All Slate Reviews
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Ryan
Verified reviewer
Higher Education, 201-500 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed January 2019
This is the BEST CRM for education that you will find
Our organization has been using Slate for 3 years and we are still in love with the product. It might sound strange, but I look forward to coming into work just to use the software. It makes our jobs so much easier that it's released a lot of tension that was in the office with our previous vendor.
PROSThe balance between features, flexibility, and setup is unmatched by any other product I've used. The thing I most like about Slate is that it is so easy to use. I haven't used any other product that gets usability this spot on.
CONSAt the yearly Slate Summit when new features are announced, it can take awhile for them to be added to the software. However, this is really more that they have setup such high expectations on response to issues, that delayed release of a feature seeks like a big issue.
Sarah
Verified reviewer
Higher Education, 1,001-5,000 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
3
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
3
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed November 2020
As powerful as your commitment
I'm not an IT person, so Slate has been challenging at times. Being an administrator, I've had to learn a lot about coding and SQL to really make the most of it. I've spent many, many hours troubleshooting issues and reading through their Knowledge Base to understand how everything works—and even then, I don't always get it right. Because of this huge learning curve, I've become the primary contact in admissions for all questions relating to Slate. While it makes sense that not everyone will have the time to devote to learning the ins and outs, I'd recommend having at least a few people who are tasked with thoroughly understanding the product so it doesn't become a burden. Overall, we're extremely satisfied with Slate and we're happy we went with it, but it hasn't always been easy.
PROSSlate is by far the most comprehensive and powerful tool on the market for managing student information. As someone who specifically uses Slate for undergraduate admissions, I can say that our team would not be able to do the type of recruitment nor the sheer volume of recruitment that we're doing now without it. There are so many features that have helped to automate and streamline our processes—from application review and management to event management and email marketing campaigns. It can do just about anything you'd ever need it to, if you know how to set it up.
CONSAs someone who works heavily on the "back end" of the product setting everything up and managing our student data, I can say that Slate is only as powerful as your commitment to it. Because it's so customizable, that means your administrators are responsible for making Slate a useful and powerful tool for your team. There is little to nothing that comes set up out of the box and it's taken our small team of admissions and IT staff roughly 2 years to fully "implement" the product.
Reason for choosing Slate
I'd spoken with several people at other institutions who were switching from both of these products to Slate. That made it pretty clear that Slate was the product to have!
Reasons for switching to Slate
We made the switch for two reasons: 1. EMAS was going into retirement and we needed a new solution, and 2. I had done enough research and had heard enough rave review to know that Slate was the #1 choice, if you had the money.
John
Education Management, 1,001-5,000 employees
Used monthly for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
2
EASE OF USE
2
FUNCTIONALITY
2
Reviewed January 2024
SLATE is for database people, not educators evaluating applications
It makes the job of evaluating applicants more difficult. It may make the job of processing applicants and collecting dataq about a group of applicants easier.
PROSI don't like much about Slate. It does keep applications and allows people to enter things.
CONSIt does not have features that allow people to actually evaluate applications. It is more meant for people that work with databases. Very frustrating product that makes the job harder in many ways.
Reasons for switching to Slate
Our administration switched. It has made life in terms of evaluating applicants worse ever since this was done.
Kelsey
Higher Education, 201-500 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
4
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed November 2023
Excellent Admission CRM
Slate is completely customizable, which seems daunting at first, but is incredibly freeing. It was do absolutely anything we need it to do for our office and has without a doubt allowed us to work both harder and smarter and increase numbers and results across the board.
CONSBecause it's completely customizable, the company leans hard into a community support network. This can be super helpful, but also frustrating when you need support and other schools aren't able to help. The company seems to be actively working to solve this though.
Reasons for switching to Slate
The features Slate offers are far greater than those of JRM.
Nathalie
Education Management, 51-200 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed July 2022
Best I have ever used!
Overall we migrated from Salesforce and it has been smooth sailing! I couldn’t be happier and cannot even imagine us without Slate. Amazing work!
