Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about College Decoded. Can't find what you're looking for? Contact our support team.
Getting Started
College Decoded is a college planning platform. Students search 6,500+ colleges and 1,100+ careers, see what college will really cost their family, turn AP, CLEP and dual-enrollment credit into tuition they don't pay, find scholarships, prepare for the SAT and ACT, and track applications and deadlines in one place.
Yes. The Free plan costs nothing and never asks for a card. It includes browsing all 6,500+ colleges and 1,100+ careers, 5 saved colleges, full-length SAT and ACT practice tests with your score, 5 practice questions a day, and the career assessment quiz. Advanced search filters, the Financial Hub, Credit Lab and the other planning tools start with Basic at $19/month.
Students in grades 6–12 and their parents are who we build for, and adults returning to school can use it too. Whether you're just starting to think about college or finalizing applications, the tools cover each step.
No. Signup is open to everyone. The "Invite or Promo Code" box on the signup page is optional; leave it blank unless a partner or promotion gave you a code.
Pricing & Plans
Four plans. Free ($0): 5 saved colleges, college and career browsing, full-length SAT and ACT tests, 5 practice questions a day. Basic ($19/month): 25 saved colleges, Credit Lab for AP, CLEP and dual credit, the Financial Hub (net price, FAFSA, scholarships), essay tools, a test prep study plan with 50 questions a day, and Homework Helper (10 a month). Plus ($39/month): everything in Basic, unlimited saved colleges, Smart Counselor (30 messages a month), Smart Essay Review (5 a month), college comparison, family accounts and the parent dashboard. Premium ($79/month): everything unlimited, including Smart Counselor, plus Common App export and SMS deadline reminders.
Yes, for first-time subscribers. Your first paid subscription (Basic, Plus or Premium) starts with a 14-day free trial; if you've subscribed before, a new plan is billed when you start it. You add a card at checkout and are not charged if you cancel before the trial ends; after that it becomes a paid subscription. Buying a one-time College Plan also starts a free trial of the matching subscription: 14 days, or 30 days for adult learners, if you don't already have one.
Yes. Upgrades take effect immediately with prorated billing. Downgrades take effect at the end of your current billing period.
You can cancel anytime and keep paid features until the end of the period you've already paid for. Subscription payments are not refunded, including partial months or years, except where the law requires it. That's why your first subscription starts with a free trial: cancel during the trial and you're never charged.
Annual billing costs about 20% less than paying monthly. We don't run other discounts. Partner organizations sometimes give their families a promo code, which you can enter at signup or at checkout.
A College Plan is a one-time purchase, not a subscription: a plan built from your profile with matched colleges, what each costs your family, each school's published deadlines and a timeline for your grade. Essentials and Complete include one free refresh within 90 days; Premium includes three within a year. If we can't build your plan, we fix it or refund you; once it's delivered, it's non-refundable. A parent can order one about a linked student.
Enter it in the optional "Invite or Promo Code" box when you sign up, or in the promotion code field on the Stripe checkout page when you choose a paid plan. Codes can expire, and they can't be combined with other offers.
Major credit and debit cards (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover), processed securely by Stripe. College Decoded never sees or stores your full card number.
Verified high school counselors can request free read-only resource access at /counselors. The application verifies work email through a magic link and then goes through school-site review. The account includes guides, worksheets, calculators, share links, and sample dashboard previews, but no student rosters, notes, uploads, messaging, reports, or student-record tools.
Account & Sign-in
Choose "Get Started" on any page. Sign up with Google, Microsoft, or your email address. With email there's no password: we send you a secure sign-in link. No card is needed for the Free plan.
Sign-in links go to the email address you typed, usually within a minute. Check your spam or promotions folder. Each link works once and expires after 30 minutes, and requesting a new link turns off the older one, so an older or already-used link will not sign you in; request a new one from the sign-in page (you can ask for another after a minute). If you signed up with Google or Microsoft, use that button instead.
For your security, your login email can't be edited in Settings. Send a support request from the Contact page with the topic Login & account access, from your current email if you can, and tell us the new address.
