Success Story: Georgetown University
Gaining Efficiencies with Slate and Slate.org
In 2017, when Georgetown University, the oldest Jesuit university in the US, wanted to move their largely paper-based recruitment and review process to one that was more efficient and streamlined, they had a few guiding objectives. A major pain point was the paper review and manual process of receiving materials for over 20k applications. Georgetown administrators also wanted to improve the way they communicated with school counselors to provide the status of materials being gathered, as well as, ultimately, sharing of decisions.
The first step in their journey with Slate as their chosen CRM was to build out the application where the data would be gathered. Because Georgetown does not accept the Common App, it was essential that the CRM they selected could support the creation of their own unique application. In addition to Slate’s robust application building functionality, administrators at Georgetown also leveraged Slate’s recommendation forms, student status pages, and Slate Reader to create an electronic and automated new process.
In 2019, with all of these previously manual processes fully migrated to Slate, admissions staff at Georgetown turned their attention to further improving communication with applicants and school counselors by opting in to share applicant data, statuses, checklists, and decisions in Slate.org--a free platform designed to strengthen communication between undergraduate admissions offices, counselors, and students during the college search and application process. As a result of Georgetown participating in Slate.org, counselors were able to view missing checklist items for their students and submit materials such as transcripts directly to the university. These materials were automatically matched to material types in Slate, which helped Georgetown gain efficiencies in completing applications for review. Georgetown has had over 19k materials submitted by counselors through Slate.org! Additionally, the unique integration between Slate and Slate.org has allowed Georgetown to share application decisions directly with counselors who are enrolled in Slate.org.
“Slate.org was a welcome addition to our application process in 2019 and it has become an essential tool in our admissions cycle. We have found it very effective in communicating with high school counselors and improving our missing materials process. With greater efficiency in material collection, we are able to review a greater number of complete applications earlier in the review process than ever before. When it comes time to communicate decisions to counselors, the transparency that Slate.org provides has been helpful and refreshing, especially allowing counselors to follow their waitlisted student’s process. We look forward to expanding our use of Slate.org with Slate.org portals to continue sharing information and increasing communication with our partners across the desk.”