What happens to old submitted applications?

From the program's point of view

Shortly after courses for a new entry term starts, submitted applications to that term will be archived. For example: applications submitted to fall 2025 were archived on September 8, 2025, five days after courses for the fall term started.

Archived applications still exist in Slate, but they will be cleared out of any workflows (i.e., they won't show up in Reader bins) and certain actions can no longer be taken on them (e.g., requesting a term change). Think of these applications as resolved, closed, and/or processed.

If you look up an applicant who has an archived application in Slate, you will see that the application is labeled as Archived (see screenshot below).

From the applicant's point of view

When a submitted application is archived, the applicant won't be notified or see much of a difference to their account. Here are a few things that will happen:

• When the applicant logs into their Graduate School application portal, it will list all of their applications, both archived and in-progress. The archived applications will be labeled as archived (see screenshot below).
• When an applicant goes into an archived application's status page, it will look mostly the same as an active application status page, but there will be a few things the applicant can no longer do, such as update their recommenders, withdraw their application, or respond to the decision reply form.
  
  

What happens to old unsubmitted applications?

Unsubmitted applications that have an entry term selected will remain open for a few weeks after the entry term has begun. If no action has been taken on these applications to update the term, they will be deleted.

Deleted unsubmitted applications no longer exist in Slate and therefore will also be cleared out of any workflows (i.e., they won't show up in Reader bins). However, the applicant's data that is person-scoped (e.g., their login and password information and any uploaded transcripts) will still exist in Slate and will be attached to the person record.

Unsubmitted applications that do not have an entry term selected will also be cleared out eventually due to 365 days of inactivity or no logins.