Community College Partner Student Guide
Through the use of quick steps and graphics this guide is your road map to the CollegeFish.org experience. What is CollegeFish.org? CollegeFish.org is a web tool created by Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society to aid community college students as they plan their future after community college, either through transfer to a 4-year institution in pursuit of a baccalaureate degree, or by entering the workforce. Currently, CollegeFish.org is focused on providing transfer assistance to students. Who can use CollegeFish.org and how much does access cost? CollegeFish.org is a tool designed specifically for community college students. If the student is currently enrolled at a community college that has partnered with CollegeFish.org, he/she is automatically enrolled in CollegeFish.org through the school and will receive specific information from their transfer center. This partnership between CollegeFish.org and the school allows access to be given to the entire student body of the partnering school. Once a partnership has been established, access to CollegeFish.org by community college students is FREE. If you have questions, or would like to find out if your college is a partner with Phi Theta Kappa, please contact the Phi Theta Kappa advisor or the transfer counseling office at your community college. Let s get started! Page 2
Logging In to CollegeFish.org As a student at a community college who has partnered with Phi Theta Kappa, you are eligible to enroll in CollegeFish.org.* Using a web browser, navigate to this website: http://www.collegefish.org/registerme/. You will see a screenshot similar to the one displayed below. At this point you can begin the identity confirmation and login process. *We will continue to roll out enhancements to the student view as they become available. Please continue to check back, and update your information on a regular basis, to take full advantage of the benefits of CollegeFish.org. Page 3
Confirming Your Identity In order to gain access to CollegeFish.org, you must first confirm your identity through a validation process. For this step, you will need to provide your name, date of birth, student identification number (issued by your community college) and the name of your college. Once you ve successfully confirmed this information, you will be able to create your unique username and password. Helpful Hint: once your country is chosen, the location fields will expand as shown below: Page 4
Username and Password You ve completed the validation process and can now create your username and password. With this username and password, you will be able to login to CollegeFish.org and begin the transfer process. This is the next step to exploring information on colleges and scholarship opportunities! Page 5
Welcome and what do I do next? When you log in to CollegeFish.org before you do anything else you must complete your student profile. Doing so will help us provide you with tools to aid in planning your future by matching you to schools which are a best fit, as well as supporting you in finding scholarships and financial aid assistance. Your Goals Before you begin filling out your profile, please take a moment to answer two very important questions about your education goals. Once you ve answered these questions, you will be directed to your student profile, where we can learn more about your transfer preferences. By knowing your preferences and goals, we can help put you on a path to a successful transfer. Page 6
Helpful Hint: See the screenshot below for directions on how to search for the correct major. Page 7
Your Profile This is the first page of your personal profile. Please fill out your CONTACT information here: Page 8
This is the second page of your personal profile. Please fill out your EDUCATION information here: Page 9
This is the third page of your personal profile. Please fill out your DEMOGRAPHICS information here: Page 10
This is the fourth page of your personal profile. Please fill out your FINANCIAL AID information here: Page 11
This is the fifth and last required page of your personal profile. Please fill out your TRANSFER PREFERENCES information here: Page 12
This is the sixth page of your personal profile (includes tabs for extracurricular activities as well as athletics). This page is optional; however, in order to find your best fit college we want to be as thorough as possible. Please fill out your EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES and ATHLETICS information here: Page 13
This is your Homepage. As you ll see it has a number of options to help you organize and plan your transfer. Main points to know are highlighted on the screenshot below, and explained further in the following pages. Page 14
What are Next Steps and what do they mean? Items designated as next steps are general transfer steps that we suggest all students follow in order to increase the chance of transferring to a best fit school. They appear on the CollegeFish.org student home page once the student profile has been completed. Each step has a designated time frame during which it is recommended the student complete that particular step, based on when the student stated he/she wished to enroll in a four-year college. These steps are created to ensure students are prepared for transfer and don t miss out on important admission, housing or financial aid deadlines. In addition to pre-determined, general transfer steps, deadlines for colleges that students place in their Fish bowl are also included in the Next Steps list. Page 15
