College Kickstart Help and Support

What’s new in College Kickstart - 2020

• What’s new in College Kickstart - January 1, 2020

What’s new in College Kickstart - 2019

• What’s new in College Kickstart - May 1, 2019
• What’s new in College Kickstart - March 1, 2019
• What’s new in College Kickstart - January 1, 2019

What’s new in College Kickstart - 2018

• What’s new in College Kickstart - June 20, 2018
• What’s new in College Kickstart - June 13, 2018
• What’s new in College Kickstart - January 1, 2018

Tips for using College Kickstart

• Craft college plans with the most current and comprehensive data
• Add your insights and context to our rigorous data
• Put your students in the driver’s seat with your hand on the wheel
• Equip your students with tools to balance their college lists
• Manage your students and parents’ expectations
• Share personalized plans with students and parents

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Common questions

• How to Reset Your Password
• What should I do if College Kickstart stops working following an update?
• How do I clear my web browser cache?
• Which devices and web browsers do you support?
• How can College Kickstart be best used?
• Does College Kickstart help students find schools that match their interests?

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What’s behind the numbers

• What colleges and universities are covered?
• Where is the college data sourced and how often is it updated?
• How are qualitative factors taken into consideration?
• For rolling admissions, how is a due date determined?
• How are schools with guaranteed/assured handled?
• What factors into an early admission recommendation?

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High school counselors

• Getting Started for Counselors
• Counselor Control - How does Frozen List Date work?
• Counselor Control - How do Counselor Adjustments work?
• Counselor Control - What is the suitcase for?
• Local Context - Understanding Local Context
• Local Context - How do I import data for local context analysis?

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Independent counselors

• Getting Started for Independent Counselors
• Counselor Control - How do Counselor Adjustments work?

Students

• Getting Started for Students

Student Profile

• How do I see a list of all of the schools you cover?
• How do I add schools to my list?
• Are there shortcuts for adding schools to my list?
• What's the difference between selecting a school or selecting a department within a school?
• What academic profile information do I need to provide?
• What's the maximum number of schools I can have in a list?

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List Check

• Grading Refinements for 2018
• How do you grade a college list?
• How can I take corrective action to make my list grade an A?
• When I run Kickstart and my college list gets a bad grade, does that mean I don't have a chance of getting into the schools on my list?
• What is an unlikely school?
• What is a reach school?

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Early Admissions

• What is early admission?
• What is early decision?
• What is early action?
• What is restrictive early action?
• How can you help maximize admission odds?

Action Plan

• Rolling Admissions
• What's the purpose of the Action Plan?
• How is it possible to minimize work and cost?

Affordability

• How do I interpret the Merit-based Aid Summary?
• How do I interpret the Need-based Aid Summary?
• How does the Financial Aid Ratings work?

Plan Highlights

• What can you get from the Requirements View?
• How do I switch between different Plan Highlights views?
• Why is some of the text in the Requirements View blue?
• What is the Summary View?
• What are the Plan Highlights?
• What does '1C, 2T' stand for in the Requirements View?

Board Reporting overview

• Uploading your historical data for the Board Reporting Service
• Understanding the Outcomes Report