How to use I'm Undeclared

I'm Undeclared is a workbook for building a college list, lining up money, tracking applications, and showing a parent or counselor the same picture. This page walks through the whole site in the order that usually works.

Signed-in tabs: My Info, Search, Costs, Selection, Apps, and Share.

1. Create an account

1. Open Create an account. Use a real email — reminders and share invites go there.
2. Agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
3. Sign in later from Sign in. You land on Search.

The site is meant for students applying to college and the adults helping them. If you are under 18, a parent or guardian should know you have an account, especially before you store portal passwords or share a plan.

2. My Info first

Open My Info before you add a long list. Search, distance, rankings, and school suggestions all read this page.

• Name — shown on a shared plan.
• Home address — used for air and driving distance to each campus. If the map cannot find the address, distances may stay empty.
• Intended major and alternative or double major — Search looks up each school’s published ranking in those fields. Leave them blank if you are undeclared.
• About you and what you want — a few sentences about campus size, distance from home, vibe, activities, or being torn between fields. This is the main input for Suggest schools on Search. Majors are only a hint.

Family dollars (savings, student work, cash flow) live on Costs, not here. Sign-in email and password are in the Sign-in card on this same page. Reminder switches are in the Email reminders card — see Email reminders.

3. Search — build the list

Search is the comparison sheet. Add schools, filter them, and rank your own order.

Add a school by name

1. Type at least three letters — NYU, Oxford, Cambridge, Lehigh…
2. Pick a US College Scorecard match or an international (ROR) match.
3. Official stats fill first. Then AI tries deadlines, contacts, and app type. That can take 10–20 seconds.

Suggest schools

Under the name box, click Suggest schools when you want ideas. Nothing runs until you click. Suggestions use the My Info note first, then majors, home, size preference, family contribution, and Selection priorities. Each row has a short reason and Add. Suggest more asks again and skips schools already on the list.

Your list

• My rank is your order. Sort by My rank, then drag a school (or type a new rank number).
• Check Compare on schools you are seriously considering. Compare only hides the rest. Clear unchecks them.
• Filters (name, public/private, state, distance, cost, acceptance, app type, deadline, major rank) only change what you see. They do not delete schools.
• Click a cell to edit. auto means College Scorecard. AI means it was filled from an admissions page or the model — confirm dates on the school portal.
• Refresh AI fetches the school site again (it follows Admissions / Apply / Deadlines links) and refills gaps. Source opens the page it used.

On a phone, tap a school in the list to see its fields. The wide comparison table is for larger screens.

4. Costs

Costs answers: what can we put in, what does each school still charge after gift aid, and can we cover four years?

1. What can we put in? Enter savings per year, student contribution, and cash-flow contribution. Those add up to the family plan.
2. Aid and what you pay. Enter merit, other/sport aid, and non-loan aid for each school. You can mark whether an award is per year, per month, or a one-time amount. Tuition and room come from the school row; you can override them if the official number is wrong.
3. Can we pay for four years? Net price is tuition + room − gift aid. Amount not covered is net price minus the family plan. The four-year view multiplies that by four.

AI does not invent scholarships or net price. Empty aid means the sticker looks worse than a real offer. Fill awards as they arrive.

5. Selection

Selection orders schools by what you said matters, not by a national ranking.

1. Rank up to ten priorities (academic fit, cost, location, size, culture, outcomes, and so on). If you pick size, choose small, medium, or large.
2. Some factors use school data automatically (program rank, net price, enrollment, graduation). Culture, campus life, activities, support, and gut feeling need a 1–10 from you on each school.
3. Best fit right now is Fit #1 on this list — the strongest match to your ranking, not “the best school.”

If you have not ranked priorities yet, Costs and the shared plan follow your Search list order.

6. Apps

Apps is the application year: what is due, which round you are using, and the busywork.

• What’s due next — open applications first, soonest date at the top.
• For each school, set the round (ED 1, ED 2, EA, Regular) and status (not started, in progress, submitted, and so on). The next date comes from that round’s deadline on the Search sheet.
• Once for you — Common App essay, FAFSA, counselor rec, transcript, teacher recs. These are not tied to one school.
• Per school — visit, essays/supplements, send transcript. After AI fills app type, extra steps appear (Complete Common App, Coalition, UCAS, or apply on the school portal). Rename a to-do if the default title is wrong; a custom title is left alone.
• Calendar — deadlines and dated to-dos on a month grid.
• School admissions portals — optional usernames and passwords so you are not hunting through email. These never appear on a shared plan.

7. Share

Share creates a read-only link for a parent or counselor. They do not need an account. Anyone with the URL can open it until it expires or you revoke it, so treat it like a private link.

1. Choose Parent or Counselor. Counselor links hide family cost and aid unless you check include cost.
2. Optional label (Mom, Ms. Chen) and optional email to send the link.
3. How long it lasts — 7 days, 30 days, 90 days (the usual default), 6 months, 1 year, or a date you pick.
4. Copy the link, or send it by email from this page.

The person who opens it sees:

• An In short note written from the ranks, costs, and dates on the plan — not outside opinions. Cost stays out if you hid it.
• What’s due next, including dated to-dos.
• Best fit right now, in Selection order, with the reasons the sheet already has.
• Four-year cost, if you included it.

You can have several links (up to ten). Revoke one at any time. An expired or revoked link shows a simple expired/revoked page, not the plan.

8. Email reminders

On My Info, turn on reminders and pick how early: one month, one week, and/or one day before a date. Mail goes to the account email from [email protected].

Reminders use application deadlines and to-dos that have a date. You can send a test from the same card. If a date is missing or wrong on Search, the reminder will be wrong too — fix the sheet first.

9. What AI fills

AI is a helper for the sheet, not a counselor and not a chat.

• When you add a school or click Refresh AI. Official College Scorecard numbers stay official. Deadlines, contacts, campus size, and app type come from the admissions page when we can reach it (the fetcher follows links such as Undergraduate Admissions or “Applying to…”). Fields that still cannot be found stay empty rather than inventing a date.
• Major rankings. A short published-rank line for the majors in My Info, when a ranking exists.
• Suggest schools. Only when you click the button.
• Shared-plan “In short.” Written from the numbers already on the plan the first time someone opens the link, then stored until those facts change.

AI does not write essays, invent aid, or tell you where to apply. Confirm every deadline on the school portal before you submit.

10. If something looks wrong

• Empty deadlines. Click Refresh AI. If the school site hides dates behind a login or a PDF, type them yourself.
• Wrong distance. Recheck the home address in My Info and save again.
• Stale major ranks. Change the major in My Info; Search refreshes rankings for the new field.
• Suggestions feel generic. Fill the About you note, then Suggest more.
• Four-year gap looks huge. Aid fields may still be empty. Enter the real award.
• Shared plan is missing money. That link is a counselor view, or you did not include cost.
• Delete the account or report a bug. There is not a self-serve delete button yet. Use the Contact page, or email [email protected] from the address on the account.

Privacy details are on the Privacy Policy. Rules for accounts and share links are on the Terms of Use.