Your College Journey Starts Here
Let's set up your profile so we can personalize your experience.
About You
Your Pathway
Your College List Preview
"Students who apply to at least one reach school are 2x more likely to attend a college that's a strong academic fit. Don't count yourself out!"
Your Modules
Each module builds on the last. Complete them in order to stay on track.
College Tracker
Add your intended major and explore colleges to see personalized aspiration prompts here. Nothing is pre-selected for you.
FAFSA & Financial Aid
3 of 7 steps complete · Est. aid: $14,200/yr
Steps
💡 First-Gen Tip: Don't leave the FAFSA because it seems hard. Missing the priority deadline can cost you thousands. Your advisor can sit with you to complete it.
Applications
Your Schools
Milestones
70% doneModule 1: Identity, Goals & College Exploration
Complete all 6 sections to build your college roadmap and earn your Explorer badge.
"Most students don't explore enough options before building their college list. The ones who do end up with better choices, better fit, and more financial aid. That's what this module is for."
Your Sections
Who am I right now?
You do not need to have everything figured out. This is just a snapshot of what feels true for you right now.
What sounds most like you?
Pick the qualities that show up in how you learn, work, and show up for others.
What are your interests & hobbies?
Select everything that applies — there is no right answer here.
What are your activities & responsibilities?
Work, caregiving, and community roles count just as much as traditional extracurriculars.
What are your favorite classes?
Pick the subjects that feel most engaging or relevant to you right now.
What matters most to me right now?
Your values influence the decisions you make, the goals you pursue, and the opportunities that feel meaningful to you. Understanding them can help you make choices that align with who you are and what matters most.
You can want stability, purpose, belonging, growth, and opportunity at the same time.
Select up to 5 values.
Choose the values that feel most important in this season of your life.
Which of your selected values feels most important right now?
Choose one.
Why does this value matter to you?
There are no right answers. Help us understand what makes this important in your life right now.
Remember: your values may change over time. The goal isn’t to lock yourself into one identity. It’s to better understand what is motivating you right now.
What future am I working toward?
There are no right answers. Your vision can change as you learn more about yourself and the world. For now, focus on what feels meaningful to you.
You’re building something real.
Based on your responses, we’re beginning to build a picture of what motivates you, what you care about, and the kind of future you’re working toward.
Your answers aren’t permanent. As you grow and learn more about yourself, you can update them anytime.
What do I need to thrive?
These are the things that matter most to you when thinking about any environment. Choose your top 5 priorities.
Choosing your top 5 helps you practice a skill you’ll use throughout the college process: deciding what matters most when you can’t have everything.
Select your top 5 priorities.
What environments bring out my best?
Understanding what kind of environment helps you thrive is part of finding a college that actually fits.
What kind of campus feels right?
Choose up to 3.
How I Learn and Live Best
Select campus vibes and adjust the sliders to build your snapshot.
Remember: there is no perfect campus. The goal is understanding where you’re most likely to feel comfortable, engaged, and supported.
This profile will grow as you do.
Your interests, goals, and priorities may evolve over time. This is a reflection of who you are right now — and it can be updated as you continue exploring.
Academic information supports planning. It does not define what you are capable of or where you belong.
This profile is not permanent. It will grow as you learn more about yourself, your goals, and your options.
There is more than one path to success.
Most students are only told about one or two options. Explore different pathways, learn how they work, and save any that feel worth exploring.
Students enroll directly after high school and spend four years earning a bachelor’s degree. Schools vary widely in size, cost, selectivity, and culture.
Students complete two years at a community college, then transfer to a four-year university to finish their bachelor’s degree. In California, the TAG program guarantees UC admission for qualifying transfer students.
There are over 100 HBCUs across the US offering bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees. They range from small liberal arts colleges to large research universities and serve students of all backgrounds.
There are over 500 HSIs across the US, many in California, Texas, and Florida. They include community colleges, regional universities, and research institutions. Many offer robust first-gen and bilingual support programs.
