CSU Opens Up Access to Transfer Planner to All California Community College Students

Community college students in California will now have an easier time lining up their academic progress to transfer to a California State University (CSU) system school, now that CSU has opened up access to its recent Transfer Planner to even more students.Cal State LA

CSU’s Transfer Planner – created by enrollment management technology company Liaison International – is an online platform where students who are attending or going to attend a California community college can see whether their past, present, and future coursework will fulfill transfer requirements for their CSU of choice.

The platform was initially launched in August 2023 for only students engaged in CSU’s then-new Transfer Success Pathway, which guarantees CSU admission to students who attend a California community college and commit to transferring within three years.

This January marks the release of the second phase of the Planner, opening up the platform to all California community college students. Technically, it is open to students not in the state or country as well, though in-state students will benefit the most, given that one of the tool’s main strengths is its access to the state of California’s ASSIST database.

Using the ASSIST database – it contains extensive course transfer eligibility information for California public colleges and universities – the Transfer Planner seeks to visually and more clearly indicate to students which of their courses will be accepted by CSU’s 23 schools, said Mike Margitich, vice president of centralized application services (CAS) products for Liaison.

"We built the Transfer Planner as a tool that makes this a lot more engaging,” Margitich said. “As students put in what they've taken and what they plan to take, we have a pathway they can see they're on. They can earn badges saying you've completed [requirements and milestones.] And they can see exactly what else they need to do so that when they finish that second year, they are eligible to transfer.”

Students can use the tool to see all the programs and majors offered at the 23 CSU schools and their respective requirements. And campus officials and advisers can see which students use the Planner and show interest in certain CSUs, Margitich said.

"The counselors have been very receptive to this idea,” said Dr. April Grommo, assistant vice chancellor for strategic enrollment management at CSU. “Just the ability for students and the counselors to see all of their information in one place, be able to track how many units they're earning, what requirements does it fulfill for transfer and for their degree, has been very positive."

The Planner – free to use and mobile device-friendly – has seen more than 8,000 accounts created since August 2023, Grommo said.

It can help students avoid wasting time and resources during their academic journey and can be accessed at all hours.

“When students transfer, we see a lot of students that have excess units or they've taken one or two AA degrees,” Grommo said. “Also, sometimes students work nights or they can't get in to see a counselor. So this is a tool that they can have at their fingertips whenever they need it."

Liaison also helped create CSU’s application portal around eight years ago, Margitich said. The third phase of the Transfer Planner’s launch will introduce functions to pre-fill CSU college applications based on information that students have already put into the tool, he said.