Slate was tailor-made to process applications:

• 👩‍🎓 Applicant-friendly: Designed with users in mind, Slate offers an intuitive, mobile-optimized interface, easy document uploads, and real-time status checks.

• 🏠 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.

In this article, we outline the steps you’ll take to build out your application management process in Slate.

Phase 1: Core components

In this phase, you establish the fundamental data structures on which your application will run.

📝 Steps one through five apply to both imported applications and the Slate-hosted application.

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. For imported applications, add & remap application source formats from Source Format Library. If a source format is not available in the Source Format Library, create a custom New Source Format.

7. Add test types to collect test score information.

8. Configure Slate Payments.

Phase 2: Application structure

In the next phase, you fill out the application’s pages. You also test the application from the user’s perspective and set up submission requirements.

1. Create Application Page-scoped forms.

2. (Optional) Add conditional logic to forms, where necessary

3. (Optional) Create Page Keys in Application Logic to show/hide entire pages

4. (Optional) Use Application Editor to customize Slate delivered pages

5. (Optional) Use Application Editor to manage additional pages - e.g., Digital Portfolio

6. Use Application Editor to add custom form pages. These pages can all be built in a more sustainable manner using Forms:

   • Custom App Page (Special Use Only)

   • Essays (Retired)

   • Instructional Page

   • Upload Material

7. (Optional) Use Application Editor to add Page Keys.

8. Create submission requirements (hard/soft fails) using Application Logic.

9. Create system email notifications for Slate Applications.

   • If importing applications, system emails will not apply. Create notification emails using Deliver.

10. (Optional) Create custom recommendation/school report forms.

11. Test the application(s).

Phase 3: 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

➡️ Up next: Introduction to application periods and rounds

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

📚 Next article in this series: Application periods and rounds