This section will cover general guidelines for departments regarding the admissions process. We will update these pages regularly as improvements are made and new policies are implemented.
If you are looking for how-to guides on using Slate, please see Slate Guides.
Explore the pages in this section for assistance with:
Admissions Action Items for Graduate Coordinators by Month:
September
Ensure your department website is up-to-date regarding application requirements and deadlines.
Attend the annual meeting for Admissions & Graduate Coordinators.
Confirm that any of your applicants who requested to defer have the Defer decision on their Slate record and are in the “Outcome - Defer” bin. You may also need to look over the applicants in your “Outcome - Defer” bin to be sure that you approved those deferrals. Communicate with your evaluator about whether your department would like to admit the deferred students to the new term or would like to review those applications again. For more information regarding deferrals, see https://ucsdcollab.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/GDCP/pages/283902738/FAQ#Deferrals.
October
Communicate with your new students who still have Provisional status.
If a student has Provisional status in Slate, that means they still need to send Admissions their official documents so that we can finalize their admission. Use the Provisionally Admitted Students query template to see which of your students are still Provisional. (For instructions on how to use a query template, see https://ucsdcollab.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/GDCP/pages/284066849/Query+Cheat+Sheet#How-to-Use-Query-Templates.) Students can see what documents they need to submit by visiting their applicant portal. Any student who still has Provisional status by the fourth week of Fall quarter will have a hold placed on their account that will prevent them from registering for future quarters.
November
Ensure that your Review Forms for upcoming nominations are ready.
Provide our Holistic Admissions resources to your reviewers.
Confirm that your reviewers have permissions to access Slate and read applications. If you need to add a new reviewer to Slate, see https://ucsdcollab.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/GDCP/pages/54135942/Slate+Guides#Adding-a-New-User-to-Slate. Be sure to provide your new users with our Slate guides on https://ucsdcollab.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/GDCP/pages/54133586/Reader#Navigating-the-Reader and Review Forms.
December
Review the language in the communications that you intend to send to nominated applicants this cycle.
If your department sends out a Financial Support Letter, please be sure it follows our Financial Support Letter Guidance.
If your department sends out a Nomination Letter, please be sure it follows our Nomination Letters guidance.
January
Begin (or continue) reviewing and nominating applicants.
If you need to assign individual applications to your queue or to your reviewers, see Assigning & Moving Applications.
If you need to filter for certain applicants (for example, applicants who selected specific faculty members), you can do so by Building a Query.
Once you have a query, you can assign large numbers of applications for review or nomination by using Batch Management: Assigning, Nominating & Denying.
February
Check your “Awaiting Docs” and “Awaiting LOEs” bins for applicants who need additional documentation before they can be admitted.
For instructions on completing the LOE form, see LOE Forms.
March
Allow up to 12 business days for processing nominated applicants as this month is the peak workload at Admissions!
Continue to check your “Awaiting Docs” and “Awaiting LOEs” bins regularly.
April
Prepare for the April 15th deadline.
Any applicants who were admitted before March 25th have until at least April 15th to reply to their offer. If, after April 15th, you would like to update the decision for those applicants who have still not responded to their admission offer, ask your evaluator to Batch Decline those admits. Remember that the Decision Reply Form does not automatically close after a deadline, so applicants can continue to submit a decision unless you ask your evaluator to manually Decline for those applicants who missed the deadline. For more information see https://ucsdcollab.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/GDCP/pages/283902738/FAQ#Admitted-Applicants.
Continue to check your “Awaiting Docs” and “Awaiting LOEs” bins regularly.
May
If you would like to close the Decision Reply Form for applicants who have still not responded to their admission offer, ask your evaluator to Batch Decline those admits. For more information see https://ucsdcollab.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/GDCP/pages/283902738/FAQ#Decisions.
You can query for your Admits who have still not responded to their admission offer using the Admit No Reply query template. For instructions on how to use the query template, see https://ucsdcollab.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/GDCP/pages/284066849/Query+Cheat+Sheet#How-to-Use-Query-Templates.
Continue to check your “Awaiting Docs” and “Awaiting LOEs” bins regularly.
June
Direct your incoming students to check their applicant portal regularly for updates, as Admissions will begin finalizing documents during this time.
Complete the Admissions & Slate Feedback Form, the annual survey we send out to our graduate coordinators. We would love to hear your suggestions and ideas for improvements during the next admissions cycle!
July
Complete the Application Updates Form from Admissions in order to notify us of any changes that need to be made for your next cycle’s applications. This includes open/close dates, major code changes, custom pages/questions changes, faculty lists updates, and GPA requirement preferences.
Clean out any applications that are still in your bins. All of the Department Review bins and Committee Review bins should be completely empty before we begin the next admission cycle. If you have any applications still “floating” in these bins, please assign decisions to them. Notify your evaluator if you need assistance.
To move an application between bins, see https://ucsdcollab.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/GDCP/pages/54135911/Assigning+Moving+Applications#Moving-an-Application-to-Another-Bin.
To move multiple applications between bins, query for the applications using the Bin filter and then follow the instructions on Batch Management: Assigning, Nominating & Denying.
Continue to direct your incoming students to check their applicant portal regularly for updates regarding their official documents.
August
Communicate with your evaluator about any changes that need to be made to your application. This includes changes to custom page questions and updates to your faculty list. We will ask to have these changes submitted to us by mid-August at the latest, as we need to have time to make the updates before the applications open.