Colleges have a system.
Now you do too.
Every college email, deadline, and real after-aid price — organized into one board where you call the shots.
Start free — no credit card · works instantly with sample emails
For students
Stop drowning in college emails. Start running the search.
Three hundred hype emails a year, a dozen deadlines, and everyone asking "where are you applying?" College Shortlist turns the flood into a board you control — your odds at each school, the real cost, and exactly what to do next.
Free to start — no credit card needed.
For parents
Know they're on track — without the nagging.
See the school list, the deadlines coming up, and the scholarship money adding up — the plan and the dollars, at a glance. Not their inbox. Not their private notes. Just the confidence that it's handled.
Set it up in two minutes; your teen keeps their own private login.
How it works
From an email flood to a board you control.
1 · Everything lands in one place
Forward your college mail — or paste it. Every email becomes a card with a one-line summary, so you never read another hype email end to end.
2 · You move schools forward
Seven stages from "first email" to "I'm going here." Drag a school along and its odds, costs, tasks, and deadlines travel with it.
3 · Nothing slips
Due dates get pulled out of the mail and onto a calendar with a countdown — and your parent can see what's coming without asking.
Colleges track you. Now you track them back.
Colleges have run this pipeline on you since they bought your name off a test site. Same board, pointed the other way — parents see everything from Short list on.
Inbox → My Schools → Fit Report → Scholarships → Deadlines. Real screens, not mockups.
What you get
Three answers nobody hands your family for free.
Where you stand. What it really costs. Where the money is.
Know where you stand
Your real odds at every school on the list, the gap between you and their admitted class, and the specific moves that close it. Built on official federal data for 6,000+ colleges — not a counselor's hunch and not a vibe.
See the real price
The sticker price is fiction. See what a family like yours actually pays after aid at each school — before anyone falls in love with one you can't afford, and long before the offer letter arrives.
Find the money
Scholarships you actually qualify for — not a generic list — tracked from "applying" to "awarded," each with its deadline and decision date, and the dollars totaled: secured, pending, and still in reach.
Write a stronger essay
An essay coach that actually reads it — and says how to make it better.
Paste your draft and the prompt. You get a score, the specific fixes worth making, and notes tuned to what that school or scholarship actually weighs. You write it — we make yours stronger. Never a ghostwriter.
- A clear score — not vague praise
- Specific top fixes you can act on today
- Feedback matched to what each school weighs
- Works for college and scholarship essays
For parents
The plan and the dollars, at a glance.
You get the school list, the deadlines coming up, and the scholarship money adding up — enough to know it's handled, without living in your teen's inbox or asking twice a week.
- Where they stand at each school — with size and the real cost after aid
- Deadlines coming up, so there's nothing to nag about
- Scholarship money: secured, pending, and still possible
- A short list of what changed this week
Never shown to a parent: raw inbox emails, essay drafts, private notes. Help without hovering — that's the deal, and it's why teens actually use it.
You create your account, then invite your teen — they keep their own private login.
Already have Naviance or the Common App?
This does the other half.
Naviance, SCOIR, and the Common App each own one end of the journey. College Shortlist owns the messy middle — where your family actually decides, and where the money is.
Works alongside the tools you already use
Keep your school's tool for transcripts and rec letters. Keep the Common App to submit. College Shortlist gets you there — with a clear list, a real budget, and every deadline caught. (Independent product. Not affiliated with, or endorsed by, any of the above.)
Simple pricing for the whole journey.
Launch pricing — free to demo during our pilot
Every plan comes monthly, quarterly, or annual, with a 7-day free trial at launch. Today it's free to try with sample data — no card needed.
Organizer
Tame the inbox
Best for grades 9–10
starting at
or $49/yr · best value
- Inbox sorter + forwarding
- Unlimited schools + tracking board
- Acceptance odds & fit
- Deadline dates & calendar
- Parent oversight — list, deadlines, activity
- 1 student
Strategist
Build your plan
Best for grades 10–11
starting at
or $99/yr · best value
- Everything in Organizer
- AI reads & sums up your college emails
- AI pulls deadlines from your emails — with reminders
- Essay help & feedback
- Scholarship matching + real cost
- Parent money view — net price + scholarships
Decider
Don't miss the money
Best for grades 11–12
starting at
or $199/yr · best value
- Everything in Strategist
- Deadlines filled in for you — application, early action, priority-scholarship & FAFSA dates
- Priority-merit alerts — the apply-by dates that decide scholarship money, flagged before they pass
- Automatic merit estimates where a school publishes them — and a clear "competitive — apply by" flag where it doesn't
- Application portal & materials tracker
Free to start — no credit card needed.