Liberal arts colleges are typically small, residential schools that emphasize a broad, interdisciplinary curriculum. Students take courses across many fields before specializing. Class sizes are small and professors are highly accessible.
Trade and vocational programs offer focused training in fields like healthcare, technology, construction, cosmetology, and the arts. Most programs take 1-2 years and connect students directly to employment or apprenticeships.
These are the pathways you’re interested in exploring further. You’ll continue comparing them as you learn about college fit, majors, careers, and schools.
What Does College Fit Actually Mean?
A good college fit is not about finding the “best” school. It’s about understanding the different factors that can shape your experience and finding environments that align with what matters to you.
Two students can attend the exact same college and have completely different experiences. One might thrive while the other struggles — not because of their ability, but because of fit. Understanding what matters to you helps you make a more intentional choice.
Five factors that shape college fit
Academic fit is about whether a school’s programs, teaching style, and academic culture match how you learn best and what you want to study.
Community fit is about whether the people, culture, and social environment of a campus match your values and identity.
Environment fit is about whether the physical and geographic setting of a campus aligns with where and how you do your best work and feel most comfortable.
Opportunity fit is about whether a school offers the specific pathways, experiences, and connections that align with your goals after graduation.
Cost is one of the most important fit factors — but it’s also one of the most misunderstood. The sticker price of a school is often not what students actually pay.
The sticker price is the published tuition. The net price is what you actually pay after grants, scholarships, and institutional aid are applied. For many students, the net price is significantly lower — sometimes dramatically so.
Choose up to 2.
Explore Schools
Talk to Scout like a counselor, or search and filter schools yourself. Save any that fit to build your College List.
Paste your API key to load real schools. (Showing sample data until you do.)
Let’s explore what interests you.
Based on what you shared in Module 1, here are some career areas that may be worth exploring. Keep the ones that spark something. Skip the ones that don’t.
Suggested starting points based on your profile
All career areas
What else interests you?
Swipe through career ideas. Keep the ones that feel worth exploring — skip the rest. There are no wrong answers.
Nice work exploring. Check your kept interests below.
Interests you’re keeping
These will carry forward into your career exploration and school fit checklist.
What are you genuinely interested in?
Select every area that genuinely interests you. There are no wrong answers and no limit. You are not choosing a major — you are mapping your curiosity.
These interests are saved to your profile and will guide your career exploration, major discovery, and school fit checklist.
Areas Worth Exploring
Based on your career exploration activities and survey responses, these are some academic areas that may be worth exploring further. This is not a prediction and it is not a final answer.
This isn’t a final answer — it’s a starting point. Use it to ask better questions, explore school programs, and talk to your advisor about what feels right.
My College List
These are the schools you’ve saved. Tap any school to set whether it’s a reach, match, or safety, add notes, and mark if you’re applying.
Aim for at least 1 reach, 2-3 matches, and 1-2 safeties. Reach = stretch goal. Match = realistic. Safety = confident you’d get in and be happy there.
Your College List is set.
This is your list. Every school here is one you chose intentionally.
Module 1 Complete. 🎉
You know who you are, what you’re looking for, and where you’re applying. That puts you ahead of most students who start this process.
Module 2 walks you through your applications school by school — essays, deadlines, requirements, and submission.
Module 3: Financial Aid & Affordability
Understand college costs, complete your financial aid requirements, maximize the aid you qualify for, and make a confident, affordable enrollment decision.
Your Aid Deadlines
Your Sections
Free money. Borrowed money. Earned money.
Every financial aid offer is built from a combination of these three funding types. Understanding the difference helps you compare colleges more accurately.
Students see a $60,000 sticker price and assume that’s what they’ll pay. In reality, colleges often reduce costs through grants, scholarships, work-study, and other aid programs.
The first step to understanding affordability is understanding the types of aid available.
Can come from the federal government, your state, your college, or private organizations.
