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 plan. If you are being recruited, you can also send a school coach an athlete card — not that plan. This page walks through the whole site in the order that usually works.

Signed-in tabs: My Info, Search, Costs, Selection, Apps, Recruiting (if you turned that on), and Share.

1. Create an accountPlay 0:01

1. Open Create an account. Use a real email. We send a welcome note there from no-reply@ — you do not need to click a confirm link. Reminders and password reset go to the same address.
2. Agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
3. Sign in later from Sign in. You land on Search. Use Show on the password field to check what you typed. If you forget it, Forgot password emails a one-hour link to choose a new one.

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 or recruiting card.

2. My Info firstPlay 0:32

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 and on the recruiting card.
• Home address — used for air and driving distance to each campus. The recruiting card shows city and state only, not the street, so write it as street, city, ST. 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.
• My GPA — optional. Enter the number, whether it is weighted or unweighted, and the scale (4.0, 5.0, 100, or another). The recruiting card shows that under your major, then “Transcript available on request.” We do not convert scales or compute an Academic Index.
• 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.
• Recruiting — optional. Turn on Get a digital athlete cardand pick a sport from one list, or Other (then type the sport name). We do not split men's and women's sports. Headshot, sport facts, note, photos, results, social links, videos, and school-coach share live on the Recruiting tab. See If you are being recruited.

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 listPlay 1:31

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 (College Scorecard for US schools). Then AI tries deadlines, contacts, and app type. That can take 10–20 seconds. International schools use undergraduate / UCAS pages and a Google search pass, so they take a bit longer. Fields Scorecard does not have — or that an international school never reports there — can still fill from that search (enrollment, student-faculty ratio, class size, admitted GPA, SAT/ACT or typical offers, books, earnings).

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.
• If a date or other fact looks wrong, check This has incorrect data above that school’s name. We use those marks to review and fix the fill.
• Filters (name, public/private, state, distance, cost, acceptance, app type, deadline, major rank, the program for your recruiting sport if you picked one) only change what you see. They do not delete schools. Export Excel downloads the list you are looking at — schools as columns, same rows as Search. Costs has its own Export Excel for the family plan and four-year picture.
• Click a cell to edit. auto means College Scorecard. AI means it was filled from an admissions page or a web search — confirm dates on the school portal.
• Adding a school fills campus facts if they are still thin (no class size, or missing enrollment, ratio, books, and earnings from an older lookup). That is the same Gemini search as campus size — not a full Refresh AI. Opening Search does not start it. Refresh AI looks the school up again (it follows Admissions / Apply / Deadlines links) and refills gaps. Adding a school that is already in our database reuses that row for about three months; campus facts are reused for up to two years once they look complete. Refresh AI always fetches again. Source opens the page it used.

On a phone, tap a school in the list, or swipe the values sideways to move to the next school. Field names stay on the left so the same row stays lined up. The wide side-by-side table is for larger screens.

4. CostsPlay 3:42

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. Books & supplies come from College Scorecard when the school is in it; otherwise a published estimate from a web search. Other personal expense and health insurance are yours to type — they vary too much by student. Travel can be estimated from your home address (clearly marked as an estimate) or typed. All of those are included in what the school still charges.
3. Can we pay for four years? Net price is tuition + room + books + other personal + travel + health insurance − gift aid. Amount not covered is net price minus the family plan. The four-year view multiplies that by four.

Export Excel downloads the family plan, aid, and four-year totals for the schools on this tab — schools as columns, same idea as Search, so you can print or scan the whole picture at once.

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. SelectionPlay 5:12

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

1. Rank up to ten priorities (academic fit, cost, location, size, your recruiting sport, culture, outcomes, and so on). Drag a filled rank (or use the arrows) to change its place without clearing the dropdowns. If you pick size, choose small, medium, or large. If you pick your sport, say whether you want Division I, Division III, or any varsity (fencing also offers club).
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.” On a wide screen it sits beside What matters most and repeats the ranked priorities. On a phone, What matters most is at the top and starts closed; Best fit is under it, and those priorities are collapsed so they are not shown twice.

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

6. AppsPlay 6:39

Apps is the application year. To-dos holds what is due, which round you are using, and the busywork. School portals is a second tab for each school’s portal URL and login notes.

