For students
There are two ways to be a student here, and they behave differently in one important way. If your counselor set up your record and invited you, they own it and decide what you see. If you signed up yourself, the record is yours.
Signing up
Create account → Students. You have to be at least 13 and confirm that, and you have to confirm your email address before anything works. If your counselor invited you instead, use the link in their email.
If your counselor set you up
Your home page shows what they have chosen to share. Two states are normal and neither is a bug:
- “Your counselor hasn’t connected your profile yet” — your login exists but is not attached to a record. Ask them.
- “Not shared yet” on the shortlist — the record exists and they have not switched sharing on. Ask them.
When it is shared you get their shortlist with the reasons they wrote for each program. If they also switched on editing, you can add and remove programs and they will see your changes. You will never see their student notes — those are their private working record, and that is a permanent rule rather than a setting. Sharing and access explains why.
Your grade, GPA and intended majors stay theirs to edit on a school-managed record, so ask them to correct anything that is wrong.
If you signed up yourself
No counselor, no gate: the shortlist is yours, you can edit your own profile details, and a dismissible Finish setting up card walks you through filling them in, inviting a parent, and asking a counselor to take you on. That last one sends a request to the email address you name; they accept or decline. When one does, the record becomes school-managed and the profile fields become theirs.
Finding programs
Programs is the whole catalog. Filter by subject, entering grade, session month, location, format and cost, or just search. Add to… puts a program on your shortlist whenever you have edit access, and Ctrl/Cmd + K searches from anywhere.
Collections are your own lists, private to you. Save as my collection on your shortlist page takes a copy you keep even if sharing is later switched off.
Applications
The Applications tab beside your shortlist turns each program into a checklist — the essay, the transcript, the recommendation letters, the aid form. Tick items as you finish them; the status moves from not started to in progress on its own, and you set submitted and any decision yourself. Whoever else can see the tracker sees the same state.
Your account
Settings holds your name, email, password, and a Your data section that downloads everything held under your account or deletes it. A parent can connect to your record by signing in once with your password; if you would rather they could not, People & access on your home page has the switch when you signed up yourself, and your counselor has it when they set you up. See Your data.