CollegeSource

What CollegeSource does

CollegeSource, Inc. is a privately held, San Diego-headquartered SaaS company founded in 1971 that sells transfer and degree-planning software to higher education institutions in the United States. Its product suite comprises TES (Transfer Evaluation System) for course articulation and equivalency management, Transferology (a nationwide transfer network and student recruitment tool with 430+ member institutions and 36.7M+ stored equivalencies), the uAchieve family (Degree Audit, Planner, and Schedule Builder, with version 5.0 released in 2026), CollegeSource Online (a digital catalog collection exceeding 177,000 catalogs and 171M+ course descriptions), and Policy Central (a database of 344,000+ policies from 3,200+ institutions). The platform is cloud-hosted on AWS with a guaranteed 99.99% uptime SLA for the hosted uAchieve solution and offers three programmable APIs (TES Web Service API, uAchieve API, Transferology Student Lead API).

The company sells through a direct enterprise sales motion targeting colleges, universities, state systems, and boards of higher education, supported by weekly webinars, an annual 4-day conference in San Diego, and an active client advisory board. Revenue is primarily recurring software subscriptions priced on student enrollment, supplemented by professional services revenue from instructor-led training, certification courses, an encoding mentorship program, and conference admission fees. Customer count exceeds 2,100 institutions and includes marquee logos such as Stanford University, University of Southern California, San Diego State University, Maricopa Community College District, Ivy Tech, Saddleback College, and statewide contracts with Louisiana, Illinois, Minnesota, Ohio, and other state boards of higher education. The company has remained under consistent private ownership since founding, has no disclosed external funding rounds, and operates with 51-100 employees.

CollegeSource evolved from the National Microfilm Library (1971) through the Career Guidance Foundation before incorporating as CollegeSource in 2003; its 2008 acquisition of redLantern (formerly DARS) from Miami University added the degree audit capabilities that became uAchieve. Deep integrations with major SIS platforms — Ellucian Banner and Colleague (Ethos Certified, 20+ years), PeopleSoft (20+ years), Jenzabar, Workday, and CAMS — anchor its distribution position and create multi-year switching costs for customers who have invested in encoding degree audits and building custom equivalency libraries.

Name

CollegeSource

Legal name

CollegeSource, Inc.

Website

https://collegesource.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1971

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

CollegeSource is a privately held SaaS company founded in 1971 that provides transfer articulation, degree audit, academic planning, and policy research software to over 2,100 U.S. higher education institutions, anchored by its TES, Transferology, and uAchieve product families.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Higher Education Administration Software

NAICS

Software Publishers (513210), Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools (61131)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Transfer, Credit Mobility & Articulation Planning Platforms (EDAFAMAO)

akta.pro secondary industries

Degree Planning, Course Planning & Academic Progress Monitoring (EDAFAMAI), Transfer, Articulation & Credit Evaluation (EDALAAAH)

Keywords

• Transfer credit evaluation
• Degree audit software
• Academic planning tools
• Transfer articulation
• Higher education software

Headquarters

HQ city

San Diego

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Software Subscriptions: Annual subscription-based pricing for TES, Transferology, uAchieve, and CollegeSource Online products. Subscription pricing is based on student enrollment at the institution, providing budget-friendly predictable costs without upfront capital expenses.
2. Professional Services - Training: Revenue from instructor-led training courses, workshops, and certification programs for TES and uAchieve products. Includes virtual and in-person options with varying durations and pricing.
3. Encoding Mentorship Program: Dedicated Functional Implementation Specialist providing monthly virtual meetings and additional assistance for 6 or 12 month terms.
4. Policy Central Subscription: Annual subscription at $599 for access to the policy database with over 344,000 policies from over 3,200 institutions.
5. Annual Conference Revenue: Conference admission fees (General Admission $1,099), pre-conference certification courses, and guest add-ons for receptions.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

CollegeSource develops and sells a cloud-based software suite for higher education institutions to evaluate transfer credit, manage course equivalencies, conduct degree audits, plan academic pathways, and research institutional policies. Core offerings include the TES Transfer Evaluation System, Transferology nationwide transfer network, the uAchieve suite (Degree Audit, Planner, Schedule Builder), CollegeSource Online digital catalog database, and Policy Central. The platform is hosted on AWS with real-time integrations to major Student Information Systems.

