We know international education

During a trip in Oman with 18 students, on the morning of June 13th before any news agency broke the news I received an AlertTraveler® email regarding an attack on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman. That early warning alert allowed me to warn students at the start of their weekend to be cautious, lay low and monitor news outlets. Delivering that message in person, due to the promptness of AlertTraveler®, conveyed to students the priority Marquette places on their safety. AlertTraveler® is a great resource in Marquette's toolbox for safety and health of our students and faculty.

We decided to use AlertTraveler because it seemed like a great way to monitor worldwide events and to know quickly when and where our students were affected. It also gave us a very efficient way to check in with our students when we received alerts.

Before we switched to Terra Dotta software to handle our incoming J-1 Exchange Visitors, we experienced needless delays in processing, confusion over process and time crunches. After our move to a paperless system, our member schools consider our services timely, accessible, responsive, flexible and professional. Terra Dotta helped us get to where we want to be.

I have now worked with the Terra Dotta software at three different institutions. The education abroad module is a godsend for the always-busy study abroad office, allowing for a much more systematic way of communicating key information to students in all stages of the process, from initial advising onward. Features such as Learning Content and Signature Documents help us ensure that students have the information that they need when they need it, and the system helps us drive the various processes involved, both for staff members and participating students. We also make use of the Directory program information provided by key program partner organizations, and this allows a small liberal arts college to offer a much more robust suite of opportunities than we otherwise would be able to offer—without sacrificing the quality of the information provided to our students. It's now hard to imagine the education abroad office without this tool.

Terra Dotta Software has allowed us to maintain our high quality, in-person student advising while increasing our student participation by streamlining our application processes. Our outbound numbers increased 39% and our inbound exchange numbers increased an overwhelming 69% in our first year using TDS all of which is easily managed by our existing staff resources.

With Terra Dotta, we can now provide better support to our students and proactively help them maintain their visa status. Before Terra Dotta, we had a complex tracking system of spreadsheets and databases to monitor student enrollment and visa status maintenance. With Terra Dotta, all of our SEVIS data and student information is centralized. For example, we can now run a query in under a minute to see any student that is under-enrolled and immediately contact them before they fall out of status.

We would simply not be able to do our job without Terra Dotta software. UF went live in 2006, so our office has a lot of experience with this product and we could not be more pleased with it. TDS has come a long way with constant improvements based on client suggestions. With over 2000 students going abroad each year at UF, we rely on a database that not only hooks up with our student record system, but provides accurate reports for all kinds of purposes. We find the staff at TD responsive and helpful in any situation where we need them, especially during implementation. Our 100% recommendation for this product is without any hesitation.

What Terra Dotta software has meant to UC Merced students is 24/7 access to our application process, the ability to submit documents electronically, and the opportunity for students to easily schedule appointments. TDS has simplified and streamlined much of our application process, reduced the paper intake particularly with electronic signature documents, improved communication tracking, and put more information into the hands of our students to advise themselves.”

Managing nearly $400,000 in scholarships through TDS applications has seen our number of scholarship applications double. Students love the online application process and so do we!

TDS has made it possible to handle the increasing number of study abroad students at Texas Tech. I can’t imagine working in an office that didn’t have it. The automated reminder system takes the hassle out of keeping students up-to-date on their requirements. And with the increased emphasis on study abroad, I am frequently called on to provide numbers of SA students to various entities on campus. TDS makes it so easy to find students in a variety of categories.

TDS has transformed the way we do business in our office. We have moved to a near-paperless environment, which has brought tremendous cost savings. The auto-reminders to students have saved our staff time and resources. We have the ability and capacity to manage hundreds of affiliate programs through the Directory feature. And we can easily share information with our international on-site staff/directors as well as program partners.

I write dozens of letters of recommendation for students to study abroad each year. Tailoring these letters to the specifications of each study abroad program can be time-consuming and laborious. Terra Dotta has made this process much more efficient and user-friendly. I also appreciate its convenience and interface, which helps me manage multiple letters in various stages until I can submit one that best matches my students to their respective study abroad programs.”

Our Study Abroad Office was in dire need of a comprehensive database solution. After evaluating our options, including developing our own system, we eagerly signed on to implement Terra Dotta software. Our faculty-led program directors can directly access important information about all of their program participants, easily create reports, contact students, monitor their applicants’ progress, and recommend acceptance or denial of any application. Our deans, directors, and academic advising colleagues can directly access relevant information about students from their academic unit who study abroad.

TDS is known as a leader for offering a paperless information and tracking system specifically for international offices. Colorado State has really had the time to develop the software to its fullest potential. It is exciting to see what the CSU team has done to utilize the product. TDS makes the office work much more refined and tracking international travelers easy!

The reduction in paper waste in our office is more than we could have imagined. It is shocking to realize that seeing mountains of program and scholarship applications sitting on our desks is no longer the norm.

Terra Dotta software is far superior to any other choice for running a study abroad office.

I’ve implemented Terra Dotta software across three institutions now, because I believe in how the product supports our operations, growth, and development. I remember life before Terra Dotta, and now I can’t imagine life without it.

We’ve been using TDS at Dartmouth for several years. TDS has surpassed our initial expectations and keeps getting better. We continually identify new ways to use the software to better serve our students and faculty. With a small staff and a high level of student interest in study abroad, TDS is an essential tool for our office.

We are still discovering new things about TDS and it continues to surprise us. By showcasing its use to those outside the team, there are others in the university who have also begun to recognize how it may be used to their advantage.