• What’s due next — open applications first, soonest date at the top. If you set Round on a school, that deadline is what we show and we reorder the list by it. Schools with no round show that school’s next deadline and “Round not chosen.”
• Each school has its own card. 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. Early Decision is binding — if you mark ED on a second school, we warn you. Keep only one ED.
• Once for you — Common App essay, FAFSA, CSS Profile, SAT/ACT registration if you will send scores, counselor rec, transcript, teacher recs. If recruiting is on, NCAA Eligibility Center, a core-course check, highlight video, and amateurism appear here too. Fencing also adds a results sheet and FencingTracker link; other sports add a stats link. These are not tied to one school.
• Per school — visit, interview or alumni chat, essays/supplements, send transcript, send official scores. If recruiting is on, contact the coach / questionnaire (fencing says “fencing coach”; mark Not using if you are not recruiting there). Pick a visit or interview date on the to-do; it shows as a green dot on the Calendar. Checking those off means you booked them — the date stays on the Calendar. After AI fills app type, extra steps appear (Complete Common App, Coalition, UC Application, UCAS, or apply on the school portal). If a school lists more than one route, mark the one you are not submitting as Not using — that is not the same as finishing it. Not using Complete Common App also marks Write Common App supplements, and the other way around. 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. On a phone it is at the top of To-dos so you can see the month first. Tap an item to scroll to that school’s card and highlight the matching to-do. Download an .ics file for Google or Apple Calendar, or open Print plan for a one-page list and PDF.
• School portals — a second tab on Apps for the portal URL the school emails you (usually their domain, not the admissions page) and optional usernames and passwords. These never appear on a shared plan or recruiting card.

7. SharePlay 12:23

Share creates a read-only link for a parent or counselor. They do not need an account. The email includes the link and a 6-digit access code. You can also attach the College Search spreadsheet, the Costs spreadsheet, or both — those are off until you check them, and you will be asked to confirm. The link and code are both needed to open the plan. Treat them like a private pair. Each link shows when they first entered the code. School-coach links are on the Recruiting tab.

1. Choose Parent or Counselor. Counselor links hide family cost and aid unless you check include cost. If you are being recruited, send a school coach the athlete card from the Recruiting tab — not this plan.
2. Optional label (Mom, Ms. Chen) and optional email to send the link.
3. Optional email attachments: College Search (the whole list) and Costs. Both start unchecked. Checking one asks you to confirm — those files can be saved and forwarded. Send again uses the same attachment choices you stored on that link. The email names which spreadsheet is attached.
4. How long it lasts — 7 days, 30 days, 90 days (the usual default), 6 months, 1 year, or a date you pick.
5. Copy the link and access code, or send them by email from this page. The recipient enters the code on the plan page. Opening the link while you are signed in still asks for the code. Sending the email again replaces the link and the code — use the newest email.
6. For a meeting without a link, use Print plan (also a PDF from the browser print dialog).

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.
• Best fit right now, in Selection order, with the reasons the sheet already has.
• Four-year cost, if you included it.
• What’s due next last, including dated to-dos. If a round is set, that deadline is used; if not, the school’s next date shows with Round not chosen.

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. Share and Recruiting show when a recipient first opened the link — after someone enters the access code (that includes you testing the link), or when a coach loads the card from a different network than the one you used to create or send it. Loading a coach card yourself while signed in, or from that same network, does not count.

8. If you are being recruitedPlay 8:48

I'm Undeclaredis still a college planner, not a recruiting CRM. A coach wanting you does not replace admissions. You still pick a round and hit that school’s published deadline. One sport per account from a single list of NCAA recruiting sports — not a men's list and a women's list. If yours is not listed, pick Other and type the name. Positions and events on the card use full names, not codes.

Turn it on

In My Info, check Get a digital athlete card and pick your sport. That shows the Recruiting tab. Upload the headshot there (JPEG, PNG, or WebP, under 2 MB; 400 × 400 px works well). Turn the box off and the tab and recruiting to-dos hide again. Photos stay on our server until you remove them or delete the account.

The card

The Recruiting tab is the page you send a school coach. The preview at the top is what they see — not the college plan, and never family cost.

