Learn about the a few options in setting up your Reader Review Workflow so your program can effectively use Slate to review applications to your program(s).
The Review Workflow in Slate: Flexibility Means Making Choices
In general, all applications to the UW-Madison Graduate School go through the same three basic steps:
- A prospective student fills out an application and submits it to a program.
- The program reviews the application, and either recommends the applicant to the Graduate School for admission or denies the applicant.
- Recommended applications are reviewed by the Graduate School and processed.
And that is about where the similarities end.
When designing the Reader and the Review Workflow for Graduate School Admissions, the Slate Project Team team knew that building a "one size fits all" system is a difficult (if not impossible) task. So, instead, we did our best to design a system that would provide enough flexibility so that the 300 programs in the UW-Madison Graduate School could effectively choose how to use Slate's Review Workflow to organize their applications. This flexibility means that Graduate Program Coordinators and their programs will need think about how they want to set up their Review Workflow.
Conceptualizing Your Program's Review Workflow in Slate: A Few Models
It can be hard to think about how your program might want to use the bins available in the Review Workflow to fit your specific review process, especially when Slate is new to you. To help you and your program with making these decisions, we've provided three example Review Workflow models for you to consider.
To review how these might work you can:
Model 1: Query & Go
In this model, application links are exported into a spreadsheet, and that spreadsheet is used to direct reviewers to the applications needing review.
START | Prospective students start applications
When prospective students begin an application and select your program, they will show up in the Awaiting Submission bin, which is located at the top of the Awaiting Materials column on the left side of the Review Workflow. (Note: the applications in the Awaiting Materials column are incomplete applications.)
1: Applications submitted
Once prospective students submit their applications, the applications will automatically move into the Awaiting Recommendations bin, located in the Awaiting Materials column. Applications will stay in the Awaiting Recommendations bin until all of their required recommendations have been received. For example, if your program requires three letters of recommendation, the application will stay in the Awaiting Recommendations bin until all three letters have been received. (Note: the program sets the number of required recommendations, and you can manually move the application to another bin if you wish to review an application that has yet to fulfill this requirement.)
2: Recommendations arrive
Once required recommendations are received, applications will automatically move into the (G00) Grad Coordinator Review bin. Applications will stay in this bin until you decide to move them to another bin.
In this "Query and Go" model, the applications will collect here until you are ready to query the applications for export.
3: Export application info and links to spreadsheet
Using the Homepage Queries, you can query your list of applicants and export them into an Excel Spreadsheet, like the example in the screenshot below.
One of the columns in the spreadsheet will contain unique links to each prospective student's application in Slate. Any reviewer who has access to your applicants in Slate will be able to click a link to review an application. In the screenshot above, you can see these links in the right-most column. If you were to click the link in the row for Buckingham Badger, as depicted, you'd be brought to the Application Tab in Buckingham Badger's Person Record, where you'd then be able to review Bucky's application materials.
In this "Query and Go" model, the next step is for the program's admissions committee to review these applications in whichever way they see fit (hopefully using principles from the Holistic Admissions Toolkit!). Once they have decided on which applicants they'd like to recommend for admission and which applicants to deny, the admissions committee can inform the Grad Coordinator of their decisions.
4: Graduate Coordinator recommends and denies applicants by moving applications to the appropriate bin
With the admissions committee's decisions recorded, the Graduate Coordinator can move the applicants into the appropriate bin in the Decisions column, the column to the furthest right in the Review Workflow, which sends it onto the Graduate School for final review and processing. Once an application has been moved to a bin in the Decisions column (furthest right), it will automatically be sent to the Graduate School for review (typically within 15 minutes). In an upcoming module, we will demonstrate how you can keep track of your applicants beyond this point.
Model 2: Review Rounds
In this model, applicants will go under three rounds of review — but remember that this is just an example! Perhaps your program has only one round of review, or two rounds of review, or maybe even 5 rounds of review. All of those scenarios will work just fine in the Review Workflow, as demonstrated below.
START | Prospective students start applications
When prospective students begin an application and select your program, they will show up in the Awaiting Submission bin, which is located at the top of the Awaiting Materials column on the left side of the Review Workflow. (Note: the applications in the Awaiting Materials column are incomplete applications.)
1: Applications submitted
Once prospective students submit their applications, the applications will automatically move into the Awaiting Recommendations bin, located in the Awaiting Materials column. Applications will stay in the Awaiting Recommendations bin until all of their required recommendations have been received. For example, if your program requires three letters of recommendation, the application will stay in the Awaiting Recommendations bin until all three letters have been received. (Note: the program sets the number of required recommendations, and you can manually move the application to another bin if you wish to review an application that has yet to fulfill this requirement.)