Go to Settings, open Subscription, and choose "Cancel Subscription." That opens the secure Stripe billing portal, where you confirm the cancellation. You keep paid features until the end of the period you've paid for, and your saved colleges and plans stay in your account.
Go to Settings, open Data, and choose "Delete Account," or use the Privacy Center. Deleting removes your account and its data permanently and cannot be undone. It also cancels any subscription you bought on our website right away, with no refund or proration for the current period. If you subscribed through the App Store or Google Play, cancel it in the store first; we can't cancel store subscriptions, so deletion waits until you do.
Yes. All data is encrypted in transit. We never sell your personal information. You can download or delete your data at any time from the Privacy Center. Our Privacy Policy has the full details.
Students Under 18 & Parents
Yes, from age 13. Students under 13 can't create an account. Students 13 to 17 can use everything; we invite them to add a parent, which is recommended but never required. When a student under 18 is signed in, we turn off third-party analytics and advertising trackers and never sell or share their data, even if they accepted marketing cookies. AI features need the student's own consent first. Before anyone signs in, the cookie choices on the banner decide which trackers load.
A student invites a parent from their account, and the parent links with their own login. On Plus and Premium, a linked parent gets a parent dashboard with the student's progress, saved colleges and upcoming deadlines. The student controls what's shared with the "Share my college plan with my parents" setting under Settings, Privacy.
Not on their own. For a student aged 13 to 17, a linked parent can request deletion; the student is notified and decides whether to approve it. Parents can always cancel their own subscription, unlink themselves, and turn off AI help for their student. If you have a safety concern, contact support and we'll review it by hand.
Parent sharing continues by default, because most students turn 18 during senior year and still need a parent for the FAFSA, deadlines and deposits. The student gets a one-time notice that they now control what their parent sees, and can stop sharing at any time. From 18, only the student can delete or export their data.
AI Counselor
Plus includes 30 Smart Counselor messages a month, and Premium is unlimited. On Free and Basic you can try it with 3 messages. The Smart Counselor page shows how many you have used. Smart Counselor is an AI assistant: it gives planning guidance, not admissions decisions, and you should check important dates and requirements with each college.
Students under 18, anyone whose age we don't have yet, and students linked to a school counselor turn on AI help themselves before using AI features such as the Smart Counselor, essay review and Homework Helper. Linked parents are emailed when a student turns it on and can turn it off. You can review or withdraw consent in the Privacy Center. Other adults in the US don't need this step.
Features
Deal Score is our 0-100 measure of a college's value for the money. It weighs net price (40 points), earnings compared with cost (30), how much CLEP credit the college accepts (15), graduation rate (10) and retention rate (5). A college without enough net price and graduation data gets no score instead of a guessed one.
Net prices come from what each college reports to the U.S. Department of Education (College Scorecard) for families in each income bracket. They are averages for students who received aid, so your own price can differ. Each college's own Net Price Calculator gives a closer estimate, and your financial aid offer is the final number.
CLEP (College-Level Examination Program) lets you earn college credit by passing an exam instead of taking the course. Each exam costs $97 plus your test center's administration fee. Savings run from about $6,500 at a public four-year to $30,000+ at a private one, depending on how many credits each college accepts. Savings come in whole semesters: five passed exams (15 credits) can finish a semester early. Credit Lab shows which exams each college accepts.
6,500+ U.S. colleges and universities, including community colleges and career and trade schools. Search shows every open college by default; a toggle lets you hide community colleges and small schools.
Data & Support
From official public sources, chiefly the U.S. Department of Education (College Scorecard and IPEDS), the Bureau of Labor Statistics and O*NET, plus colleges' own published policies. Our Data Sources page lists every source.
Send a support request from the Contact page and pick the closest topic, such as College search help or Financial aid question. Include the college, scholarship, career or exam, the figure you saw, and where you saw the right one. We check it against the source and reply by email.
Send a support request from the Contact page (you don't need an account) or email [email protected]. You get an email confirmation with a reference number, and we reply within 1 business day by email. Billing, privacy and account-deletion, and partnership requests are always answered by a person. Premium members may see an instant automated answer first on other topics; a person still follows up within 1 business day. If you're signed in, My support requests shows every request and our replies.
Still have questions?
Our support team is here to help you succeed.