📚 Part of the series Application Building Phase 1: Core components

A Slate material is any document stored with a record.

Material types are used to categorize the various kinds of documents and store them on a record. Some example Materials may include transcripts, letters of recommendations, and essays.

• From the Admissions Office perspective: In addition to providing a way to store electronic documents, Material types also make it possible to read these parts of the application in the Slate Reader. Material types establish the way documents appear to readers.

• From the Applicant perspective: Applicants can see that a specific material was received on their Applicant Status page. Furthermore, Material types are needed in order to generate the specific Checklist items required for an application to be considered complete.

File types that can be uploaded to a custom material include: .doc, .docx, .odg, .odp, .odt, .pdf, .ppt, .pptx, .rtf, .xls, .xlsx, .wdp, .bmp, .gif, .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .tif, and .tiff

How materials arrive in Slate

Materials can be uploaded to the person's record in the following ways:

Upload through the Applicant Status Portal

1. The applicant uploads materials via the applicant status page

2. The materials are assigned to the student record

Physical drop-off, scanning

1. A student mails or drops off the materials

2. Operations staff scan the materials

3. The materials are assigned to the student record

Upload Dataset

1. The documents are loaded into Upload Dataset. For example, via a CommonApp feed

2. The materials are mapped by a Slate user

3. The materials are assigned to the student record

Slate.org

Slate.org can be used to share information regarding applicant data between undergraduate admission offices and high school counselors, independent counselors, and community-based organizations.

📖 Further reading: Slate.org Application Sharing Settings

➡️ Up next: Creating materials

You’ve gotten a sense for what materials are and how they arrive in Slate. Now, let’s create new materials.

📚 Next article in this series: Creating Materials