Every dollar from grants and scholarships directly reduces what you have to pay.
Federal student loans usually provide stronger protections and lower interest rates than most private loans.
Loans can help make college possible, but unlike grants, they must be repaid.
Part-time jobs on or near campus while you’re enrolled.
Work-study helps you earn money through the school year to cover expenses.
Even if two colleges offer the same total, the mix matters. Grants and scholarships reduce what you pay. Loans must be repaid later.
When comparing colleges, look beyond the total aid amount. Ask:
Not all financial aid reduces your cost in the same way.
A financial aid offer is usually a combination of grants, scholarships, loans, and work-study. Understanding these categories will help you make smarter affordability decisions throughout the rest of this module.
Don’t rule a school out too early.
Many students cross schools off their list because of assumptions that aren’t true.
Don’t eliminate an opportunity before you know the facts.
What You’ll Actually Pay
Many students assume they already know what college will cost. The truth is that nobody knows their exact cost until financial aid offers arrive.
“I looked up the tuition, so I know what this college costs.”
The published price is only one piece of the picture.
Tap the step you’re on right now.
Research costs. Use calculators. Review aid policies. But remember:
The only way to know what a college will actually cost you is to apply, complete your financial aid forms, and compare the financial aid offers you receive.
Before crossing a college off your list, try the school’s Net Price Calculator. The U.S. Department of Education provides a searchable directory of calculators for colleges across the country.
Net Price Calculators are estimates, not guarantees, but they can help you understand what students with similar financial circumstances may pay.
Open Net Price Calculator CenterDon’t eliminate opportunities based on incomplete information.
You now understand how college costs really work: the real answer comes after admission and aid offers — so don’t rule schools out too early.
Two forms. Very different purposes.
Most students should complete the FAFSA. Some colleges also require the CSS Profile to award their own institutional aid. Start with FAFSA, then check each college’s requirements.
Bottom line: every student seeking financial aid should complete the FAFSA or CADAA.
Used by some colleges and scholarship programs to award their own institutional aid. Often required by private or highly selective colleges. It asks for more detailed financial information than FAFSA.
Bottom line: CSS does not replace FAFSA. It’s an additional form only if your school requires it.
Complete FAFSA first. Then check each college’s financial aid page to see whether the CSS Profile is required.
Gather what you’ll need before you start.
Most FAFSA delays happen because students begin the process without the information, accounts, or contributor support they need. A few minutes of preparation now can make filing much easier.
The goal of this step is to prevent these delays before you start.
You don’t need every answer memorized. You simply need:
Students who prepare before starting FAFSA are far more likely to complete the process successfully.
Who needs to complete FAFSA with you?
Many FAFSA delays happen because students are unsure who counts as a contributor. Choosing the correct person now can save weeks of delays later.
Students complete their portion of FAFSA, but a required contributor never finishes theirs. Your FAFSA can’t be fully processed until all required contributors submit their information.
Another common delay is selecting the wrong contributor, or forgetting to invite a required parent or stepparent.
Most dependent students will use a biological or adoptive parent.
If your parents are divorced, separated, or never married, FAFSA may require information from the parent who provided the most financial support during the past 12 months.
If your FAFSA parent is married, a stepparent may also need to provide information.
FAFSA may require both the parent and stepparent’s financial information — even if the stepparent isn’t legally responsible for paying for college.
Most students will need a contributor. However, some students may qualify as independent and may not need parent information. Examples can include students who were in foster care after age 13, students with no living parents, or students with other qualifying circumstances.
If you think this might apply to you, review your situation carefully before filing.
Your FAFSA may work differently if:
These situations are more common than many students realize. If one applies to you, don’t guess.
A legal guardian is an adult a court has given legal responsibility for a child. Examples can include:
Being raised by a grandparent, aunt, uncle, sibling, or family friend does not automatically mean they should be listed as your FAFSA contributor.
