Overview of CaliforniaColleges.edu Accounts

What are the different types of CaliforniaColleges.edu accounts?

CaliforniaColleges.edu offers two types of accounts: Partner and Basic.

Partner Accounts

A Partner Account allows you to use all of the tools available on CaliforniaColleges.edu. To be eligible, a student must be enrolled in or an educator must be employed at one of our Partner Districts. Our Partner Districts have established a formal data-sharing agreement with California College Guidance Initiative (CCGI), which makes it possible for school districts to securely upload student transcript data into CaliforniaColleges.edu. To find out whether your school district is a Partner District, see our list of Partner Districts.

Basic Accounts

If you are not enrolled or employed by a Partner District, you can still sign up for a Basic Account. Students, educators, and other users who have Basic Accounts are able to use many of the tools on CaliforniaColleges.edu.

Partner vs. Basic Account Comparison

Below are a series of tables that summarize what features and tools on CaliforniaColleges.edu are available to Basic vs. Partner Accounts.

College and Career PlanningPartnerBasic
Curriculum
  • Curated college, career, and financial aid planning content that guides 6th-12th grade students through the step-by-step development of a postsecondary plan.
✔✔
Search Tools
  • College, Major, and Career Search Tools to help students explore their options.
✔✔
Career Exploration
  • Career assessments to help students discover their interests, personality, learning style, and more.
✔✔
My Plan
  • Academic Planner: (plan high school courses and track grades)My College Plan: (track favorite colleges and majors, college application deadlines and submissions, and test scores)My Career Plan: (track favorite careers and completion of assessments)My Financial Aid Plan: (track federal and state financial aid applications, including FAFSA, California Dream Act, Cal Grant¹, California College Promise Grant, and Chaffey Grant; favorite scholarships; and EFC calculation)My Goals: (create SMART goals for academics, college, career, and financial aid)My Journal: (complete journal prompts and self-reflections)My Experiences: (log volunteer, work, or extracurricular activities)My Documents: (up to 50MB of free storage space per student for resumes, college essays, financial aid award letters, assignments, or other documents)
✔✔

1 Tracks whether school district has submitted student’s Cal Grant GPA to the California Student Aid Commission.

Academic PlanningPartnerBasic
Academic Planner for Basic Accounts
  • Completed, enrolled, and planned coursework and grades are manually entered by students.
✔
Academic Planner for Partner Accounts
  • Completed and enrolled course data comes directly from the district’s student information system (SIS) via the transcript file and cannot be changed by students.
  • Plan future high school courses using the school’s course catalog.
✔
CSU and UC Eligibility Tools²
  • Considers test scores when the district includes them in file submissions.
  • Considers California State University (CSU) and University of California (UC) validations and exceptions.
  • Considers repeated coursework and college coursework when such coursework is accurately entered in the CMP and the district includes it in file submissions.³
  • Considers changes made in response to COVID -19 allowing Pass/Fail or Credit/No Credit for A-G coursework.
✔

2 Accuracy is dependent on the quality of district file submissions.
3 See CSU & UC Counselor Handbooks for more information on acceptable coursework.

Application IntegrationsPartnerBasic
FAFSA and CADAA – Application Launch from CaliforniaColleges.edu
  • Students’ statewide identifier (SSID) can be associated with their financial aid application launch, preventing data mismatches that can delay Cal Grant verification.⁴
  • Launch date and submission status are tracked in My Financial Aid Plan.
✔✔
CCCApply – Application Launch from CaliforniaColleges.edu
  • Time and date of application submission is tracked in My College Plan.
✔✔
CCCApply – Data-Informed Placement
  • For students who apply to a California Community College, the college can access transcript information to support a multiple measures approach to first-year academic placement.
✔
Cal State Apply – Application Launch from CaliforniaColleges.edu
  • Students can link their Cal State Apply and CaliforniaColleges.edu accounts. When accounts are linked, submission is tracked in My College Plan.
✔✔
Cal State Apply – Import of Academic Planner Data
  • All coursework from the Academic Planner is imported into Cal State Apply as unverified data.
✔
Cal State Apply – Import of Course and Grade Data
  • All A-G course and grade data from the Academic Planner is imported into Cal State Apply, and CMP-aligned courses and grades are considered pre-verified for the purposes of admission.⁵
✔
University of California Application – Application Launch from CaliforniaColleges.edu
  • Students can link their University of California Application and CaliforniaColleges.edu accounts. When accounts are linked, submission is tracked in My College Plan.
✔✔
University of California Application – Import of CMP-Verified A-G Courses and Grades
  • A-G courses and grades that have been verified against the CMP can be imported into the UC Application.
✔

4 Applies to Basic Accounts only in certain circumstances when the account is created by an educator.
5 Courses edited by the student after import are no longer considered pre-verified.

Student Account ManagementPartnerBasic
Account: Creation

  • New student accounts are auto-created with each transcript file upload from Partner Districts or student file upload from the California Department of Education (CDE) for Basic Student Accounts.
✔✔
Account: Student Information Updates

  • A student’s information (school, grade level, etc.) is updated through the submission of changes to the student file by the California Department of Education (Basic Accounts) and each respective Partner District (Partner Accounts).
✔✔
ReportingPartnerBasic
Student Account Activity
  • Completion of Academic Plan and college, career, and financial aid planning activities.
✔✔
Educator Account Activity
  • Available based on permissions.
✔✔
Exports
  • Export results into usable formats.
✔✔
Basic Filtering
  • By grade level and date range.
✔✔
Advanced Filtering
  • By gender, ethnicity, or special population, if data is provided by district in transcript file upload
✔
CSU and UC Eligibility
  • All deficiencies by subject area and deficiencies in units.⁷
  • Courses flagged as “a-g” by school but not found/matched in CMP.
✔
CCC and CSU Applications
  • Students who have applied to a CCC or CSU using their CaliforniaColleges.edu account.
  • Seniors who have linked their CaliforniaColleges.edu and Cal State Apply accounts, and who have started or completed at least one CSU application.
✔✔
UC Application
  • Students who have applied to a UC using their CaliforniaColleges.edu account.
✔
FAFSA and CADAA
  • Status of FAFSA/CADAA applications launched from CaliforniaColleges.edu.
✔✔

7 Allows for Pass/Fail and Credit/No Credit on “a-g” courses, in accordance with eligibility changes implemented in response to COVID-19.