A Slate Material is any document that needs to be stored with any record. Material types are used to categorize the various kinds of documents and store them 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.

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

Take deliberate and thoughtful steps! Materials, Checklists, and the Applicant Status page are all closely related items in Slate. As such, most Slate Partners find it helpful to do modest development in Slate when they are just getting started with the Phase II tasks. Soon enough it will become clear how all of these items are related and work together.

Pay special attention to the Best Practice features when moving through the Materials and Checklist documentation. Heeding that advice will ensure that a more manageable business process is created for long-term sustainability.

Tip

Did you know? 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. See this Slate Scholar article on Slate.org Application Sharing Settings for more information.

Creating a New Material

1. Select Database on the top navigation bar and select Materials.

2. Select New Material.

3. Enter the following configurations:

   • Status: Set the Status to Active.

   • Key: Provide a unique identifier for the material. Typically this would be similar to the name of the material. For example, Resume might be listed here as "resume."

   • Name: Give the material type a name.

   • Access: Decide if applicants should be able to upload this material through their Applicant Status page. Applicants will see an upload button and may send any document that has the proper Access setting. Otherwise, uploading ability is limited to Slate Administrators only.

   • Group: Leave this set to Default Group.

Click the Slate Scholar Lightbulb    in the top left corner for a complete listing of all setting descriptions.