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Tips for Choosing A New College Planning Technology
The document provides guidance on selecting a college planning technology platform, highlighting essential considerations such as needs assessment, market exploration, and provider vetting. It shares tips from experienced users and outlines features deemed critical versus nice to have, as well as costs associated with various platforms. Additionally, it offers resources for data migration and a comparison of different college planning tools.
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Tips for Choosing A New College Planning Technology
- 1. Special Edition: Friday Forum Tipsfor Choosing a New College Planning Technology August 7, 2020 Katie Andersen | Cyndy McDonald
- 2. How can we helpyou? Cyndy McDonald • cyndy@cyndymcdonald.com • www.CyndyMcDonald.com Katie Andersen • Katie.Andersen@CollegeFitOC.com • www.CollegeFitOC.com
- 3. Welcome to Friday Forum Today’sAgenda 1) What to Consider When Moving to a Technology Platform 2) Tips from a Power User Questions? 1) Put questions in Question/Answer box 2) We will forward to all the providers 3) We will put together an FAQ and post it next week Next Friday Forum: Aug. 14, 2020: Amplified Adolescent Anxiety During a Pandemic | Jed Applerouth
- 4. Tips for Adopting Software IDENTIFY YOUR NEEDS PRIORITIZE EXPLORE THEMARKET VET THE PROVIDERS
- 5. Polls • What drivesyour decision the MOST when deciding which college planning software to adopt? • Out of 10 items, which ones are the MUST HAVES for you in a college planning software? (pick 3) • If you are a current GuidedPath user, what are your top 3 favorite tools in GuidedPath? • What is the size of your organization?
- 6. Choices 360Planner CollegeLab College Planner Pro CounselMore MaiaLearning AllCollege Essays College Coaching Network
- 7. Katie Andersen • Duke University(1992) • B.A. Sociology, Markets & Management Studies Certificate • Women’s Soccer Team • Worked in Marketing and Project Management in B2B and B2C software/web-design in Southern California, The Netherlands, and Norway (1993 - 2012) • UCLA College Counseling Certificate (2012) • Started College Fit – www.CollegeFitOC.com (2013) • Started The Student-Athlete Advisors – www.TheStudentAthleteAdvisors.com with David Stoeckel (2015) College Planning Software • College Planner Pro (2013 – 2014) • GuidedPath (2014 – 2020)
- 8. Drivers for my decisionmaking • 25 clients • I work by myself, but occasionally co- counsel with other IECs on student- athlete clients • 50% of my students are “regular students” and 50% are student- athletes • I communicate everything electronically (avoid paper) • I like to keep my costs under control, but having a robust college planning/ CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool is mission critical
- 9. Business Applications • Email: Gmail •Calendar: Google Calendar • Cloud Storage: Google Drive • Online Booking: YouCanBook.me • Virtual Meetings: Zoom • Accounting: QuickBooks Online
- 10. College Planning PlatformsI Evaluated 30 Day Free Trial Up to 10 Active Students $59/Month $44/Month* Up to 20 Active Students $79/Month $59/Month* Up to 20 Active Students $70/Month $49/Month* *members of HECA, IECA, and NCAG receive a 25% discount Up to 30 Active Students $99/Month $74/Month* Unlimited Active Students $99/Month $69/Month* *IECA, HECA, NACAC 30% discount reflected above 14 Day Free Trial Multi-Counselor Unlimited Active Students $142/Month $99/Month* www.CollegePlannerPro.com www.CounselMore.comwww.MaiaLearning.com Up to 15 Active Students $55/Month Up to 40 Active Students $85/Month Up to 100 Active Students $135 30 Day Free Trial Each of the platforms has special offers just for GuidedPath users. Check the FAQ’s.
