Compass link to be available in Howdy tomorrow

The Compass icon and Compass Reports (ePrint) link will be added this evening and be available for use again in Howdy beginning tomorrow morning, September 5.  Since late Monday afternoon, we have been supporting all desired logins in Howdy.  The exact cause of the problems on Monday morning is still being determined with the assistance of technical experts from SunGard Higher Education. 

Final SIMS to Compass conversion

The final conversion of data from SIMS to Compass, including summer grades, will occur on September 7.  As previously announced, SIMS will no longer be available to the general user community after Saturday, September 5.  Compass will then contain the official student record, and SIMS data will no longer be accurate.

To obtain a Compass account, employees must first complete the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) training, submit a Compass Account Request Form signed by their Primary Authorizing Agent (PAA) and attend an Introductory Compass Navigation class. More details on obtaining a Compass account can be found on the EIS Compass Training web page.

ApplyTexas 2010-2011

During the first week of August, applications for admission from ApplyTexas for the summer and fall of 2010 began loading into Compass.  This was a significant milestone, since the process began a month earlier than the previous year.

In addition, several changes in the applications for the 2010 – 2011 application cycle were incorporated into Compass.  These changes include the federally mandated new ethnicity and race designations, additional family income levels and the new residency determination and reason codes.

The campus community should take note of the new ethnicity and race designations, which will be present for applicants beginning with the summer 2010 term.  The new ethnicity and race designations are present in Compass on the Biographical tab of the SPAIDEN form.  The new ethnicity dropdown is located in the main block of the Biographical tab, while the race fields are located in the Race block.  Also, please note that an applicant may select multiple racial designations.

For more information about the ApplyTexas applications for the 2010-2011 application cycle, please email Compass-Admissions@tamu.edu.

Update on Processing Electronic College Transcripts

Admissions has successfully redesigned and implemented a new process to load electronic college transcripts.  This new process minimizes the time that existing coursework from another institution will be unrolled from academic history which will, in turn, minimize the impact on advising, registration, financial aid and billing activities.

This is accomplished by loading the electronic transcript and unrolling the existing academic history on a transcript-by-transcript basis.  Once the electronic transcript is loaded to the Compass forms and the existing coursework is unrolled from academic history, the transcript is immediately evaluated and rolled back into academic history.  This minimizes the time that the existing coursework is removed from academic history, and it minimizes the impact to key university business processes.

For more information on the redesigned electronic college transcript load process, please email Compass-Admissions@tamu.edu.

New dates set for Financial Aid training

Scholarships & Financial Aid is pleased to announce additional training dates for Entering Department/College Scholarships and Fellowships in Compass.  The following dates are available:

09/24/09                             1:30 p.m.
10/26/09                             10:00 a.m.
11/19/09                             2:00 p.m.
12/03/09                             10:00 a.m.

To register for classroom training, please visit the Division of Finance employee training registration area. If you have not registered for training through the Division of Finance previously, you will be prompted to create an account.

Please remember that the prerequisites for this course (online or classroom) include requesting a Compass account, competing online FERPA training, and completing an Introductory Compass Navigation Training class.

To access Financial Aid training online:

Login to Howdy at https://howdy.tamu.edu/ using your NetID and password
Click on the Employee tab
Find the Compass User Training channel (located on the right-hand side of the page)
Click to expand the Financial Aid folder
Click to expand the Scholarship Processing folder
Click to expand the College and Departments folder
Click on Online Training: Entering Dept/College Scholarships and Fellowships(first link)

Upon completion of the online training module, users will be prompted to complete and print a certificate. This certificate must be submitted to Susie Banks in Scholarships & Financial
Aid in order to gain access to enter awards. Certificates may be sent via campus mail to 1252 TAMU. Please allow 3-5 business days for processing time.

December degree candidates

The Office of the Registrar has received 2,004 applications for December graduation from College Station students, four from Qatar and five from Galveston.

The deadline to apply for December graduation without a $50 late fee is September 11.  Students should go to the MyRecord (FALL 09) tab in Howdy and click on the Application for Graduation link in the “Degree Evaluation” channel.  The final deadline for application is November 27 due to the printing of the commencement program.

Compass support

Please remember, if you have questions regarding Compass access, please email eis-security@tamu.edu.  Information on functional area support can be found on the Tips for Requesting Compass Helpdesk Support page on the EIS web site.