How College Beyond Keeps 1,200 Students on Track
This New Orleans CBO serves 1,200+ students and alumni. Here's how they found a tool built for their work that a competitor solution couldn't match.
Replaced years of fragmented spreadsheets
No $15K platform + $15K implementation fees
Current students and alumni in one place
The Challenge
A Spreadsheet for Every Year
College Beyond had been tracking students through a patchwork of spreadsheets, one for each graduating class. As the years accumulated, so did the complexity. Finding a student's complete history meant hunting across multiple files, hoping nothing had been accidentally deleted or moved.
Caseload Chaos
Counselors worked with mixed caseloads: freshmen, sophomores, and alumni all at once. But the spreadsheet-per-year system meant students bounced between files as they progressed. Tracking a single student's journey required constant file-hopping and manual reconciliation.
No Alumni Milestones
With 600+ students in their active ecosystem and 1,200+ served over time, tracking post-high school milestones was nearly impossible. Are alumni persisting? Graduating? The spreadsheets couldn't answer these questions without hours of manual updates.
Why the competitor solution didn't fit
Before finding Overgrad, College Beyond seriously evaluated a competitor solution.
- $15K+ in platform licenses
- $15K+ in implementation fees
- Extra fees for texting and add-ons
- Heavy customization before it works for education
- Ongoing dependence on consultants
- Enterprise complexity for a lean team
- Priced per student, sized for a CBO
- Setup and data migration included
- Two-way texting included
- Built for college access and success
- Configured by Overgrad, no consultants
- Ready for a small team from day one
The Solution
The purpose statement was exactly aligned with what we do. This was built for organizations like ours.
One System for Every Student
No more spreadsheet-per-year. Every student, from freshman through alumni, lives in one unified system. Counselors see a complete history without file-hopping, and caseload mixing is no longer a data nightmare.
- Complete student journey in a single record
- Mixed caseloads managed seamlessly
- No more accidental deletions or lost data
Alumni Milestone Tracking
College Beyond can now track what matters most: Are alumni persisting? Hitting key milestones? The system captures college enrollment, student IDs, and outcomes automatically, eliminating manual spreadsheet updates.
- Track college enrollment and persistence
- Store student IDs for colleges attended
- Automated milestone notifications and workflows
Dashboards That Drive Action
No more creating multiple spreadsheets just to summarize basic information. Overgrad's dashboards and data summaries give the team instant visibility into engagement metrics by counselor, enabling targeted interventions for students who need extra support.
- High-level charts for quick engagement overview
- Data summaries broken down by counselor and subgroup
- Tiered student views to prioritize outreach
College & Career Exploration
Beyond tracking, College Beyond wanted tools that help students make informed decisions. Overgrad's Pathways feature shows ROI by major, and built-in personality assessments help students find their fit.
- Pathways tool for exploring majors and careers
- ROI data to inform student decisions
- Personality assessments for fit-finding
The Migration
College Beyond owned their migration, and Overgrad made it straightforward.
-
Consolidate
Year-by-year spreadsheets gathered, mapped to Overgrad, and cleaned of duplicates.
-
Import
1,200+ student records loaded with their full history.
-
Go live
Workflows and dashboards set up, staff trained, and running.
The Transformation
College Beyond didn't just switch systems. They wrote down who does what, and how often, so the data stays current.
Ready to Keep Every Student on Track?
See how Overgrad puts each student in one place and tracks alumni outcomes at a price that works for CBOs.