• Who you are. Name, major, and GPA come from My Info. Fencing adds weapon, USA Fencing rating (letter plus year, like A24 or B26; Unclassified has no year), and USA Fencing ranking (Regional, National, and/or FIE, plus each rank). Other sports add position or event (wrestling uses a primary weight class plus certified weights), height, and weight. Other (when your sport is not listed) uses named custom fields you add yourself — a label and a value, plus more as needed. Golf and bowling do not have a position or event field. Gymnastics, tennis, track and field, and acrobatics and tumbling can pick more than one event or role. Acrobatics can also add a background (USAG, All-Star, STUNT, acro, or power tumbling). Football, baseball, basketball, soccer, volleyball, beach volleyball, water polo, field hockey, lacrosse, rugby, and softball can add a second position. Rowing can add a primary side (Port, Starboard, Biswept, Sculler, or Coxswain) plus another side if you row both. Swimming and diving can add a second event. Football can add a 40 time. Tennis can add UTR singles and doubles. Fencing, bowling, field hockey, golf, ice hockey, lacrosse, tennis, and water polo can add left or right handed. Water polo can also add a cap number. Softball can add bats/throws (for example Right/Right). Basketball, football, baseball, swimming, water polo, and rowing can add wingspan; volleyball can add standing reach and approach touch; beach volleyball can add standing reach / block touch and jump touch. Every sport can add class year, high school, and NCAA Eligibility Center status. The School block on the card is high school, then HS coach name and email. Then Club / team (every sport — basketball calls it AAU / Club, tennis Academy, softball travel ball, rugby club / academy), then optional club coach name and email. Add the school coach, the club coach, or both — only what you fill in shows. Basketball also asks for HS jersey number plus club jersey. Field hockey and rugby can add a jersey number.
• About me. A few sentences above results so a coach hears who you are. This is not the My Info “About you” note used for school suggestions. Help write asks you to pick one question in each of four areas (character, mindset, goals, and school). It drafts from your answers, not the stats already on the card. Edit it before you save.
• Photos. Optional stills after Top results — a simple slideshow, up to six JPEG, PNG, or WebP files under 2 MB. Each photo can have a short description under it. Useful if you do not have film yet, or want pictures next to video. These are not the headshot or banner.
• Top results and a profile link. Type a few top results yourself, or use What should I write here? — it asks for the numbers, skills, and honors a coach in your sport usually wants, then adds only what you typed. Fencing results use date, tournament, event, and place. Gymnastics scores use date, meet, event, and score, plus USAG level. Fencing can store a fencingtracker.com link; other sports can store a stats link (Athletic.net, TFRRS, Hudl, UTR, Tennis Recruiting Network, or similar). Tennis results ask for national or regional rankings, then head-to-head wins rather than a raw W-L. Track results use event, mark, wind-legal status, and meet, plus season progress if it helps. Water polo results ask for per-game averages and 50 / 100 freestyle times. Wrestling results ask for win-loss, pins, and tournament places (state, Fargo, Super 32). Bowling results ask for league / sport-shot averages, high game and series, delivery numbers, Junior Gold / USBC finishes, Baker format, and arsenal / PAP. Rowing results ask for erg PRs with dates (2k first, then 6k / 5k, 30-minute, or peak power), boat and seat, a short on-water note, and major regatta year / class / time. Rugby results ask for verified testing (40, Bronco, yo-yo, bench, squat), extra clubs / academies / select sides, and accolades (championship, MVP, captain). Softball results ask for overhand velo, home-to-first, exit velo, pop time, and recent batting average / slugging / earned run average / fielding from a verified league. Triathlon results ask for a verified 100 swim and mile (GMTM / USAT combine), official Swimcloud / Athletic.net / Milesplit marks, functional threshold power and watts per kilogram, draft-legal yes or no, race finishes with a results link, and awards. Other results use named rows (label and value) for numbers, skills or testing, and honors, plus a short note if something does not fit a row. We do not import stats or upload video files.
• Social. Optional Instagram, TikTok, and X — a handle like @name or the profile URL. You can add one other https link with a short label (YouTube channel, LinkedIn). These show as icons on the bottom right of the card banner, not as video slots.
• Videos. Three YouTube or Vimeo slots (highlight, a full bout or game, another), plus more if you have them. Each can have a short label on the card (skill name, meet, or opponent). Thumbnails open a larger player.
• Look. Headshot (about 400 × 400 px), banner color, or your own wide photo (about 1200 × 500 px). Drag the banner to reposition a cover, or drag the circle to crop the headshot. Name color is ink or white. A black or white overlay with opacity helps the name read on a busy photo.

