HOME TO 12,000 STUDENTS, Citrus College is the fifth oldest community college in California and boasts a transfer rate of more than 90% to the University of California’s nine undergraduate campuses. And, with its location in the foothills of Los Angeles, it’s luring a growing base of international students.
But, in 2017, that growth left the college’s international student program buried in files, Excel spreadsheets and other paperwork, all byproducts of its manual processes. With as many as 700 international students, Citrus College was at a crossroads:
The volume of international applicants was doubling.
Campus leaders mandated all departments go paperless.
A homegrown software solution was cumbersome and labor intensive.
Their two-person office could no longer manually handle student needs.
Generating reports was a lengthy and time consuming process.
Citrus leaders looked at their options and picked Terra Dotta.
A cloud-based portal where international students can complete vital application and registration steps.
Real-time SEVIS processing, which helps get offers and acceptances completed in a timely manner and cuts down on the risk of data entry errors.
The ability for international DSOs to schedule automatic emails that remind students to complete specific tasks and, when needed, to alert them through texts via their smartphone.
Streamlined reporting and metrics that allows for instant access to information about international students.