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MyCollegeStudio is a step-by-step guide through the college application process, built for high-school seniors. You get a journey of short lessons plus tools for your school list, essays, activities, deadlines, recommenders, financial aid prep, and scholarships. An AI coach helps you think — it never does the work for you. Everything here is educational guidance, not admissions, legal, or financial advice.

Everything in MyCollegeStudio: the full step-by-step journey, your school list and cost tools, the deadline tracker, essay coaching, activities, recommendations, aid walkthroughs, scholarships and interview practice. No credit card, no trial clock, no subscription, nothing to cancel.

Every account created while our free launch is open keeps full access permanently, at no cost. We will not move your account behind a payment later. That is a commitment we are making in public, and we are not going to walk it back.

We may introduce a paid Season Pass for people who join after the free launch closes. If we do, we will announce the closing date, and the price, in advance — before anyone is asked to pay. We are not printing a future price today because we have not set one. Accounts created during the free launch are not affected either way.

Students are never asked to pay. If there is ever a purchase, an adult of 18 or over makes it in their own name, as a one-time payment — no subscription, nothing that renews on its own.

Create an account with your email and a password. During sign-up you'll see a short, plain-language consent checkbox that explains what MyCollegeStudio stores and how it works — please actually read it; we kept it short on purpose. Many of our students are under 18, and that's expected. Parents and guardians are welcome to email us at support@mail.mycollegestudio.com with questions. A parent or guardian account is created only from a student's invitation — there is no separate parent sign-up, and holding one gives no access to any student who has not invited you.

After sign-up, a quick onboarding builds your student profile — your school, GPA, test plans, interests, and possible majors. Then head to your dashboard: it shows your next journey step, upcoming deadlines, and anything that needs attention. When in doubt, just do the next step the journey suggests. Small steps, steadily, is the whole strategy.

No — and that's a promise, not a missing feature. You submit applications yourself on the application platforms (like Common App), and you file the FAFSA or CSS Profile only on the official sites (StudentAid.gov and cssprofile.collegeboard.org). MyCollegeStudio helps you prepare, practice, and track it all, but you always press the real submit button. That keeps you in control of your own applications.

Your account email and a scrambled (hashed) version of your password. Your student profile: name, high school, GPA, test scores, interests, intended majors, preferences, and a broad budget band. Your working material: school list, applications with requirements and deadlines, essays with versions and saved AI feedback, activities and honors, recommenders (name, relationship, optional email), yes/no aid-form checklists and statuses, tracked scholarships, and your journey progress. We also log basic AI usage stats (like token counts and response times) and product analytics — never the content of your chats.

Social Security numbers, FSA IDs, bank or account numbers, tax information, or your family's actual financial figures. There is no place in MyCollegeStudio to enter them, and the AI coach is built to refuse them if you paste them in. Those details belong only on the official aid sites — and between you and your family.

Go to your profile page and choose the data export. You'll get a JSON file with all your data from MyCollegeStudio — profile, lists, essays, deadlines, and the rest. It's your work, so you can take it with you anytime.

On your profile page, choose delete account. This permanently removes your account and everything attached to it — profile, essays, deadlines, activities, all of it. It can't be undone, so export your data first if you want a copy.

We never store your actual password — only a one-way hash, which means even we can't read it. Use a strong password you don't use anywhere else. If you can't sign in, double-check the email you signed up with, and remember passwords are case-sensitive. Still stuck? Email support@mail.mycollegestudio.com and we'll help.

Students and parents don't have to — it's a choice, and we recommend it. Turn it on from Profile → Sign-in & security: a passkey on a device you own (your phone's face or fingerprint unlock, which never leaves your device), or a six-digit code from an authenticator app. You'll also get ten one-time recovery codes — save them somewhere safe, because they are the way back in if you lose the device. Counselors and MyCollegeStudio staff must use a second step, because their accounts can see other people's work. Turning it on doesn't change what the coach, a parent, or a counselor can see.