Scholarship Recommendations This feature automatically reviews your profile and transfer preferences and recommends scholarships to pursue based on your excellent level matches and schools you ve placed in your FishBowl. Students who have already completed a profile need only log on to their CollegeFish.org accounts to see what scholarships have been recommended for them. New students will see this for the first time upon completing their profile. Only scholarships the student is eligible for will be recommended. Page 16
This is the Scholarship Recommendations Page. Page 17
This is how you save a Scholarship to your Treasure Chest. The Treasure Chest is indicated by the solid Dollar Sign symbol in the upper left corner of your screen and is where you keep track of scholarships that interest you. Page 18
This is what the Treasure Chest looks like. Page 19
My Matches Below is a screenshot of the best fit college matches based on the specific information in the profile. Page 20
Helpful Hint: See the screenshot below for directions on how to save a college to your FishBowl. Page 21
My FishBowl Use your fish bowl to keep track of the schools you are interested in, and your #1 ranked school will show as part of your transfer goals on the home page. Initially these schools will appear in the order you first added them to your FishBowl. Page 22
Helpful Hint: Please note that you can put these colleges in whichever numeric order you wish. For example, they will initially appear in the order you add them to your FishBowl, but if you want to prioritize Tennessee Wesleyan in the second spot, you simply type in the number 2 and make sure to choose a new number 1 Georgia Southern in this screenshot and click the drive icon to save. The colleges will then reorder. Page 23
Calendar Below is a screenshot of your personal calendar. Explore the calendar and see what options are available to you! See the next page for a screenshot of a detailed calendar view. Page 24
Helpful Hint: Please note that you can drill down on an individual date within your calendar. There you can see those deadlines associated with a particular day, as well as add new ones. Page 25
College Search Both students and advisors may search for a college based on numerous criteria. Selecting items such as location, size, majors, etc will help you find a school that might be a good fit. Choosing Search for Schools from the menu on the left (see the red arrow in the screenshot below) will open up the search criteria box. Helpful Hint: I am not getting back very many colleges when I do a college search, what s wrong? The college search function can narrow down to a very specific, small group of colleges quickly based on the answers provided in the search. Each item selected will narrow the number of colleges which are returned, so if you are not getting a large enough selection of colleges, take off the least important requirements to meet your needs and rerun your search. Page 26
Helpful Hint: For more information you can always click on the? on any given screen. See the screenshot below for more information on geographic regions, which is displayed after clicking on the?. The area highlighted in yellow shows more information on the Far West region. Page 27
Browse Colleges Besides selecting specific criteria, you may browse colleges either by the name of the college, by the state the college is located in, or by majors offered. Page 28
Helpful Hint: Once the college is selected, the school s profile will be displayed. At the top of the profile are several tabs, with each tab dedicated to a specific group of relevant information. Page 29
Search and Browse Scholarships Our scholarship database includes scholarships for roughly 3,000 third-party scholarships. You may enter specific criteria and see if there are any scholarships that match. If no scholarships show up, we recommend you include fewer criteria and rerun the search. You may also browse scholarships either by state, by school or by third-party. Don t forget to explore the Scholarship Recommendations feature, outlined on pages 16-18. Page 30
Additional Important Information View Resources at School There are two tabs on the school resource page - one for the transfer advisor at your college and one for the Phi Theta Kappa Chapter advisor. Refer to these pages for contact information for either. Page 31
Change Password/Username Page 32
Lost Login Information I have forgotten or have lost my CollegeFish.org login information. What do I need to do? Simply go to www.collegefish.org and select the Login Here button. The following login page will appear containing links to have a temporary login sent to your email address that is on file with CollegeFish.org (or with Phi Theta Kappa if you are a member or advisor). If you attempt to log in with the instructions above, and have difficulties, please email us at tech_support@collegefish.org for assistance. If you have any additional questions regarding these instructions or have feedback on how to improve this guide, please email us at enrollment@collegefish.org. Page 33