custom status portal using the Portal Editor (Optional).

   • The status page settings pertain to a Slate-delivered status page only. If using a custom status portal, edits can be made directly to the status portal using the Portal Editor.

6. Build payment rules where appropriate.

7. Consider employing identity verification.

➡️ First up: Introduction to application periods and rounds

Your first step in building your Slate application is understanding how periods and rounds shape your application structure.

📚 First article in this series: Application periods and rounds