2: Recommendations arrive
Once required recommendations are received, applications will automatically move into the (G00) Grad Coordinator Review bin. Applications will stay in this bin until you decide to move them to another bin.
In this "Review Rounds" model, the applications will collect here until you are ready to move them to Bin 1 for the first round of review. If processing rolling admissions, you can move applications one at a time as they arrive, or if reviewing all the applications at the same time, you can move all of the applications over at once. Again, the choice is yours, and we'll show you how to do both in an upcoming module.
3: Applications sent to Bin 1 for first round of review
Once applications are moved to Bin 1, they will show up in the faculty's version of the Review Workflow, which will show only Bins 1-5 in the Faculty/Committee column, as in the screenshot below.
Reviewers can click into Bin 1 to see a list of applicants in the bin and begin the process of reviewing applications. Once reviewers in Bin 1 have completed their reviews, they can move the applicant onto Bin 2.
4: Applications sent to Bin 2 for second round of review
Applications in Bin 2 are reviewed for a second time and then moved onto Bin 3.
5: Applications sent to Bin 3 for third round of review
Applications in Bin 3 are reviewed for a final review in this example model.
6: Applications sent to Graduate Coordinator for final processing
Once reviewers have decided on which applicants they'd like to recommend for admission and which applicants to deny, the admissions committee can inform the Grad Coordinator of their decisions, and send the applications onto Grad Coord Final Processing bin.
7: Graduate Coordinator recommends and denies applicants by moving applications to the appropriate bin
With the application having gone under multiple rounds of review, the Graduate Coordinator can move the applicants into the appropriate bin in the Decisions column, the column to the furthest right in the Review Workflow, which sends it onto the Graduate School for final review and processing. Once an application has been moved to a bin in the Decisions column (furthest right), it will automatically be sent to the Graduate School for review (typically within 15 minutes). In an upcoming module, we will demonstrate how you can keep track of your applicants beyond this point.
Model 3: Multiple Review Teams
In this example, applicants will be sorted to be reviewed by four different teams — perhaps based on intended track of study within the program or some other applicant criteria. Please note that four review teams is just an arbitrary example; this model will work well for any program with 1-5 review teams.
START | Prospective students start applications
When prospective students begin an application and select your program, they will show up in the Awaiting Submission bin, which is located at the top of the Awaiting Materials column on the left side of the Review Workflow. (Note: the applications in the Awaiting Materials column are incomplete applications.)
1: Applications submitted
Once prospective students submit their applications, the applications will automatically move into the Awaiting Recommendations bin, located in the Awaiting Materials column. Applications will stay in the Awaiting Recommendations bin until all of their required recommendations have been received. For example, if your program requires three letters of recommendation, the application will stay in the Awaiting Recommendations bin until all three letters have been received. (Note: the program sets the number of required recommendations, and you can manually move the application to another bin if you wish to review an application that has yet to fulfill this requirement.)
2: Recommendations arrive
Once required recommendations are received, applications will automatically move into the (G00) Grad Coordinator Review bin. Applications will stay in this bin until you decide to move them to another bin.
In this "Multiple Review Teams" model, the applications will collect here until you are ready to sort the applicants into the four different review teams.
3: Applications sent to different review teams in the Faculty/Committee Review column
Applications are sent to the correct review teams, each associated with its own bin in the Faculty/Committee Review column (Bin 1, Bin 2, Bin 3, and Bin 4 in this specific example). You can sort these applications one at a time as they become ready for review, or you can move all of the applications over at once; we'll show you how to do both in an upcoming module.
Once sorted into bins in the Faculty/Committee Review column, applications will show up in the faculty's version of the Review Workflow. In the example screenshot below, you can see that six applications have been dispersed between Bin 1, Bin 2, Bin 3, and Bin 4.
Reviewers can then click into their team's bin and begin the process of reviewing applications.
4: Applications sent to Graduate Coordinator for final processing
Once each review team has decided on which applicants they'd like to recommend for admission and which applicants to deny, the admissions committee can inform the Grad Coordinator of their decisions, and send the applications onto Grad Coord Final Processing bin.
5: Graduate Coordinator recommends and denies applicants by moving applications to the appropriate bin
The Graduate Coordinator, having received each review team's decisions, can move the applicants into the appropriate bin in the Decisions column, the column to the furthest right in the Review Workflow, which sends it onto the Graduate School for final review and processing. Once an application has been moved to a bin in the Decisions column (furthest right), it will automatically be sent to the Graduate School for review (typically within 15 minutes). In an upcoming module, we will demonstrate how you can keep track of your applicants beyond this point.