Use one of the recovery codes you saved when you set up two-step sign-in — each works once. If you have a passkey on another device, that works too. If you have neither, email support@mail.mycollegestudio.com from the address on your account; we'll confirm it's you before we remove the second step, and we'll never ask for your password or a code in that email. A counselor's reset is confirmed with their organization's lead as well, and every reset is logged and the account holder is told.

Yes, if you want to — students and parents can. Choose Continue with Google on the sign-in or sign-up page. Google tells us the account you picked and its email address, and nothing else; we ask for no access to your Gmail, Drive, or calendar, and Google learns nothing about what you do here. If you already have a MyCollegeStudio account with that address, we'll ask for your password once to connect the two. You can disconnect Google from Profile → Sign-in & security at any time (set a password first if it's your only way in).

Yes, if you want to — and nothing is shared until you say so. Go to Profile → Family & sharing and invite them by email. They make their own account from that link, so you never hand over your password. They will see a planning summary: how far you are through the guide, your deadlines, your school list and application status, upcoming interviews, and whether your aid forms are ready. Five sections stay off unless you switch them on — essays, brag sheet, academic record, activities, and aid offers — and switching one off removes it from their view immediately. Your conversations with the coach, your brainstorms, and your reflections are never shared at all. You can open “See what they see” to read the exact page they get, you can see when they last looked, and you can stop sharing whenever you want. Up to two people at a time.

A lot of this journey goes better together, and there is a clear line about how. Essays, conversations with the coach, and private reflections are not shared by default — not with a parent, not with anyone. A parent or guardian sees a planning summary only if the student decides to share it with them. Paying for MyCollegeStudio does not grant access to a student's writing. There is no quiet parent view of a student's account, and we do not build one.

If your student does decide to share, here is exactly how that works. Only they can start it: they send the invitation from Profile → Family & sharing to an email address you can get to, and you create your own free parent account from the link — never with their password. What you see is a planning summary: their progress through the guide, deadlines, their school list and application status, any upcoming interviews, and whether the financial-aid forms are ready. Five things are separate switches that each start off — essays, the brag sheet, the academic record, activities, and aid offers — so you see one only if your student turns it on, and turning it off removes it from your view immediately. Conversations with the coach, brainstorms, and private reflections are never shared, switch or no switch. Your student can see exactly what you see, can see when you last looked, and can end the sharing at any time.

What you can do: if your student is under 18, you can ask us what information we hold about them, request a copy, or request deletion by emailing support@mail.mycollegestudio.com — we verify the request before acting on it. And the best window into your student's progress is still sitting next to them while they walk you through it.

It can help you brainstorm essay ideas by asking good questions, give structured feedback on your drafts, push your activity descriptions toward specifics, run mock interviews, suggest schools and majors worth researching, explain what aid forms are asking, and help you weigh scholarships. In every mode the pattern is the same: it coaches your thinking and your words. A thinking partner, not a doing-it-for-you machine.

Because your essay only works if it's yours. Admissions readers are looking for your voice and your story, and submitting AI-written work can count as academic dishonesty and sink an application. Just as important: writing your own essay teaches you to tell your own story, which pays off in interviews and long after. So the coach will ask questions, point at what's strong, and name what's missing — but the words stay yours. That boundary protects you.

No. Nobody can honestly predict an admission decision — not us, not any tool that claims to. What the coach will do is help you think through reach, target, and likely schools using real data, with honest hedging. A balanced list beats a guessed probability every time.

No — even if you ask it point-blank. Choosing a college is one of the first big decisions that's truly yours. The coach will help you name your priorities, test each finalist against them, and notice how you actually feel. It will warmly refuse to say 'go here.'

The conversation itself is not stored. We keep only usage metadata — token counts, response time, and whether the request succeeded — so we can keep the coach fast and fair. What does get saved is what you choose to save: essay drafts, versions, notes, and feedback you keep.

It responds like someone who cares, not a form letter. If you share that you're in distress, the coach leads with warmth and shares real resources: call or text 988 (the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline), or text HOME to 741741 (Crisis Text Line). College applications are stressful, but you never have to carry the heavy stuff alone.