- 11. Download the Comparison Tool fromGuidedPath HERE
- 12. Katie’s CRITICAL vs NICE TO HAVE CriticalNice To Have TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION • Business Applications COMMUNICATION & ORGANIZATION • Scheduling, Task & Assignment Management / Reminders • Broadcast emails, texts • Process-driven user-interface • Reporting & Group Analysis ROBUST DATA & SEARCH • Data-driven research: admission, application, financial, test requirements, COVID-19 updates (?) • Easy to compare academic and financial options (and athletic) • Generate athletic recruiting lists searching by NCAA DI, DII, DIII, NAIA. Export to Excel. • Graphical representation of data APPLICATION PLANNING & MANAGEMENT • Reliable application data and deadlines • Check-off or status for each step of the process SURVEYS 3rd PARTY TOOLS • Prompt, Fiske, College Essay Guy, Maps, YouVisit Video Tours SCHOLARSHIP SEARCH DATA • International, Graduate, Transfer BILLING/PAYMENT INTEGRATION PIE IN THE SKY FUNCTIONALITY • Intelligent tools to assess Reach, Target, and Likely (consider major choice and financial needs)
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- 28. How Well DoThey Meet My Needs? TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION • Business Applications • PRO: Works with my email, text, calendar apps • CON: No Google Drive (Maia Drive). • PRO: Integrates with my email, text, calendar, and Google Drive apps • PRO: Integrates with my email, text, calendar, and Google Drive apps. COMMUNICATION & ORGANIZATION • Scheduling, Task & Assignment Management / Reminders • Broadcast emails, texts • Process-driven user-interface • Reporting & Group Analysis • PRO: Messaging with parents and students. Scheduling and Office Hours booking. • CON: Weak on group reporting (can request custom reports). Not as strong as other options. • PRO: Scheduling, Task, and Assignment management tools. Broadcast messaging and multi- student management and reporting • CON: Interface is not as process- driven as other platforms • PRO: Scheduling, Task, and Assignment management tools. Broadcast messaging and multi- student management and reporting • CON: Grid interface is cumbersome. Need training. ROBUST DATA & SEARCH • Data-driven research: admission, application, financial, test requirements, COVID-19 updates (?) • Easy to compare academic and financial options (and athletic) • Generate athletic recruiting lists searching by NCAA DI, DII, DIII, NAIA. Export to Excel. • Graphical representation of data • PRO: Data rich admissions, application and profile information (especially search for sports) • CON: Compared to GP, want to see more financial information and comparison tools as well as more graphical representation of data. No export to Excel for search results. • PRO: Nice graphical representation of admission, application, financial data. College comparison reports available. • CON: No internal search functionality (use external tools) – This is a big con for me. • PRO: Data rich, great search functionality and highly customizable views for students, parents and counselors. Lots of NCAA data. Correction mode! • CON: Interface can make it difficult to navigate (planning on a new “skin”) APPLICATION PLANNING & MANAGEMENT • Reliable application data and deadlines • Check-off or status for each step of the process • PRO: Process-driven application management. • CON: No check off for sub-tasks (tests sent, transcripts sent, etc.) • PRO: Application planning and deadlines. • PRO: Application planning and deadlines with check off and color for sub-tasks • CON: Interface
- 29. Need Transition Help? ContactDatabase Expert Barry Quiat. He can help you migrate your data from GuidedPath to the system of your choice Send email of inquiry to: bquiat@yahoo.com Subject: GuidedPath Data Migration (Cyndy McDonald) He will review your data, your chosen platform and give you a quote for migration. If you have colleagues moving to the same platform, you can save money by working together.
- 30. Need Transition Help? ContactDatabase Expert Barry Quiat. He can help you migrate your data from GuidedPath to the system of your choice Send email of inquiry to: bquiat@yahoo.com Subject: GuidedPath Data Migration (Cyndy McDonald) He will review your data, your chosen platform and give you a quote for migration. If you have colleagues moving to the same platform, you can save money by working together.
- 31. Download the Article •What You Should Know about Choosing a Technology Platform • www.guidedpath.net/ • Click on “Cyndy’s Blog”