A legal guardian is not automatically treated the same as a FAFSA parent.
If you’re being raised by someone other than a biological or adoptive parent, your FAFSA requirements may be different. Don’t assume your guardian should be listed as your contributor.
Before submitting FAFSA, talk with:
Choosing the correct contributor is just as important as completing the FAFSA itself.
The wrong contributor can delay processing, reduce aid eligibility, or require corrections later.
When you’re unsure, ask before you submit.
When things need to happen.
FAFSA isn’t just one deadline — it’s a sequence of steps. Missing one can delay your financial aid or prevent colleges from reviewing your application completely.
Many students think submitting FAFSA is the only deadline. It isn’t. Pay attention to:
The earliest deadline that applies to you is usually the one to plan around first.
Missing a college financial aid deadline can affect grant eligibility even if your FAFSA was submitted on time.
Most FAFSA delays are caused by missing steps, not difficult forms.
You’ll learn what happens after FAFSA submission and how colleges build financial aid packages.
Stay organized. Check your portals and email. Follow through.
Anyone whose information is required on your FAFSA — usually a parent or stepparent. They complete their own section.
Each contributor signs the FAFSA electronically with their own account. It’s how they provide consent and verify their identity.
Sharing one account causes errors and can lock the FAFSA. Each person must use their own FSA ID.
A new FSA ID can take 1–3 days to verify. Creating it early is the easiest way to avoid the most common FAFSA delay.
File it. Confirm it. Track it.
Here is your live FAFSA completion tracker. Every step accounted for.
You are one step away from submitting. Your contributor’s FSA ID is the only remaining block.
“I need your help finishing my financial aid application. I just need you to create an account at studentaid.gov and fill out your part — it takes about 20 minutes and it could save us thousands of dollars.”
Verification is not punishment. It’s a process.
About 1 in 4 students are selected for verification. It does not mean you did something wrong — it means the government wants to confirm your information.
What verification usually requires
If you are selected for verification and do not respond within the school’s deadline, your aid can be cancelled entirely. This is the single largest source of financial aid melt.
Log into every school’s financial aid portal and look for a “To Do” or “Required Documents” list. Complete anything listed there within 2 weeks of receiving the request.
Scholarships are not the lottery. They are a system.
Most students only apply to 1-2 scholarships. Students who treat it like a job and apply to 15-20 win significantly more.
The best scholarships are often local and institutional — not the big national ones everyone applies to. Lower competition, higher win rate.
Where to search
Scholarship scam warning signs
Your starter scholarship tracker
Free money vs. borrowed money. Side by side.
Once your aid letters arrive, compare them like this. The school with the lowest sticker price is not always the most affordable.
Aid package comparison
Monthly budget estimator
Your estimated monthly cost is $1,550 — or about $18,600/year. Factor this into your net cost comparison above.
Module 2: Applications, Essays & Personal Narrative
Your story matters. This module helps you organize experiences, develop essays, and build materials you can reuse throughout the college application process.
Your Sections
Know which system each school uses.
California students often apply through a mix of systems. Mapping your schools first helps you avoid duplicate work, missed requirements, and unnecessary essays.
Main application systems for California students
Some colleges appear on more than one application system. Before applying, always confirm the application options and requirements on the college’s official admissions website.
For many California students, Cal State Apply is the fastest place to start, then UC, then Common App schools. Begin with the systems that cover the most schools on your list, and don’t try to do everything at once.
Application type comparison
Capture Meaningful Moments
Not every important story starts fully formed. This step helps you capture meaningful moments that may become useful for future essays, scholarships, interviews, and recommendation materials. You don’t need to write a perfect story — just capture the moment.
You are not writing an essay. You are capturing meaningful moments.
A moment can be a memory, a challenge, an accomplishment, a responsibility, or a turning point. It can come from: family • work • leadership • challenges • community • personal growth.
Save at least 3 moments. You don’t need to know how you’ll use them yet — capture the moment now, and you can build it into a story later.
