Stellic

A New Student System Enhancement at MIT

Updated: June 2025

Background

As highlighted in the Office of the Vice Chancellor’s (OVC) Visiting Committee meeting in 2023, a key priority is to “invest in the near-term in the IT infrastructure and systems needed for delivering enhanced student services, which include systems that interface with one another both across OVC offices and the Institute at large.”

  • Updating student systems is a critical part of the multi-year plan to transform MIT’s digital landscape. Student systems are currently slated for transformation in the coming years (after HR and financial systems).
  • In the near term, OVC, in partnership with IS&T and outside vendors, has been making progress focused on enhancing local academic systems to better meet the needs of staff, students, and faculty, including:
    • implementation of Slate for managing and recruitment and admissions at the undergraduate level as well as a complete overhaul of MIT’s Admissions and Student Financial Services websites;
    • implementation of Slate across MIT’s graduate degree programs to more efficiently manage recruitment and admissions and to replace the aging home-grown GradApply system; and
    • enhancements to the Graduate Appointment Portal (GAP) to accommodate the Collective Bargaining Agreement and to ensure more consistency in appointment management across MIT’s departments.

Progress & Next Steps

Finding easier ways to engage with academic and faculty advisors / pick majors / and audit degree progress has long been a priority of many key stakeholders, from students to department heads, at MIT.

To that end, in summer 2025 we are implementing a new degree audit and student advising and engagement system, called Stellic for the undergraduate and graduate academic programs.

Rationale

Unifying and streamlining student support is paramount at MIT. This implementation project will retire the fragmented auditing environment, remove the need for redundant department shadow systems, and replace disparate homegrown degree audit and advising solutions.

The Stellic progress and care (or what we have been referring to as “student success”) implementation will provide a new centralized and complete degree audit and advising platform designed to: streamline advising workflows, enhance data integrity, and improve institutional efficiency.

By fostering seamless communication and enabling proactive early intervention for both undergraduate and graduate students, Stellic will create a more cohesive and efficient support network, empowering MIT students to thrive. 

Benefits

For students

  • Enhanced clarity and understanding of degree requirements. Real-time, personalized degree audit dashboards; interactive “what-if” scenarios.
  • Improved access to support and guidance. Integrated student support resource directory; automated appointment scheduling with advisors; and integrated communication platform between students, advisors, and support staff that includes SMS capabilities. 

For faculty, advisors, and staff

  • Streamlined and efficient advising workflows. Automated degree audit generation and review; centralized information with a view of student academic history, progress, and potential challenges; and reduced administrative burden by minimizing time spent on paperwork and resolving degree requirement discrepancies.
  • Enhanced effectiveness in student support. Collaborative advising tools, facilitating seamless communication and information sharing between advisors, departments, and support services; data-driven insights into student performance and risk factors: enables targeted interventions and personalized support strategies; improved advisor-student communication and documentation: centralized records enhance continuity and consistency in advising; and increased time for mentorship and career guidance: Reduced administrative tasks allow advisors to focus on holistic student development. 

For the Institution (Administrators and IT)

  • Increased institutional efficiency. Elimination of legacy systems and shadow IT systems like FileMaker Pro, Quickbase and Airtable, to name a few; and reduced administrative burdens associated with manual degree audits and error correction.
  • Improved data integrity and reporting capabilities. Single source of truth for degree progress, student outcomes, and advising activities, enhancing data accuracy and consistency; robust reporting and analytics dashboard; improved compliance with regulatory requirements: accurate and comprehensive data supports reporting and accountability; and enhanced ability to track graduation rates and time to degree.
  • Modernized and future-proofed academic infrastructure. Cloud-based platform with scalable architecture; seamless integration with existing university systems (SIS, LMS); and increased agility in adapting to evolving academic needs and technologies.

Expected Timeline

June 2025-June 2026 (initial phase)