The California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, in partnership with Accenture, has initiated the reimagining and development of a new student-centered application process and supporting system architecture for our prospective and returning students, to:

  • Improve the user experience
  • Reduce the pressure of the application process on students
  • Better support equitable access
  • Increase data accuracy
  • Protect against and mitigate fraud

The new CCCApply application will consider industry best practices while also exploring innovations in technology, user experience, and data collection, given the unique challenges and opportunities that the California Community College system must consider. The goal is for the resulting CCCApply Application to be one that is intuitive, inclusive, and secure, providing a best-in-class first impression to current and future students. The Chancellor’s Office is committed to gaining a thorough understanding of the needs, challenges, opportunities, and perspectives of important stakeholders in the system’s application process.

Reimagine Apply Request for Proposal Process for New Technology Vendor

As a result of the collective effort by the statewide Reimagine Apply Task Force, the Chancellor’s Office has released a Request for Proposals (RFP) for a technology vendor and system integrator to operate the newly designed online student application. Vendors will be expected to submit proposals that include the participation of their chosen system integrator.

The RFP documents may be downloaded for reference here but all responses must be submitted via Responsive.io as indicated.

Input from students and stakeholders will be utilized to select this vendor. The RFP process will be comprised of the RFP Review Committee, the Extended Committee, and an Advisory Committee — allowing students, faculty, staff and education partners to weigh in on the vendor selection for the new online application system.

RFP Review Committee

The RFP Review Committee, comprised of 11 experts representing CEOs, CISOs, Admissions & Records, the Student Senate, the RP Group, and CSSOs, has been tasked with evaluating vendors and providing a recommendation to the Chancellor’s Office for a commercial technology vendor to power the new online student application. In February, this group reviewed the vendor submissions from the RFP and determined finalists who presented their solution at in-person vendor demonstrations for the committee. The RFP Review Committee will incorporate input from the Extended Committee and will recommend a vendor to the Chancellor’s Office.

Extended Committee

The Extended Committee is comprised of ~45 stakeholders from a diverse subsection of districts, equally represented between campus setting (e.g., urban, rural), college size and district type, as well as 10 students, to review and score the finalist vendors selected after the vendor demonstrations. Extended Committee recruitment began in December and was finalized in mid-January. In late February, the Extended Committee had the opportunity to virtually attend vendor demonstration sessions to evaluate the options for the new Reimagine Apply online application system. The evaluation process continued through March, during which the Extended Committee scored the finalists’ RFP Technical Responses in their areas of expertise (e.g., user experience, accessibility, security/fraud, etc.) and provided input to the RFP Review Committee.

Wave 1 Districts

The implementation of the newly designed Reimagine Apply online application system will proceed in groups of participating districts or ‘waves’. The first wave - Wave 1 – is composed of twelve districts across various Student Information Systems (SIS), regions, campus sizes, and campus settings, and has an anticipated go-live date of Spring Semester 2026.

Reimagine Apply Implementation Advisory Group (RAIAG) 

To support the successful implementation and adoption of the new student application system, the Reimagine Apply Implementation Advisory Group (RAIAG) was created. The Reimagine Apply Steering Committee, which will lead RAIAG,  is comprised of representation from the Academic Senate, Admissions & Records, the Board of Governors, CEOs, CISOs, CIOs, CSSOs, Financial Aid, the RP Group, the Student Senate, and Wave 1 district leads. The composition of RAIAG consists of functional representation from Admissions & Records, Financial Aid, Institutional Research, Student Services & Support, as well as technology representation (e.g., CISO, IT, programmers, etc.) from participating districts. The RAIAG will meet on a regular basis to prepare for the design, build, and test phases of the implementation. 

Updates and Resources

Participatory Engagement to Date

  • Statewide Working Group sessions in 2022. 
  • 44 interviewees related to CCCApply current state and feedback in 2022.
  • 141 survey respondents related to CCCApply data usage in August 2023
  • 73 interviewees from 47 districts and 59 colleges related to CCCApply data usage in September 2023
  • 20 student interviews and usability testing on lo-fi prototypes in October 2023. 
  • 224 attendees across 6 Working Sessions from Oct 2023-Jan 2024 
  • Monthly Task Force meetings from February 2024 - January 2025

  • Contact Us

    Interested in participating in or learning more about the Reimagine Apply project or RFP process? Submit your questions or provide input.

    Feedback Form