12 BridgeU Product Updates that made school guidance easier in 2018

Read our yearly round up of the product updates that have streamlined the university and careers guidance process for teachers, counselors and students alike.

It’s been another busy year at BridgeU. We’re proud to have introduced a number of product updates which are helping to introduce students to an even wider range of global destinations. We’ve also done more work to simplify the guidance process, enabling teachers and guidance counselors to manage students’ university applications with greater ease.

Some of the new features we’ve introduced this year include:

A single sign on for BridgeU schools who also use ManageBac.
Improvements to our Document Sending and Reference Letter Writing tools
A School Notes feature, allowing teachers and counselors to document meetings and insights at every stage of the guidance process.
Expanding our University and Course Matcher to include German universities.

Here’s a round-up of some of the ways we’ve made your university and careers guidance process easier in 2018…

1. ManageBac Single Sign On

We started the year with a single sign-on feature for BridgeU schools who are also using Managebac. Rather than having to sign into our respective platforms twice, BridgeU users now have the ability to access the platform with their ManageBac credentials.

2. Applications and Outcomes Reporting

We’ve given your teachers, counselors and school leadership teams the ability to see where students are applying, their overall success rates, and the ability to track historical outcomes over time. Specifically, this update allows your school guidance team to:

Use Application Reporting to see the options your students are considering, and then tailoring your university and school guidance accordingly.
Track where your students ultimately choose to attend using Outcomes Reporting.
Build a database of students’ progress over time to help guide future applicants’ decision making with our Historical Reporting tool.

Read our full update on our Reporting tools here

3. An overview of weighted GPA & SAT data

Teachers, counselors and school leadership teams with students applying to the US can now see weighted GPA and SAT data, and how it relates to student outcomes. It’s a powerful tool for measuring, and reporting on, student success rates.

4. Improved visibility of student progress

All BridgeU teachers and counselors now have the ability to see which students have shortlisted and applied to their chosen university destinations. This makes it easier to track and support students who are at risk of falling behind with their university applications.

Teachers and counselors can now also click on the numbers in the columns highlighted above, giving them a more detailed overview of which universities are in a student’s shortlist and application list.

5. Improved application data

We unveiled a new Applications page with more information on a student’s application progress. As well the improved interface, this data can be collected and used in a school’s Application report, giving your school a better understanding of student success rates.

6. Students can specify an application deadline

Once a student makes the decision to apply to a shortlisted university, they can now filter which application deadline they wish to aim for. As you can see, this example shows the relevant options for a student applying to a university in the US, specifically the University of South Florida.

7. More in-depth information on universities & courses

Students can now access more in-depth information on a university and course they have matched with, including a year-by-year summary of the course contents, and any relevant insights on future career options.

8. Reference Letter and Report Writing updates

We’ve made a number of improvements to the Reference Writing tool within BridgeU. These include:

New bespoke search filters designed to give teachers and counselors a simple overview of students who need a reference or letter of recommendation.
Giving the coordinator of a university application the ability to more effectively manage other report writers in your school.
Allowing counselors and teachers to track the progress of references more easily.

For a more in-depth overview of how we’ve upgraded the Reference Writing tool, check out our full product update from earlier this year.

9. Improvements to Document Sending

Counselors and teachers who need to upload relevant documents to BridgeU in support of a student’s application can now take advantage of a number of new features. These include:

Counselors have better visualisation of a student’s application routes (e.g. students who may be applying to the US via Common App or Coalition App) in their Document Sending dashboard.
A counselor can filter a student’s application by deadline on the Document Sending dashboard. (e.g. Early Action 1, Early Action 2)
Clarification of which universities in BridgeU do or do not support Document Sending.

Read more about our upgrades to Document Sending.

10. School Notes

We’ve given teachers and guidance counselors the ability to store information about students in one place. School Notes are now built into every student profile on BridgeU, and these notes can either be shared publicly, or kept private. We’ve also given you the ability to share notes via email with any relevant third parties such as parents, or other members of your school guidance team.

Read the full Product Update here

11. IBCP students can now match with relevant universities and courses

Students working towards the International Baccalaureate Careers Programme can now enter their relevant subjects into the BridgeU Profile Builder, allowing them to be matched with IBCP-friendly universities.

Read more about IBCP course matching here.

12. Students can match with German universities & courses

We’ve now added Germany to the “Basic Information” section of the student profile, meaning that any students using BridgeU to research universities and courses can now be matched with a range of tailored German destinations. Specifically, students are matched with relevant English language only courses at these institutions.

Learn more about how German matching works here

If you’d like to know more about how any of the features above could transform your school’s university admissions or careers guidance programme, why not book a free consultation to learn more about how BridgeU could help you in 2019?

By James Leach Monday 10th December 2018