2017-08: Revise Residency Logic for HS Students

CCCApply Only Provides a "Preliminary Residency Determination" 
Colleges should understand that CCCApply is not intended to provide a "classification" for the purposes of assessing residency and tuition, but rather provides a "preliminary residency determination" based on the self-reported responses provided by the applicant compared to state, federal, and CA residency laws and regulations. It is the responsibiliity of the college to make the residency classification for each student.

However, the algorithm behind CCCApply is very good and accurate at identifying the gray areas beyond physical California residency where the information providedby the applicant indicates the need for additional proof or other documentation to not only determine residency, but also other contra-indicators, such as admission ineligibiiity, if the student is under care & control of a guardian, dual concurrent enrollment, AB540 eligibility, and more. Hence there are three levels of residency determination returned: Resident, Possible Resident, with proof, and Non-Resident.

In the case of a minor, concurrent enrollee, the CCCApply Steering Committee has determined that these applicants must provide additional proof to the college and therefore will be flagged as such and will be predetermined to "Possible Resident".

I have attached an example that does show a student is classified as a non-resident (possible resident – further proof is needed). I have removed the name, but left the CCCID so you can review the application. The student had not answered any questions that would make them a non-resident and has lived in California for the last two years. Why does the system code this person a nonresident just because they don’t list high school information?

Again, the applicant was NOT determined to be a "Non-resident". The indicators that triggered the "Possible Resident" are as follows:

Student is 14 years old (minor) and did not attend high school in California for two years or more;
The last high school attended is not California;

With the growth in Dual Enrollment all throughout the state, this is problematic for colleges using the online application to admit high school freshman or sophomore students who when asked if they have attended a California HS during the last two years answer correctly, “no”.

Agreed; however, if this case, the student answered that they did not attend High School in California.

Does the Technology Center have plans to update the residency logic to include additional questions so that HS students below the 11th grade can possibly receive a California residency classification without having to provide additional proof?

The CCCApply Steering Committee has reviewed this request in the past and declined a change to the algorithm. According to the committee, all concurrent enrollee student must submit documentation of permission to attend both high school (or lower grade) and college at the same time, and therefore assigning a "Possible Resident" determination is appropriate.

Do other colleges make the category 2 students residents or is this part of the common process?

Most colleges have logic in their enrollment intake process that identifies the concurrent students separately from California resident issues. If your system does not identify these students upon intake to your student information system, rules can be created in the CCCApply system that can 1) email the K12 student information about what documentation needs to be presented in order to be accepted to the college; 2) a rule can be set up to identify the status of such students and can be sent to an internal staff email. This would notify the appropriate staff of a particular sequence of responses (i.e., K12 student but meets California residency requirements, or age of student combined with the dependency status field indicates the minor is under care & control of legal guardian,etc.). In fact, we can help you create email rules (outgoing to students and/or internal to staff members) for any combination of data fields existing in the application.)

In conclusion, though we feel that the logic behind CCCApply to be solid and accurate, we realize that bugs and other issues are not out of the realm of possibilities. Further, change requests can be submitted to the CCCApply Steering Committee pertaining to any aspect of CCCApply (however, they must be valid and benefit all colleges in order to be considered for review.).

Please look over the Appendix A of the Data Dictionary to better understand the algorithm in CCCApply. The Integrity Flags especially can be beneficial to alert Admissions of specific combinations of responses that may save you time with painstaking manual review. The integrity flags can be used in email rules as well.

Please let me know if you would like to schedule a call to review the CCCApply residency algorithm and also explore the possibilities of using Rules and supplemental questions to better determine the eligibility of your incoming students.

Thank you,
Patty