Overview of CaliforniaColleges.edu Accounts

Partner Accounts vs. Basic Accounts

CaliforniaColleges.edu offers two types of accounts: Partner and Basic. Click the tabs below for more information about the two types of accounts.

A Partner Account allows students, educators, or parents/guardians to use all of the tools available on CaliforniaColleges.edu. To register a Partner Account, you must be enrolled in or employed in a Partner District with “live” data on CaliforniaColleges.edu at the time of registration. Partner Districts are Local Educational Agency (LEA) with a signed K-12 Data Sharing and Services Partnership Agreement with CCGI.

Per the State of California, the definition of an LEA includes, but is not limited to, high school and unified school districts, county offices of education, direct-funded charter schools, and special education local plan areas. The K-12 Data Sharing and Services Partnership Agreement 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, use our District Lookup Tool.

If you are not enrolled in or employed by a Partner District, you can still sign up for a Basic Account. Students, educators, and parents/guardians who have Basic Accounts are able to use many of the tools on CaliforniaColleges.edu, except those that require student transcript data, such as the CSU and UC Eligibility Tools.

NOTE: If you are an educator interested in a Basic Account, your district must first sign an Educator Account Agreement.

Accounts Comparison

Below are a series of tables that summarize what features and tools on CaliforniaColleges.edu are available to Partner Accounts and Basic Accounts. Click each tab to view each corresponding table below.

Feature(s) and/or Tools Available

Partner

Basic

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 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 (CSAC).

Feature(s) and/or Tools Available

Partner

Basic

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 and UC Counselor Handbooks for more information on acceptable coursework.

Feature(s) and/or Tools Available

Partner

Basic

FAFSA and CADAA – Application Launch

  • Students’ statewide identifier (SSID) can be associated with their Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) or California Dream Act Application (CADAA) launch, preventing data mismatches that can delay Cal Grant verification.⁴
  • Launch date and submission status are tracked in the Financial Aid Lessons.

✅

✅

CCCApply – Application Launch

  • 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 (CCC), the college can access transcript information to support a multiple measures approach to first-year academic placement.

✅

Cal State Apply – Application Launch

  • 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

  • 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.

Feature(s) and/or Tools Available

Partner

Basic

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.

✅

✅

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).

✅

✅

Feature(s) and/or Tools Available

Partner

Basic

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.

✅

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