New CSU Online Tool Aims to Streamline Transfer Process

A free online tool designed by the California State University (CSU) system aims to boost enrollment by making the transfer process for incoming community college students easier to navigate.

According to April Grommo, CSU’s assistant vice chancellor of strategic enrollment management, the new CSU Transfer Planner puts personalized student information and CSU degree requirements in one place in order to guide transfer students as they track their degree progress and enroll in courses specific to their programs. She said the process of planning courseloads to meet program requirements can be daunting, particularly for first-generation and transfer students.

“This tool has been in the works for several years, but COVID-19 definitely waylaid our progress on it. Historically, CSU has had a very large transfer student population — about 50 percent of our new incoming undergraduate students are transfer students. There’s long been research [showing] the challenges that transfer students have. They’re often first-generation, low-income students, and so we wanted to build a tool that would help them understand the requirements to transfer to the CSU [system],” she said. “We wanted that tool to be available to them whenever they need it, because we know that a lot of students have jobs or family responsibilities as well.”

Grommo said the tool is open to any of the approximately 90,000 students coming from community colleges looking to earn their four-year degree at one of the 23 universities in the CSU system. She said the platform allows users to learn more about CSU programs and campuses, degree programs and transfer-admission requirements, as well as tips on how to effectively transfer to their preferred CSU programs. She added that many of the tool’s features and content were developed in-house to include CSU-specific information with the help of the enrollment management tech company Liaison, which also designed the Cal State Apply platform.

“This tool brings all that information into one place, and students can track their progress in it, based on their personalized information,” she said, adding that the tool is mobile friendly. “If I’ve gone to three community colleges, [the tool] can put all that information in there. … It tracks [students’] coursework, what they have left and how much they have left to transfer. We also help them track their transferable GPA.”

Grommo said the release of the centralized digital resource is part of a broad sweep of other CSU efforts aimed at increasing enrollment.

“About 43 percent of our new undergraduate students are [currently] community college students,” she said. “That’s declined from almost 50 percent, with COVID-19 and decreases in community college enrollment.”