No. The FAFSA is completed only at StudentAid.gov, and the CSS Profile only at cssprofile.collegeboard.org. MyCollegeStudio walks you through what each form asks, why it asks, and what to have ready — then links you to the official site to do the real thing. Our checklists are simple 'ready / not yet' checkmarks, nothing more.

On purpose. Your family's financial details should live in exactly one place: the official aid sites. Every MyCollegeStudio checklist item is about having a document ready — there is no field anywhere for an actual number. And if you try to give the AI coach real figures, it will politely decline and point you to the right official site.

No. It's educational guidance, not financial advice. MyCollegeStudio explains how the forms and the concepts work — your family enters information only on the official sites. The coach won't estimate your aid eligibility or recommend financial products like specific loans. Questions about your family's situation belong with a school's financial aid office.

Browse the curated scholarship list, filter by categories like merit, need-based, no-essay, or first-gen, and add scholarships you find on your own. Track each one from Researching to Preparing to Submitted — and hopefully Won. Deadlines for tracked scholarships appear on your calendar automatically, and once you mark one submitted, won, or declined, its reminders stop.

Yes — understanding, not deciding. It can translate an offer into plain language: what's a grant (gift money), what's a loan (borrowed money), what's work-study, and what cost is left over. It flags what's unclear and gives you questions to take to the school's aid office. It won't invent numbers, compare offers for you, or tell you which to take.

From what you're working on. When you add applications, aid forms, and scholarships, their deadlines land on your calendar, and you can add your own for anything else — interviews, school tasks, whatever. It's one honest list of everything that's due, so nothing hides in a forgotten tab.

MyCollegeStudio nudges you at 30, 14, 7, 3, and 1 days before each deadline through in-app notifications. If a due date changes, the reminders reset around the new date. The goal is a steady drumbeat, not a panic alarm.

Treat them as a strong starting point, not gospel. We pre-fill typical dates and requirements and review them each admissions cycle, but colleges change things. Before you rely on any deadline, verify it on the school's official admissions or aid page — the official page always wins. Your applications, and their deadlines, remain your responsibility.

Yes. Use the calendar export to download your deadlines as an .ics file, which Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook all understand. Your deadlines from MyCollegeStudio show up as all-day events right next to the rest of your life. Re-export after big changes to stay in sync.

Yes. Mark an application submitted, or a scholarship submitted, won, or declined, and its deadline stops nagging you. Finishing things should feel good — not haunted.

Each student has a per-user cap on AI requests, so take a short break and try again soon. The caps keep the coach fast and fair for everyone. Nothing is lost while you wait — your drafts and notes are saved, and honestly, a ten-minute walk is an underrated essay tool.

Probably working exactly as designed. The coach refuses ghostwriting, admission-chance predictions, making decisions for you, aid-eligibility estimates, and handling your family's financial figures. Rephrase toward coaching — 'help me improve this paragraph' instead of 'write this paragraph' — and it will dig in with you.

First, trust the school's official page and update the item in MyCollegeStudio so your calendar is right. Then tell us at support@mail.mycollegestudio.com so we can fix it for everyone. Reports like this genuinely make MyCollegeStudio better — thank you.

Email support@mail.mycollegestudio.com. Tell us what you were trying to do, what happened instead, and roughly when. One ask: never include sensitive numbers (Social Security numbers, tax details, account numbers) in an email — we don't want them, even in a support ticket.

Many school Google Workspace accounts block third-party apps, and there's nothing we can do about that setting — it belongs to your school. Sign in with your email and password instead; everything works the same. If you signed up with Google originally and it stopped working, use Forgot your password to set one, or email support@mail.mycollegestudio.com.

No. Single sign-on is only about how your counselor proves who they are to us — their school's system vouches for them instead of a password. It gives their school no access to your account, and it doesn't change what your counselor can see, which still depends entirely on what you chose to share and can end at any time from Profile → Sharing.