California Community Colleges Adds Fee Waiver Program to Online Admission Process
CCCApply website offers enhanced financial aid services for applicants.
Culver City, CA – February 17, 2005 – California residents who apply for admission to a community college through the CCCApply website (www.cccapply.org), can now conveniently apply online for the Board of Governors Grant (BOG) fee waiver as part of the admission process.
The BOG Fee Waiver Program, sponsored by the State of California, waives the per-unit enrollment fee, health fee, and a portion of the transportation fee that students can incur.
CCCApply is a statewide, web-based system that electronically links the network of California Community Colleges (CCC).
Its purpose is to simplify research and planning efforts for prospective students, as well as automate and streamline the entire application-to-admission process.
A wide range of services and information that support outreach and other types of assistance offered by the colleges are available on the site.
The CCCApply system was developed in collaboration among Xap Corporation, community college and district representatives, and the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office (CCCCO).
"The Contra Costa Community College District has recently implemented the online BOG application," said Mojdeh Mehdizadeh, Vice Chancellor, Technology Systems Planning and Support, Contra Costa Community College District.
"This streamlined process allows our prospective students to apply to college and obtain a fee waiver quickly and efficiently.
We are excited about this expansion of online services."
The BOG fee waiver is the first of several enhancements planned for the CCCApply site; its advantages include saving time and minimizing the risks for data-entry errors for applicants and the colleges.
- When an applicant applies online for the BOG fee waiver, the common information provided on the college admissions application will be used to pre-populate the BOG fee waiver form; the applicant won't need to reenter common information.
- Applicants can link directly from the fee waiver application to the Department of Education's FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid Information) on the Web.
The data collected on the BOG application can pre-populate the analogous fields in the FAFSA form.
- Built-in processes automatically check the BOG application data and determine the applicant's eligibility status.
- Colleges can automatically upload the BOG data to their Student Information Systems.
"Placing the BOG fee waiver program online with the CCCApply system greatly facilitates the financial aid process for the benefit of applicants and the community colleges," said Liz Dietz, CEO of Xap Corporation.
"This new enhancement is a perfect increment to the important services already available on the site, which continues to provide useful information about the scholarships, grants, and loans available from the various California Community Colleges, along with the information and tools to enable applicants to determine their overall costs for tuition, fees, and other expenses."
"The BOG Application is the first of the several planned enhancements to the CCCApply site," said Jessica Wagoner, Xap Corporation's Director of Client Services.
"Within the current year, the California Community Colleges plan to launch an online International Application for students applying from abroad, to enhance the content on the site, and to add a Spanish version of the basic online admission application."
The CCCApply site was launched in fall 2001.
Currently, the system connects to 65 of the California Community Colleges' 109 member schools – representing all regions of the state and single-and-multi college districts with small and large enrollments.
To date more than 500,000 applications have been submitted through the site to participating colleges.
About Xap
Headquartered in the Los Angeles area, Xap Corporation (www.xap.com) focuses on the creation of comprehensive Internet-based information management systems relating to secondary and post-secondary education.
Founded in 1990, Xap is the leading developer of online student services systems for associations and state-wide groups of colleges and universities across the United States.
Xap Corporation now has sites that cover the California State University system (www.csumentor.edu), the California Community Colleges (www.cccapply.org), and the Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities (www.aiccumentor.org), as well as a state-wide site for all colleges and universities in California (www.californiacolleges.edu).
About California Community College
The California Community College system of two-year public institutions is comprised of 109 colleges statewide organized into 72 districts.
It is the largest system of higher education in the world, and serves more than 2.9 million students.