Share with a school coach

Create the coach link on the Recruiting tab, not on Share. Same expire and revoke rules. Create the link to get a URL you can copy — you do not have to email a coach. Private is the default (6-digit access code, like a parent plan). Switch to Public if anyone with the URL should open it. New links look like /card/e09n79/jane-doe: a short code (your initials plus four extra characters so two people with the same name do not collide) and your name. Parent and counselor plan links stay long and still need the access code. Older coach links with a long token still open. “Opened” on a public card means the card loaded from a different network than the one you used to create or send the link. They open a read-only card (name, photos, major, GPA, sport notes, school and club contacts you added, slideshow photos and descriptions, social links, videos). When a public link is pasted in a message or on social, the preview image is built from the headshot, banner, and those same facts — not the site default. A coded link keeps that preview generic until the code is entered. They do not see the plan, costs, or portal logins. An old coach link that pointed at the plan now opens the card instead.

List, rank, and to-dos

• Search can filter and list the program for the sport you picked on My Info. Those filters are about the school's teams (any varsity, men's varsity, women's varsity, or both), from a maintained snapshot (not a live NCAA feed) — not a men's vs women's sport choice on your card. Fencing still includes known clubs. Confirm on the athletics site; teams get added and dropped. Other has no program directory, but you can still note coach interest. NCAA fencing is National Collegiate — D1 and D3 compete together, but roster and aid still differ.
• Fencing only: on Selection, rank Fencing and choose Division I, Division III, any varsity, or club.
• Coach interest on each school is your note (none, contacted, talked, visit, verbal) — not a scraped rank.
• Athletic money belongs in Other / sport aid on Costs. Division III has no athletic scholarship; that line will often stay $0.

We do not scrape USA Fencing or FencingTracker. We do not invent NCAA recruiting-calendar or National Letter of Intent dates, and we will not guess an Academic Index. Use the Eligibility Center and your club or school coach for sport dates; use this site for the application dates on Search. Early Decision is still binding — coaches often ask for ED; keep only one.

9. Email remindersPlay 1:22

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. If a date is missing or wrong on Search, the reminder will be wrong too — fix the sheet first.

10. 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. If another student already looked this school up in the last three months, we reuse that shared row and skip the AI calls. Refresh AI always looks it up again. Official College Scorecard numbers stay official and are not overwritten by a search. Deadlines, contacts, and app type come from the admissions page when we can reach it (the fetcher follows links such as Undergraduate Admissions or “Applying to…”). Campus facts that Scorecard often omits — campus size, class size, admitted GPA, placement rate, and (especially outside the US) undergraduate enrollment, student-faculty ratio, SAT/ACT or typical offers, books, and earnings — come from a Google search of official sources and are reused for up to two years once they look complete. Adding a school or Refresh AI runs that campus-facts pass for a thin row. FAFSA and CSS dates come from a second pass on the financial-aid pages. 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.
• Recruiting-card “Help write.” You pick one question in each of four areas, then a coach note from your answers, only when you click Write the note. Edit it before you save.

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

11. If something looks wrong

• Campus facts stay empty. Opening Search does not start AI. Add a school or click Refresh AI for the lookup (class size, enrollment, ratio, books, earnings). Wait for the bar to finish, or leave the tab — the fill keeps going on the server.
• 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.
• Coach card has no costs. That is intended. School-coach links never include family money. Send the plan from Share if a parent needs costs, and check the Costs spreadsheet only if you also want that file in the email.
• Name is hard to read on the banner. Use a black or white overlay, or switch the name to white. Drag the cover if the photo sits in the wrong place; drag the circle to crop the headshot.
• Help write invented a result. Delete that line. The draft should use your answers, not invent stats. Edit it before you save.
• Delete the account from My Info (Delete account card). Type DELETE and your password. We email a cancellation note to that address. To report a bug, use the Contact page or email [email protected].

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

Common questions