Slate Tips & Tricks

SLATE Basics:

• Link to Slate: https://apply.mit.edu/manage/reader/
• Starting to review: navigate to "Queue" to view your unread assigned applications for review.
• How to review a folder: MIT AeroAstro Slate Reader Procedures.pdf

Useful Information for Reviewers:

• How to access any folder regardless of bin: to search through all files regardless of bin, click on the SLATE icon at the top left of the screen, and navigate to "Search" on the left menu. Once here, ensure you have "All bins" selected from the drop down menu on the right. 
• Sorting folders: under the "All bins" drop down menu on the right, there is an icon . By clicking on that icon and selecting "Scores", you can sort the folders by score or other criteria.
• Applying filters: In SLATE, you can apply specific filters based on the information you are looking for. Examples include filtering by a specific research area, identified faculty member, school, military affiliation, etc. 
  • Filters How To: Aero/Astro Faculty
  • With the same logic, you can also search by applying filters for a specific school name (choose "name contains" under "school" filters, then enter school name) or military branch.
  • SLATE also provides pre-defined filters: if you click on the filter icon on the right-hand side of the SLATE interface, you can easily filter applicants by research area, or sort them by score:
    
  • Note: remember to remove the filters when you no longer need them. You can do that by clicking on the filter icon and select "Reset View".
• Offline reading: It is not best practice nor recommended to download files as PDFs to review offline. If you need to review files offline, files can only be downloaded one at a time (not in batch) and must be set up to be password protected or housed in a folder that is password protected in order to protect student data. Any downloaded files must also be purged at the end of the cycle per the MIT Records Retention Policy (please consult the Resources on Data Security and Retention below in this page). If you must read files offline, you can click on the student's name (bolded on top of the screen when a file is open), and select "download PDF". 
• Link to faculty dashboard: https://apply.mit.edu/portal/reader_portal (experimental tool used to view history of reviews)
  • The faculty dashboard allows you to see the number of files currently in your queue as well as your completed files and the associated review form.
  • The dashboard is not a substitute for reader. In order to review a file and submit a review form, you still must do this in reader.

SLATE Workflow for Advanced Users:

• Files flow from left to right, top to bottom in the SLATE bin structure, click on "Browse" in menu to view bin structure.
• Two readers are assigned per file in Round 1, review forms are hidden at this stage to mitigate bias.
• Though files may appear locked if they are currently in a reader's queue (lock icon and line greyed out), all files are still viewable by clicking on the page icon on the right side of the record line.

Resources on Data Security and Retention:

• FERPA Requirements and Student Data:
  • Atlas training course on FERPA
  • Registrar’s Office explainer on FERPA
  • MIT Policies & Procedures: 11.3 Privacy of Student Records
• Data Handling and Security:
  • MIT IS&T Knowledge Base: IT Policies and Data/Log Retention
  • MIT Written Information Security Program
    • IS&T Data Security self-evaluation
    • Best practices to handle data securely
  • MITnet Rules of Use
• MIT Policies & Procedures: 13.2 Policy on the Use of Information Technology Resources