Prefer a smaller first step? Monthly and quarterly options are available at checkout.
Secure checkout via Stripe
At launch: 7-day free trial, monthly, quarterly, or annual billing, secure checkout via Stripe. Free to demo today — no card.
Questions, answered
Do I need a parent's permission to use it? +
If you're under 18, a parent or guardian approves your account once — one click in an email we send them. If you're 18 or older, you don't need anyone's approval. Until a parent approves, you can explore the app, but connecting your real inbox stays locked (that's the law for under-18s).
What can my parent see — and what stays private? +
Parents see the plan and the money: your school list, stages, deadlines, and net price + scholarship totals. They never see your raw inbox emails, essay drafts, or private notes — help without hovering.
Do I have to connect my email? +
No. You can paste or forward college emails one at a time. Auto-forwarding is the easy option — set it once and new college emails turn into cards automatically — but it's optional. You can also just track schools by hand.
Is it free? Do I need a credit card? +
The basics are free — no card. Paid plans start with a 7-day free trial: a card starts the trial, and if you cancel during it you're never charged.
My school already gives us Naviance or SCOIR — why pay for this? +
Those are your counselor's tools — built to send transcripts and recommendation letters and track where you applied. They're good at the paperwork. College Shortlist does the parts they don't: it turns the hundreds of college marketing emails into a clear shortlist, shows what each school really costs your family after aid, tracks your scholarship money, and gives parents their own view of the plan and the dollars — without going through a counselor juggling hundreds of other students. Use both: the school tool for the official paperwork, College Shortlist for your family's search and decisions. (We don't replace transcript or recommendation-letter sending — that stays with your school.)
Isn't the Common App already free? Why pay for this? +
The Common App is where you submit applications — after you've decided where to apply. College Shortlist is everything before and around that: turning the email flood into a shortlist, showing what each school really costs after aid, tracking your scholarship money, and catching every deadline — including priority-scholarship and FAFSA dates the Common App doesn't track — across every school, not just Common App members. Parents get their own view of the plan and the dollars. When you're ready to apply, you still do that through the Common App or your school's portal — we just get you there with a clear list and nothing missed.
Who pays — me or my parent? +
If you're under 18, your parent or guardian is the billing party and manages the plan. If you're 18 or older, you can pay for yourself. Either way, every plan starts with the 7-day free trial.
How do I upgrade or change plans — and what does it cost mid-term? +
Change plans anytime from Account → Manage subscription. Upgrades take effect right away, and you only pay the prorated difference for the time left in your term — we credit what you've already paid, so you're never double-charged. Downgrades take effect at your next renewal.
Does College Shortlist read my teen's actual email? +
You're in control. You can paste emails, or forward them to your College Shortlist address, or connect your inbox — and we read only what you send us, securely, to pull out the useful info. The parent view shows the school list, deadlines, and scholarship money — the plan and the funding, not your actual inbox.
Where does the school data come from? +
From official U.S. government data on 6,000+ colleges (the College Scorecard). We turn it into easy numbers: how big the school is, your real odds of getting in and how to raise them, and what it really costs after aid.
What if I lose internet? +
College Shortlist keeps working. If the internet drops, it switches to a backup and shows its best estimate — clearly labeled — so you're never stuck staring at a blank screen.
Can I cancel? What's your refund policy? +
Yes. Every plan starts with a 7-day free trial — cancel during the trial and you're never charged. After that, plans are non-refundable, but cancelling stops the next renewal and you keep access through the period you've already paid for. Choose monthly, quarterly, or annual billing.
The colleges already have their system. Get yours.
The sooner you start, the more deadlines and scholarship money you catch — and everything you need to run it is already built.
Free to start — no credit card needed.