PULLMAN, Wash. — Students considering transferring to Washington State
University from two- and four-year colleges in Washington and around the
United States are benefiting from an award-winning WSU self-service Web
site, Cougar TRACS (TRAnsfer Credit System).
In use since March, Cougar TRACS helps potential transfer students answer
the questions, “How will my classes transfer to WSU?” and “How long will it
take to complete my degree program at WSU?”
Success of the system was recently recognized by EDUCAUSE, an
international non-profit association of more than 1,600 colleges, universities
and education organizations and some 150 corporations. EDUCAUSE officials
honored WSU representatives with their “Best Practices in Higher Education
Information Resources” award for Cougar TRACS during the association’s
annual conference.
“One of the university’s priorities is attracting transfer students,” said
Donovan “Van” Follette, a systems analyst in the WSU Department of
Information Technology. “We were able to develop Cougar TRACS and put it
online in just three months. Enrolled students have been able to access WSU’s
degree audit system from the Web for several years. Now, prospective
students can also use the Web to see how their transfer course work applies
against any of WSU’s degree programs.”
“Comments from students using the site are very favorable. It now takes
minutes for them to accomplish what used to take hours of WSU staff time and
days in the mail for requests and responses. Cougar TRACS is a great time
saver for our transfer students,” he said.
There are more than 350 colleges and universities with course equivalencies
available at the web site. “We also have about 1,000 more schools we will make
available to Cougar TRACS users in the near future,” said Follette.
Because of the university’s commitment to Washington community colleges,
advisers at the two-year institutions may use the TRACS advising component
to help their students considering transferring to WSU, he said. By contacting
the WSU transfer center (transfer@mail.salc.wsu.edu or 509/335-6000), an
adviser may gain access to TRACS. This access will allow them to assist the
students by viewing the same course equivalency and degree program
information available to the students they are advising.
Students interested in seeing how classes may transfer to WSU may access
Cougar TRACS through the
site.
Tm157-99