Reflection prompts — tap any to expand
Capture Your Experiences
Experiences help provide context and evidence for your story. They show how you spend your time, what responsibilities you carry, and where you have demonstrated commitment and growth.
Not every important part of your story is a single moment. Some parts of who you are show up in what you do every week, who depends on you, what you have committed yourself to, and where you continue showing up over time.
This page helps you document the experiences, responsibilities, leadership roles, jobs, service, and commitments that may strengthen your applications, essays, scholarships, and recommendation requests later.
Stories answer: “What happened to me?”
Experiences answer: “What have I consistently committed myself to?”
You need both.
A strong college profile includes meaningful stories and clear evidence of responsibility, contribution, growth, leadership, and persistence.
Many students overlook important experiences because they are not part of an official club. If you regularly contribute, lead, support others, or take responsibility for something, it may belong here.
Experience categories — tap one to add
Examples include: caring for siblings • translating for family members • supporting a family business • helping with transportation • caring for relatives • managing household responsibilities.
These experiences demonstrate responsibility, commitment, leadership, and time management.
Your saved experiences
Moments capture what happened. Experiences capture the commitments and responsibilities behind them.
The experiences you save here can be linked to your moments in the next step to build stronger stories for essays, scholarships, and recommendation requests.
Build Your Stories
This is where your moments and experiences come together. The moments you captured and the experiences you documented can help you build stronger stories for applications, scholarships, interviews, and recommendation requests.
One Story. Many Applications.
Most students start with prompts and wonder what to write. Strong applicants start with experiences, then match those experiences to the essay types that fit best.
Application essay types
Scholarships Are Not One Big Category
The best scholarship searches start with understanding how scholarships are organized. Most students qualify for more opportunities than they realize.
Students who organize reusable stories and responses can apply to more scholarships without starting over each time.
Understand where scholarships come from
Different scholarships serve different purposes. Understanding these categories helps you search more strategically.
Most scholarship essays ask about the same things
While scholarship applications may look different, many essay questions fall into a handful of recurring themes.
One story can support multiple scholarships
Strong experiences can often be adapted across multiple scholarship applications.
You do not need a completely different story for every scholarship. Strong experiences can often be adapted across multiple scholarship prompts.
Plan before you write
Before opening a document, organize the key parts of your response. You will write the full essay in Google Docs or Microsoft Word — this is your reusable plan.
My Scholarship Blueprints
In the Opportunities Hub, you'll be able to connect saved stories and scholarship blueprints directly to scholarships you track.
Why Recommendations Matter
Your grades and applications show what you have done. The people who recommend you help colleges understand who you are.
Grades show what you did. A recommendation explains who you are.
The best recommender isn’t the most impressive title — it’s someone who watched you grow. A teacher who knows your story can write something a famous name never could.
Help Others Understand Your Story
The people writing your recommendations may not know everything about your experiences, responsibilities, goals, or accomplishments. This page helps you organize what matters so they can support and advocate for you.
Who Knows Your Story Best?
Think about the people who have seen you grow. The best recommenders can speak to specific parts of your story, not just your grades.
People you’re considering
Your Support Packet
This pulls everything together into one clear document you can share with a recommender — so they understand you beyond grades and test scores.
Create a Resume from Your Story
A simple, clean resume built from the experiences you already saved. Add experiences in Step 2 of Story Development and they show up here automatically.
Module 4: Enrollment & Transition
Getting in is step one. This module guides you from acceptance to enrollment readiness so you know what to expect, what to complete, and how to stay on track before your first day.
Your roadmap
A decision is information, not a verdict.
Admissions outcomes come in a few forms — and each one has options. Pick what you received to understand what it means and what to do next.
No single decision defines your future. Acceptances, waitlists, denials, and aid offers each open different paths — this guide walks you through what to expect for the one you got.
What did you receive?
What would you want to know before saying yes?
