SmarterSelect Reviews & Product Details

Once the forms are built, the interface is dynamic and easy for applicants to use. Common applications help iwth reducing duplication of info but it would be great to be able to have a 1st common, 2nd common, etc to facilitate staged applications. or better yet, add most of the common info (address, telephone, email) to the applicant profile so we can use the common application for more useful program-related info. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

You really have to know exactly what the end result is because it's very difficult to change or add questions later. Common apps are limited to one, so you have to really calculate what you need in the common because it will impact other forms. I HATE that you have to scroll and click so much to be able to add or edit questions. The Admin/Provider cannot see Evaluator responses in the application, so it is complicated to activate Provider triggers. It would be better to have the OPTION to share feedback with applicants directly from the platform so another external platform doesn't have to be used. Lack of clarity around which messages are automated and which have to be manually sent. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The ability to run multiple programs and assign multiple reviewers. We run a quarterly grant program at the foundation, and allowing our board members to review applications remotely makes the process so much more efficient. And scholarship season would be a complete nightmare without SmarterSelect! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Sometimes the UX is not intuitive. For example: sending messages. When we notify families that they've won a camp scholarship, it shows that they were approved and sends them an email. In order to tell them what amount they're approved for, we have to send them a separate email from messages. This is really annoying, and I wish messages could be sent directly from the "applicants" window when you change a status.

Something like: >change app status to awarded >a pop-up window comes up asking if you'd like to send a custom email notification >select template from drop-down.

I'm aware that you can click into each app and send a message directly from the individual application. It just took several review cycles before I stumbled upon this. Also in the "applicants" screen: when you select an app, the header menu that comes up doesn't look clickable (there are no radio buttons or otherwise). I imagine this confuses a lot of users who are not familiar with SS.

Overall, I'd like things to be a little more intuitive. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The SmarterSelect program is the best option we could find to create an application to input all of our needs. It is the easiest program to change and re-arrange if needed. There aren't many questions from the applicants on how to fill out the application so that is awesome. I can control what sections need an answer no matter what and the others to be optional. The cutt-off date and times have never failed. Can assign the applications easily to the people that wll score them for an award. I can run reports at any time to make sure the applications are getting completed in a timely fashion. Love I can email all of the applicants at once in one section. Has helped tremendously to get more applications completed before the deadline. The help team for any questions is awesome! You create a ticket with your questions and they will respond back quickly and even give you supporting documents where to find it on your own. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Very few quirks that I cannot have on the program. For example, I cannot change the fonts to any section. Sometimes I want to make sure something stands out and I cannot do that at this time. I have made what we can and cannot do work by emphasizing where it is needed. I can do different colors within my typing so that has helped and can bold so there are work arounds. To find some of the information on your own on what you can and cannot do is a little fuzzy. If you don't know the correct wording you need to do what you need. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The chat feature allows me to get immediate assistance with issues as they arise as long as I contact them during their M-F business hours. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I wish there was a way to control levels of access among Administrators. There have also been some concerning glitches that are affecting data in evaluations. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I like SmarterSelect because it is pretty intuitive, meaning I can do things without having to look up how to do them. Their support team is also pretty great! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

SmarterSelect is not very flexible. There have been multiple times over the past year of using it that I have tried to do something just to find out it's not possible. An example is the App Rules section. You can only use something once in app rules, which is just not ideal or very functional. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I like that Smarter Select is pretty user-friendly with little IT experience or background. They also have a great support team who respond to support tickets/issues fairly quickly! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Sometimes there are issues that pop up when building an application or copying an application that I just can't get it to do what I need it to do. However, sometimes with help from their support team, it can be done! I do wish I could call their support team sometimes instead of trying to explain it in an email. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Online applications is a huge improvement over paper! Also, an online evaluation process gives our evaluators more flexibility in performing their role. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The reporting! I would love to be able to copy a report across programs, or even run the same report across a set of programs. Also, the formatting of the exports is not paper-friendly and needs some revamping. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The Customer Support Supervisor I have been working with is extremely patient and responsive as she is in the process of helping my organization build a complex scholarship program from the ground up. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

While I am admittedly brand new to Smarter Select, I have yet to encounter a problem or issue. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

-Ability to send mass messages

-Ability to edit individual students (ie. extend deadline for one student)

-App rules

-Easy to search for both active and inactive programs

-Common application function

-Very responsive customer support Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

-Often runs very slowly

-Has crashed during peak moments in the past, creating issues and confusion for students

-Cannot copy or move questions in between different applications

-Evaluation interface is not easy--filters reset every time instead of sticking between evaluations, as one example

-Difficult to read and pull evaluation comments from evaluators

-Not currently able to pull higher level number reports (how many applications have been received by our org in a given time period, how many evals have been done in a given time period and/or by evaluator, etc.)

-Not able to easily embed links

-Not able to paste things from another place without resetting format

-Formatting doesn't always show the way it is input

-When you select the MM/YYYY date format, it still requires students to select a specific date, not just a month

-Program page times out when left open for a long time Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

SmarterSelect helps us streamline our grants and awards programs, making it easy to collect complete applications, review them internally, and assign guest reviewers. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

So much about SmarterSelect is not intuitive. It can be confusing to figure out how to do the simplest things. Customer support has always been great, but for some reason, we can no longer receive help via chat as we could in the past, and I've never been able to figure out how to access "how to" information otherwise. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.