PROSThe most impactful feature on this software is the ease with pulling up data, queries and reports.
CONSMy least favorite thing is if a rule is broken it has a significant impact on the data. Although we have managed this issue better with having a small System team, it is something we keep an eye on constantly
Reasons for switching to Slate
Too many errors with Salesforce and reports restrictions.
Bryanne
Higher Education, 11-50 employees
Used daily for less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
4
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed January 2023
Connect with Students
Slate gives our intuition the ability to connect with students in a timely manner and track historical data based on a variety of factors. This allows our team to "work smarter not harder."
PROSThe ability to connect with students through personalized communication is highly impact as an Admissions Counselor. My team and I are able to set up queries to pull select groups of students into messaging lists to support students throughout the admissions process. The ability to communicate with students via text is powerful as many students will respond to a quick text message over an email.
CONSSlate can be rather particular. Having a CRM manager has a huge impact on my work on the satisfaction of my work. I cannot speak from the CRM manager perspective, as I imagine the "cons" of Slate are likely found there.
Katherine
Education Management, 1,001-5,000 employees
Used daily for less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
4
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed May 2022
Slate
Overall positive. I love the Timeline feature, it is my favorite thing to use.
PROSOnce you have gotten used to the set up, it isn't hard to use. You get to now the best places on a student profile to find information, track their application status, etc.
CONSIt's not super intuitive. Information that is closely related can be spread apart in different places (I often have to go between the Read Appliation section, Timeline Section, and The application tab to find the info I need) But other wise I don't have many issues with it.
Larry
Verified reviewer
Higher Education, 1,001-5,000 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed November 2018
By far the customer relationships management tool for admissions
Easy to use, customizable, fully useable by any level user. This tool is by far the best for managing the admissions process include amazing communications abilities, including texting, custom post cards, and of course emails.
CONSThey do make lots of enhancements, if that can be a negative?
Melinda
Verified reviewer
Higher Education
Used daily for less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
3
FUNCTIONALITY
3
Reviewed January 2018
Great application and CRM system
I work in two different instances of Slate. I love that you can have so many categorizations of roles, and make them as broad and customizable as you want. The learning resources are really good and help you step-by-step. The interactions at a glance is very helpful.
CONSThere are no email templates that are pre-installed. The company seems to be focused on advances in the application and reporting system and not so much as an event or email system. Also, there were many updates revealed as ready to use at last year's conference but now are still in development.
Paul
Verified reviewer
Used daily for less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed April 2018
The most powerful tool in our field. Simply put.
The creation on quick reports that help me manage applicants. The scheduling functionality is handy and the streamlining of shared reports between colleagues is a nice feature as well. Makes going through applicants more effective.
CONSThe only con is that it can be overwhelming to tackle everything Slate has to offer. The training videos on the site should be more prominent.
Stephen
Non-Profit Organization Management, 11-50 employees
Used daily for less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
1
EASE OF USE
1
VALUE FOR MONEY
1
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
1
FUNCTIONALITY
1
Reviewed September 2022
Worst Advancement/Fundraising Tool on the Market
Overwhelming negative
PROSThe admission/enrollment piece is solid - we manage our scholarship program via this instance
CONSAnything that has to do with advancement, development, fundraising, donations, constituent management, reporting, queries, communications, or money. Also, customer service is nonexistent
Reason for choosing Slate
Costs - though the consultant costs have negated any anticipated savings
Reasons for switching to Slate
It was an organizational decision to find a comprehensive tool to solve numerous issues. It only made things worse
Annalisa
Education Management, 1,001-5,000 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
3
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
3
FUNCTIONALITY
3
Reviewed May 2019
Slate is One of the Best Admission Tools
Overall, Slate makes processing applications easy. Checklists, assigning materials directly from the inbox, and emailing students directly from the application are all features that I use heavily, and have had no trouble with. Highly recommend.