The schools that admitted you each offer something different. Start by exploring what would make a college feel like the right fit for you.
This isn’t about finding new colleges. It’s about investigating the ones that already said yes — so you can tell which is the strongest fit for you.
Open each area and choose what matters to you
Of everything you selected, which three matter most to you?
Tap up to three, in order. These will lead your investigation list.
Strong college decisions rarely come from one factor alone. The colleges that admitted you may differ in academic opportunities, support systems, career pathways, community experiences, and campus environments. Understanding what matters most helps you investigate the right things before committing.
Turn your priorities into questions.
Open each area and tap the questions you’d actually want answered before you commit. Star the ones you must know.
Most students focus on whether they were admitted. Strong decision-makers investigate what their experience will actually be like after they enroll. The questions you’ve selected can guide your campus visits, info sessions, websites, and conversations.
Good college decisions are rarely based on one factor. The strongest decisions come from understanding:
Before choosing a college, focus on gathering information — not making assumptions. Next, you’ll connect what you’ve learned back to your own goals and priorities.
How close are you to making your decision?
You’ve explored your options and learned more about what matters to you. Now it’s time to think about where you are in the process and what information or support you might still need.
Where are you right now?
Choose one.
What’s helping you lean toward a college?
Select all that apply.
What’s still making the decision difficult?
Select all that apply.
Who could help you make this decision?
You don’t have to do this alone.
Compare Your Final Options
You’ve explored your options and gathered information about what matters most to you. Now organize what you’ve learned before making your final college decision.
Saying yes is its own step.
Being accepted and becoming an enrolled student are two different things. Here’s what committing actually involves — and what to do before and after you say yes.
Does getting accepted mean you’re enrolled?
The commitment walk-through
Tap each step to understand what it means.
What should you review before submitting a deposit?
Committing means saying yes to one school — and it starts your official enrollment. Review your aid first, submit your deposit or intent to enroll, and then it’s okay to let your other offers go.
Orientation is not optional.
Students who skip or rush orientation consistently report lower belonging and higher confusion in their first semester. This is your introduction to how your school actually works.
Introduce yourself to at least 3 people at orientation. This is genuinely one of the easiest social moments you will ever have — everyone is in the same boat.
Orientation checklist
Campus support resources
Register early. Register intentionally.
Your first semester schedule sets the tone. Take this seriously — but also give yourself room to breathe. 12-15 units is plenty.
Do not take 18 units your first semester. 12-15 units is the right starting point. You can always take more once you know how college works. Most students who overload regret it.
Registration checklist
Your first semester schedule builder
Feeling nervous is normal. Being unprepared is preventable.
First-gen students often carry transition anxiety alone. This section names what is hard and helps you build the systems to handle it.
"First-generation students who seek help early in their first semester are significantly more likely to persist through year two. The students who struggle most are the ones who wait too long to ask."
Transition confidence check-in
Your support network map
You do not have to figure this out alone. The students who thrive in college are not the ones who never struggle — they are the ones who ask for help before they are desperate.
Module 5: Thrive on Campus
Getting to college was the hard part — and you already did it. This module helps you stay, succeed, build your people, and feel like you belong.
By the end of this module: I know how college works, I know where to get help, I know who my people are, and I have systems that help me succeed.
Your Sections
You've already done the hard part.
Feeling unsure at first is normal — almost everyone feels it, and it eases. It is not a sign you don't belong. Let's start from what you already bring.
"First-generation students are just as capable as anyone else on campus. The students who thrive aren't the ones who never struggle — they're the ones who reach out early."
Start from what you already bring
A hard thing you've already gotten through
Pick any that feel true. There's no wrong answer here.
You already know how to ask
Think of one time asking for help made a difference. Who did you go to?
You already have people. Let's bring them to campus.
Friends, mentors, family, faculty — connection is how you belong, and it's usually who you ask for help first.
Your first campus person — name one real person or role at your school to connect with, plus one small first step.
