STARS Reviews

Pros

With regulations and compliance requirements changing constantly, STARS has become really important for keeping up. We've been using it for almost two years and we've noticed improvements across a lot of day to day operations such as attendance tracking, financial aid setup, grading, student communication, lead conversion, compliance management, annual reporting and more. What I like most is that the platform can be customized to match what each institution actually needs, plus the support team behind it has been a big part of why adoption has gone smoothly.

Cons

If your school has been running for years before bringing STARS on board, expect some initial groundwork to get everything configured. That said it hasn't been a deal-breaker because the team steps in to help and guide you through the process. One other thing occasionally it takes a bit of digging to locate a specific report or function in the system though you could also look at that as a trade-off since there's a lot packed into STARS.

Pros

The database response time is great. This software helps greatly in student recruitment.

Cons

The document management feature isn't the easiest to use.

Pros

It's capable of storing and searching leads without much hassle. You can attach notes and documents directly to student profiles and it also supports student ID badges. There's a student portal as well.

Cons

The biggest problem is how confusing it seems overall as most tasks end up taking around 10 steps just to get where you need to go. Customer service has been a letdown too as they make frequent promises about turning requests around quickly but we've still been waiting for months to get even simple changes done and the way we were spoken to wasn't very professional. A lot of their features are also pretty time-consuming and don't seem very effective, like building phases, updating attendance, entering financial information and even adding new users which requires a helpdesk ticket every single time, not to mention password resets when an account gets locked out.

Pros

STARS has been genuinely helpful across the whole workflow, from the admin side of running a campus to supporting staff and end users with lots of different tools and resources. It covers what we needed in a practical way and the overall product feels well put together. Definitely a strong choice if you're looking for something to support campus operations and I'd recommend it to others without hesitation.

Cons

nothing negative to report and it is highly recommended

Pros

Our leadership team rolled out this tool last year after a compliance review pointed out a few areas where our school management process could be stronger. We used that as the push to retire our previous school management software and move fully to STARS. During our most recent Title IV audit, the earlier opportunities for improvement were all resolved and the audit wrapped up with only one minor finding. I'm convinced a big part of that progress came from our management team leveraging the Training Masters team's expertise along with the practical tools STARS provides. If you're an educational institution searching for a platform that supports simple day to day management and dependable compliance and reporting, it is a great recommendation.

Cons

No issues worth mentioning.

Pros

The support team has been phenomenal whenever any issues come up and they're also genuinely helpful with training. Their onboarding was really thorough and it didn't take long before the basic features clicked for me. The system fits our small school really well and the best part is how many features it includes as we can expand and grow into more over time. Honestly it seems like a good option regardless of school size from small setups to larger ones.

Cons

Nothing

Pros

Well I find the query function is super helpful for creating customized reports. Customer service has also been really good as whenever we were building queries, they helped us shape them so they matched what the schools actually needed.

Cons

It fits everything we require so there's really nothing to complain about.

Pros

I'm the Director of Admissions for three out of five campuses linked to our school and I've also worked with Campus Vue before. STARS feels like a strong, competitive alternative to Campus Vue especially since it delivers similar value without the higher cost. Whenever we have questions, customer service is quick to respond and they follow up thoroughly. Having that kind of support has made onboarding and day to day use a lot more manageable. That said I'd love to see more reporting options and more flexible tools so queries are easier to build.

Cons

No real downsides so far as everything has been working well.

Pros

STARS is incredibly user friendly. I've been using it for the last four years and I genuinely appreciate how simple it is to navigate and quickly find the information I need. Whenever I run into a question or concern, the STARS team responds fast and helps right away. Overall it's an excellent system and the customer service team behind it is even better.

Cons

Everything about it is top class.

Pros

It is dependable and runs efficiently and it's genuinely very user friendly. The reporting features are outstanding and the data query customization is both simple to use and packed with options. Customer support has also been fantastic as I've been working in this field for 15+ years and this is easily the best campus management system I've used. Training Masters now offers an LMS that integrates directly with STARS and the team here is really excited to start using it.

Cons

Nothing negative to note as this top tool is definitely worth trying.

Pros

We've been using STARS for a few years now and overall we're really happy with it. Since it's web-based, it saves us from having to invest in expensive server infrastructure. STARS covers the whole range of school processes for us from lead aggregation all the way through career services and placement. On top of that their customer service has been excellent, without question.

Cons

There isn't much to complain about here as this tool didn't really leave room for issues to raise.