Building a Query
- Sage Longpre
- Mary Hogan
On this page we will go over how to build a query from scratch by adding your own exports and filters.
Query Purpose
Before you begin building your query, consider what information you are looking for and for what purpose. This will help you determine if a query is the best way to gather that information.
Important: Remember that admissions committees may not consider the following information when making admissions decisions:
Federal ethnicity
University of California ethnicity
Disability status
Gender identity
Sexual orientation
Gender expression
This information is gathered for data-reporting purposes only. If you are building and running queries to pull information about your current applicants, it is extremely important that your queries do not include the above fields to ensure UCSD remains compliant with state and federal privacy and affirmative action-related policies.
If you have queries that include the above fields, we ask that you remove them and ensure that this information has not been shared with your admissions committee(s).
If your department is interested in accessing data of this nature, our team and Institutional Research will work with you to pull this data without the inclusion of protected personal information - i.e. any details that can identify an applicant such as name, date of birth, address, and the like.
See this note from our Holistic Admissions information, and review those pages closely for more details.
*Consideration may be given to applicants’ backgrounds and life experiences that contribute significantly to an educationally beneficial mix of students and enhance educational diversity. See this page for our example rubric for how you may evaluate these experiences in the admissions process. Race, religion, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin may not be used as categorical criteria for admission under California state and Federal law. The University of California is governed by Federal legislation that requires tracking and reporting of data on access to higher education using recognized categories and requests self-identification by applicants on a voluntary basis in compliance with Federal law and policy. Applicant responses to these questions may not be used by departments when reviewing applications for admission to UC San Diego.
New Query
At the top of the Queries page, click the button that says New Query to begin building your query. If you want to build a temporary query that will not save in your department folder, you can instead click the lightning bolt to create a Quick Query.
In the pop-up box, you will fill out multiple areas to help organize your query into the right place. Filling these areas in correctly is extremely helpful for keeping queries organized for both departments and GEPA!
Name: Prefix the title with the name of your department. You can use an abbreviation or the full name, but it is best practice to be consistent across all titles. Then give your query a descriptive name that describes what the query does.
User: This box should automatically be set to your name.
Realm: Select your department.
Sharing: You may check this box if you would like other Slate users to be able to view and run your query.
Folder: Select your department.
Type: This will automatically be set to “Local.”
Base: Select “Applications - Old WF.”
When you click Save, the page will reload and bring you to the Edit Query page. Here is where you will add your exports, filters, and sorts for the query you want to create. Exports are the fields you want to review in your query, and filters are the conditions you set for what types of results the query will return. For example, if you wanted to run a query to see the citizenship status of all your PhD students, the export would be “Citizenship Status” and the filter would be PhD students.
Exports
To begin adding exports to your query, click the Export button on the right side of the page.
A pop-up box will appear where you can choose your exports. The first time you see this box you’ll need to check the Slate Template Library option to be able to see all the exports available for you. The option will save so you don’t need to check it again next time.
Type the export you’re looking for into the search bar. There are many exports to choose from, so you may find it helpful to search by your department.
Click Continue to add the Exports you’ve chosen to your query. You can add multiple exports, click and drag the exports to re-order them, or click the X at the end of the Export box to remove them.
Filters
To add a Filter to your query, click the Filter button at the right side of the page.
Just like with Exports, you can click the Slate Template Library box to view all the filters that are available for you to use. Use the search bar to locate the filter you wish to add to your query and click continue. Most filters will have an additional step where you set the exact specifications of the filter. For example, if you select to filter by Entry Term, it will prompt you to choose which entry terms you want to filter by. You can select more than one option by holding Control on your keyboard when you click. When you are finished you can click Save to add the filter, or click “Save and Add New” to continue adding further filters.
Just like Exports, you can add multiple exports, click and drag the exports to re-order them, or click the X at the end of the Filter box to remove them.
Running Your Query
When you have finished building your query, click the name of the query at the very top of the page to go back to the main page.
From this main page, you can click the Run Query button at the bottom to run your query. On the right, you can click the Edit Query to add or remove some of your exports and filters. At the top, another Edit button will allow you to change the name or permissions of your query, or to make a copy of an existing query.
After you click Run Query, the next page will show you a preview of the query’s results. At the top of this page, you will see a drop-down list labelled Output. You can select to export your query in a number of different formats. You can also do some Batch Management to the results in your query, which is how you will do things like Batch Management: Assigning, Nominating & Denying applicants.