PROSI'll focus on the application processing side: -Easy to assign materials directly to application accounts from Slate inbox -Easy to set up connectivity between your application portal and various rounds during the cycle -Easy to sort data once the applicants submit -Easy to set up checklists of items and audit based on the checklist -Easy to email students if they are missing items -Easy to see when students are opening emails from you reminding them to submit materials
CONSFrom the Admissions processing side of things: -Sometimes items which should auto-check off do not, and you have to catch these manually -Sometimes items which you have set up to be part of a checklist don't show up at all in the checklist, and you have to add them manually -there's a lot of scrolling, and no way to jump down to the bottom of application item lists, which can actually take up a lot of time! It's clunky to have to click between tabs and manually scroll to a field.
Chardonnay
Higher Education, 51-200 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
4
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed December 2019
Slate: One-stop shop for admissions
In admissions, we deal with different student populations, which require different forms, communications, etc. Before Slate, we would have forms in our admissions drive housed on everyone's desktop, and the people managing the forms would have tons of emails asking where a form is. Now, all of the information is housed within Slate and clearly labeled. Communication and processes are more effective. We still have more features to explore and implement!
PROSSlate has a very clear user interface and it's easy to learn how to use, whether you have experience building forms and queries or not. We're able to house all of our marketing emails and other communications in the same place as our admissions processing. Some of our forms that were housed in Microsoft Excel or other intranet sites were transferred to Slate, making it easier to organize all the information we have. We're also able to conduct applicant review within Slate.
CONSThe events calendar can look very overwhelming, but it's because of the volume of events we host in our office. Although I like the Slate Reader for reviewing applications, I wish it would open in its own window so going back to a file is easier.
Reasons for switching to Slate
We needed something more user-friendly than our old system.
Kayla
Higher Education, 201-500 employees
Used daily for less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
4
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed May 2021
Slate is Great!
Our catchphrase is "With Slate all things are possible"--and we mean it! There are SO MANY things that we never would've been able to do with our previous CRM. We haven't regretted the switch for one second!
PROSSlate is the *best* CRM for admissions. There's so many wonderful things I can say! The unlimited licenses, the easily accessed data/reporting, the ability to quickly segment your audience in so! many! ways! Really, Slate has made our lives so much better. I can't say enough good things about it!
CONSI've found that Slate has its own jargon, and it's sometimes hard to find definitions/what those terms mean outside of Slate. But that's really my only complaint!
Chris
Higher Education, 11-50 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed January 2019
You will never need another CRM
Slate InBox has been a game changer for our customer service efforts. We can quickly assign questions and get them answered, as well as document the interaction. Enrollment Management is a vert complex business and managing lists and customer data needs to be sophisticated and easy to use. Slate is both.
PROSWhile I love most of the features, what I like most is the support and constantly-improving culture of Slate. We get questions answered quickly and new products built sometimes within a few days of request. I am in the higher ed industry and the document reader makes managing high volume application loads and accessing/reading very easy. We have yet to be disappointed by the CRM.
CONSDeliver (building email campaigns) lacks in terms of design features. As our most impactful channel, we hoped the feature would get more of an upgrade.
Jeremy
Education Management, 201-500 employees
Used daily for less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
3
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
3
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed June 2018
Great application management software, not the easiest to use.
Slate has a large set of features and makes collecting and reviewing applications rather easy. - Applicants are able to submit their applications entirely online. - We are able to review and send admissions decisions through Slate. - The Mail-Merge function (called "Deliver" in Slate) is quite robust for ongoing applicant contact. - The ability to Query tool in Slate is (mostly) intuitive and easy to use. Despite a somewhat steep learning curve (see the 'Cons' Section), I would recommend using Slate to streamline the application process.
CONSWhile Slate is a very powerful tool, it is not polished. Slate documentation is there, but not robust. The customer service feels similar. Slate has a steep learning curve. Once you get there, the software is very powerful, but it takes some time. Slate also has some database limitations. Slate stores Applicants (people who have submitted an application) and Prospects (people who are interested, but have not yet submitted an application) in two separate databases. This means that you cannot search both at once without some SQL work.