Product overview

CollegeSource offers a platform-plus-modules architecture of transfer and degree planning solutions for higher education institutions. The core product portfolio includes: Transfer Tools (TES® for transfer evaluation and course data, Transferology® for nationwide transfer network and student recruitment, CollegeSource® Online for digital catalog collection); Degree Planning Tools (uAchieve® Degree Audit for degree tracking, uAchieve® Planner for academic term-by-term planning, uAchieve® Schedule Builder for dynamic class scheduling); and Policy Central for institutional policy research. These products integrate with each other (TES + Transferology, TES + uAchieve, uAchieve audit + planner + schedule builder workflow) and with major student information systems (Ellucian Banner/Colleague, PeopleSoft, Jenzabar, Workday, CAMS). Additional offerings include APIs (TES Web Service API, uAchieve API, Transferology Student Lead API), training/certification programs, and the annual CollegeSource Conference.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• TES: Transfer Evaluation System - an all-in-one solution for researching transfer credit, tracking evaluations, and managing equivalencies
• Transferology
• uAchieve
• CollegeSource Online
• Policy Central

Products and services

• TES (Transfer Evaluation System) An all-in-one interactive resource for transfer credit research, evaluation tracking, and equivalency management. Includes Course Finder, Evaluation Tracker, Equivalency Manager, Institution Profiles, Advanced Tools, and Complete Catalogs. Designed for registrars, articulation officers, and transfer credit analysts at colleges and universities.
• Transferology

Quantifiable outcome

• Ivy Tech Community College achieved 29% increase in credential production through degree mining using uAchieve
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers12 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration15 records

Feature14 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core, minor and secondary.

• ElluciancoreTechnology or IntegrationCollegeSource is an Ellucian Ethos Certified partner with 20+ years of experience in real-time Banner and Colleague integration. uAchieve offers real-time integration with Ellucian's Colleague and Banner SIS through Ethos, JDBC, and RESTful Web Services.
• PeopleSoftcoreTechnology or IntegrationCollegeSource has offered real-time integration with uAchieve and PeopleSoft for over 20 years. The integration utilizes JDBC or web services (REST/JSON) connectivity for data retrieval. T-Rex (Transfer Rule Extractor) connects with PeopleSoft to obtain transfer rules for Transferology.
• Sophia LearningminorGTM or Marketing PartnerSophia Learning is a Data Partner Program member. They provide 70+ ACE-recommended courses and 100+ partner schools. Their courses gain visibility in CollegeSource platforms, enabling institutions to build equivalencies and students to explore transfer options.
• JenzabarsecondaryTechnology or IntegrationuAchieve provides real-time integration with Jenzabar student information system as part of its broad SIS integration capabilities.
• WorkdaysecondaryTechnology or IntegrationuAchieve integrates with Workday as part of its third-party system integration capabilities for student information systems.

Scale indicators21 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Others

• National Student Clearinghouse: The National Student Clearinghouse is a key data and verification infrastructure provider used in transfer processes (verification of enrollment, degrees, and transcripts) - complementary rather than direct, but adjacent in the transfer articulation workflow CollegeSource orchestrates.
• Cengage Group (instructor-led training/education content): Cengage and similar education content providers (Pearson, McGraw Hill) overlap with CollegeSource's training and certification revenue and increasingly move into adjacent digital transfer pathways; competitor for institutional EdTech budgets but not a direct product substitute for transfer/audit.

Broad incumbents

• Jenzabar: Jenzabar is an SIS provider for small-to-mid higher education institutions with adjacent academic planning features; CollegeSource integrates with Jenzabar, but the two compete for the same IT budget at smaller private colleges and community colleges where Jenzabar has strength.
• Workday (Workday Student): Workday Student is a comprehensive SIS with built-in academic planning, advising, and (more recently) transfer credit capabilities aimed at four-year institutions that CollegeSource also serves. As Workday deepens native planning features, it increasingly competes at the high end of the market against uAchieve.
• Oracle PeopleSoft Campus Solutions: PeopleSoft Campus Solutions is a long-standing SIS with audit and planning capabilities, integrated by CollegeSource for 20+ years but also a potential competitor as institutions standardize on Oracle's roadmap. Targets the same large university and system-office buyers.
• EAB (Encoura, Civitas): EAB's Encoura (recruitment marketing) and Civitas (student success analytics) compete for the same institutional enrollment and persistence budget that funds tools like Transferology and uAchieve Degree Discovery, especially in outcomes-based funding environments.
• Liaison International (TargetX, Othot): Liaison International (with TargetX for admissions CRM) competes with the recruitment/marketing side of Transferology via CAS applications, Slate CRM, and enrollment marketing analytics, targeting the same registrar/admissions buyer personas in U.S. higher education.

Direct peers

• Watermark (Anthology): Watermark (now part of Anthology) provides assessment, accreditation, and faculty activity reporting in higher ed, competing for academic affairs budget at the same institutions that buy uAchieve and TES. Overlaps on academic operations buyer relationships.
• Anthology (Concourse, Acalog/Smart Catalog, Campus Management): Anthogy's Concourse suite (transfer articulation, degree audit, catalog) and Acalog (academic catalog management) directly compete with TES, CollegeSource Online, and uAchieve across transfer and planning workflows. Serves the same mid-market and community college buyer with overlapping SIS integrations.
• Ellucian (Degree Works): Ellucian's Degree Works is the most direct competitor to uAchieve in degree audit and transfer articulation within higher education, integrated deeply with Banner/Colleague SIS that CollegeSource also integrates with. Competing head-to-head for the same registrar and academic affairs buyers at U.S. colleges and universities.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/collegesource
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/collegesource
• Instagraminstagram.com/collegesource
• Xx.com/collegesource

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about CollegeSource