SLATE Basics:

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.
  • Where can I see the review forms I have already submitted? For instance, I would like to look back on what I wrote for a certain student.

    •  The faculty dashboard is the best place for that: https://apply.mit.edu/portal/reader_portal. Here you can see all the folders that you have reviewed. In particular, if you scroll to "Current Cycle Submitted Review Forms" and click on the applicant you want to look at, you can open their Slate application and, under "Review Forms", you can check the evaluation you gave.

  • On my SLATE interface, I cannot find an applicant or I only see a subset of the applicants I'm expecting. How can I fix that?
    • This is typically a symptom that you have some filter enabled (i.e., the "filter button" is active, as indicated by its yellowish color below): 
       

      To remove the filter, click on the filter button at the bottom right below “All Bins”.

    • If you still can't see the applicant, you can search again in the entire pool, by clicking on the SLATE logo and then the "Search" tab on the left-hand side in SLATE: this shows the entire list of applicants (including those with incomplete/triaged/rejected applications).
    • If you want to search for students with specific status (e.g., who advanced to Round 2), you can click on the SLATE logo and then on the "Browse" tab and select the pool you are interested in.

Other Notes and Missing Features in SLATE:

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:

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