Know where to go before you need it.
You already route problems in real life — when something breaks, you know who to call. College has a desk for every need. Let's map yours.
What's actually true — surface and correct the beliefs that stop students from using help (office hours aren't only for struggling students; counseling isn't only for crises).
You already run a system. Let's point it at college.
A job, a household, a family calendar — you already manage real complexity. This is the same skill, aimed at a syllabus.
Decode your syllabus — pull the four things that matter: what's due, what's weighted, the late policy, where to get help.
Your weekly look-ahead — stack a five-minute check onto a routine you already have.
You already have things that keep you steady.
The move isn't to learn self-care from scratch — it's to protect what already resets you when the load goes up.
Know your empty — name your own early signs of running low, so you notice them before burnout — and remember feeling stretched is something to get support for, not white-knuckle alone.
Catch the small stuff before it grows.
You already know your own patterns. Acting early — small and soon — is how you stay on track and keep the help you've lined up working for you.
Your early plan — wire each sign to a first move, built from the people, directory, and systems you set up in Sections 2–5.
Module 6: Career & Long-Term Success
College gets you in the door. This module makes sure you know what to do once you are there — and where you are going next.
Career readiness dashboard
Your Sections
You have more to say than you think.
First-gen students often undersell themselves because they were never taught to translate their real experiences into professional language. That changes now.
Working 20 hours a week while carrying a 3.8 GPA is not just a personal fact. It is evidence of time management, resilience, and execution under pressure. That is professional language.
Build your elevator pitch
Your strengths in professional language
Your LinkedIn is your professional handshake.
Recruiters, professors, and mentors will Google you. Make sure what they find tells your story the right way.
"Students with complete LinkedIn profiles are 40x more likely to receive opportunities through the platform. Set it up now — even before you have a lot to put on it."
LinkedIn profile checklist
Aspiring [Role] | [Major] Student at [School] | [One thing that makes you distinct]
Tip: Fill each bracket with your own details — your goal role, your major, and the school you’re aiming for. Nothing here is filled in for you.
Networking is not schmoozing. It is asking for directions.
Most professional opportunities come through people, not job boards. Building relationships early is one of the highest-ROI things you can do in college.
You are not asking for a favor. You are asking someone to share their experience with a curious, ambitious student. Most professionals are happy to do that.
Networking tracker
Outreach email template
Hi [Name],
My name is Jordan Davis. I am a first-year [your major] student at [your school]. I came across your profile and was really inspired by your path from [background] into [current role].
I would love to ask you a few questions about your experience — I am trying to figure out what paths make sense given my background and goals. Would you be open to a 20-minute call sometime in the next few weeks?
Thank you for your time.
Jordan Davis
Informational interview questions
The resume gap nobody talks about.
First-gen students apply to fewer internships and start later. The students who get jobs senior year started exploring sophomore year. Start now.
Major internship programs recruit 12-18 months in advance. Summer 2027 positions open in fall 2026. Exploring now is not early — it is on time.
Internship opportunities to explore
Application readiness checklist
Professional environments have unwritten rules. Now you know them.
Continuing-generation students learn these informally from family. You are learning them here — which puts you on the same footing.
The hidden rules of professional spaces
Interview preparation
There are rooms you have not been told exist.
Study abroad, fellowships, leadership programs, conferences — these are not for other students. They are for students who know to ask.
"Many prestigious fellowships and leadership programs actively recruit first-generation students. They are not applying at anywhere near the rate their credentials would support."
Opportunities most first-gen students never hear about
Your long-term goal map
My College Tracker
Every school, every deadline, every step in one place.
Narrative Asset Library
Your experiences and the blueprints built from them. One experience can power many blueprints; one blueprint can generate essays across many schools.
Opportunities
Scholarships, internships, fellowships, programs — all in one tracker.
Thrive
The tools that keep you organized, on track, and well while you are doing the work.
Your tools