William
Marketing and Advertising, 201-500 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
3
Reviewed September 2021
The best CRM for higher ed admissions
Slate is by far the best CRM for higher ed admissions. It's incredibly easy to use (once you get your head around some basics) and it's noticeably designed from the ground up with the admission process in mind. They're also great with customer service and have spent a lot of time cultivating a community of Slate users who all work together to make the most of the product.
CONSSlate is long overdue for some marketing, campaign, and communications updates. Deliver is still behind other more commercial CRMs in terms of capabilities, and I'd love to see queries, reports, template communications, and events updated with an eye for easing the customer journey and streamlining communications.
Anonymous
201-500 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed February 2019
Industry leader and still going
Unified all of our disparate admission processes into one platform.
PROSThe product sells itself as evidenced by the lack of sales staff that Technolutions has. It is very intuitive, has great customer support, and a vibrant user community. Definitely goes past a CRM and into a total admissions office solution.
CONSDoesn't always have system integrations that platforms like Salesforce have as they try to build functionality into the product itself. Some of the features that are rolled out are very innovative but don't always catch on with the user community (happens a lot with every software provider though).
David
Used daily for less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed December 2017
Excellent, love it.
User friendly, easy to do all the basics. In addition, it has a lot of depth. The more I explore Slate, the more helpful tools I find. Slate makes my job easier.
CONSOne (very minor) complaint is that if I'm midway through entering info and leave the screen for too long, sometimes it signs me out without telling me. I finish filling in the info, only to find out that I can't save it because I'm signed out. This has on rare occasion resulted in me losing work. But the net time Slate has saved me is so high that I consider this a very minor inconvenience.
Cynthia
Higher Education, 201-500 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed July 2019
Slate- The Only CRM for Higher Ed Admissions
My favorite features of Slate are the user-friendly query-building functions, the ease of access through the web and app platform, and the communication abilities through Deliver and SMS Inbox.
CONSReporting between different databases can sometimes be an issue, but Technolutions is already releasing features to address that concerns for users!
Molly
Education Management, 10,000+ employees
Used daily for less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
4
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed July 2019
Slate Admissions Software
My favorite part of slate is that you can "impersonate" an applicant to better understand their question about their application and troubleshoot for them. Slate is great at taking different types of required application materials (i.e. PDFs, videos, audio, etc.).
CONSSlate is a bit non-intuitive and takes some training to get the hang of it. It would be great to be able to compare applications side by side in the read view.
Annalisa
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
3
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed April 2018
I use CRM daily as part of an Admissions team for business graduates. I represent the MSM program.
Easy search feature, downloading from Slate inbox, and uploading new materials. It's also easy to track fair attendees.
CONSIt's hard to track emails once "resolved". Once you resolve emails, they only stay for a time. That's difficult when needing to look back.
Anonymous
1,001-5,000 employees
Used weekly for less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed September 2020
Brilliant Tool
For a person who worked in universities for over ten years, I'd say it's like an additional assistant. You can do so much with this, it's up to one's imagination.
PROSI love that you can do pretty much anything you want with this software when you are given permission by the administrator. It is a database, it is a coordination tool, it is an event planner, it's an online application, and the list goes on. It is very user friendly once you get the just of it and it's extremely customizable.
CONSIt's so efficient, it's a little scary. For someone who likes her privacy it's crazy to know that there is a database that can literally see what you are doing when in it and records all your actions.
Sarah
Used daily for less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed May 2018
This software is an incredible way to track admissions-related processes
It's extremely easy to use and customizable. You can run queries, schedule different types of events, organize telephone campaigns for students, review emails sent/received to better communicate, read applications, and more.
CONSI haven't encountered a con in this system yet. It's a fantastic way to get things done and get them done quickly!
Sophie
Higher Education, 5,001-10,000 employees
Used daily for less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
2
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed July 2020
admission software that makes life easy
The product is a one stop shop for all of our needs whether it be student data, program information or more.
CONSSometimes it can be hard to find things... it takes a while to learn the different areas of the platform so it is not super user friendly off the bat