Understanding Data in Slate
Slate is the customer relationship management (CRM) system used primarily by admissions teams to manage and analyze data for prospects and applicants. It tracks interactions, collects application materials, and supports communications throughout the recruitment and admissions life cycle.
What Slate Is For
Slate is designed to capture everything that happens before a student enrolls. It manages relationships, not official academic records. Think of it as the workspace where admissions activity happens — outreach, applications, events, and decisions — all in one place.
Typical Data Available in Slate
- Prospect and inquiry records
- Application details and submission status
- Admissions decisions and checklist items
- Communication history (emails, texts, calls, events)
- Form and survey responses
- Staff assignments, territory management, and recruitment tracking
When to Request Data from Slate
You should request data from Slate when your needs involve:
- Recruitment and outreach analytics
- Application volume, status, or decision trends
- Event registration or attendance tracking
- Communication engagement and outcomes
- Pre-enrollment populations such as admits or deferred applicants
- Custom form or workflow reporting related to admissions processes
How Slate Data Works
Slate data is dynamic and transactional — it reflects current activity in the admissions cycle. As applications move through stages (prospect → inquiry → applicant → enrolled), data in Slate evolves alongside that journey. Because of this, Slate is ideal for understanding admissions pipelines, marketing effectiveness, and operational progress, but not for long-term academic reporting.
Queries vs. Reports in Slate
Slate provides multiple tools for retrieving and analyzing data. The two most common are Queries and Reports. While they both display information from the same database, they serve different purposes and are used in different stages of your work.
Queries
A Query is used to gather records that meet specific criteria. Think of it as a search or filter that answers questions like: “Who applied for Fall 2025?” or “Which applicants have missing materials?” Queries return record lists that can be exported, used in populations, or fed into mailings and workflows.
- Used to filter and extract specific records.
- Can be exported, scheduled, or shared with other processes.
- Best for building populations for communications or operational tasks.
Reports
A Report summarizes or visualizes data from existing queries. It answers questions like: “How many applicants do we have by program?” or “What’s the current yield rate by term?” Reports are typically used for aggregated counts, charts, or dashboards rather than lists of individual records.
- Used to analyze or summarize query results.
- Display data in charts, tables, or dashboards.
- Often used for leadership reporting, tracking, or progress monitoring.
In short: Queries find records, and Reports show insights. Most reports depend on queries to define what data they include.
What to Know Before Requesting Slate Data
- Request only the data needed for a legitimate university purpose.
- Include enough detail to identify your intended population (term, program, status, etc.).
- Data definitions and filters in Slate may differ from other systems; confirm how fields are being pulled.
- Some data may require approval from your department or data steward before release.
Data Use and Privacy
All Slate data are protected by university privacy and data security policies, including FERPA. Anyone accessing or receiving Slate data must:
- Handle it responsibly and securely.
- Avoid sharing with unauthorized individuals.
- Use it only for official business purposes.