Xello simplifies the college application process for students, counselors, and educators

The college application process can be a stressful time for students. A lot of the pressure stems from the uncertainty of the process. Students must ensure they meet each college’s admissions requirements, while presenting an application that effectively highlights their achievements. On top of that, the process includes many moving parts–essays to write, letters of recommendation to request, supplemental materials to collect, and deadlines to meet. It’s a lot to manage, especially while keeping up with their regular schoolwork.

Students aren’t the only ones feeling the strain. School counselors and educators play an essential role guiding students through this process and need streamlined tools to best support them. Xello’s College Applications hub simplifies the admissions process for everyone involved by bringing everything students need to one platform, empowering them to make informed decisions and stay on top of their deadlines. 

Helping your students track important dates and deliverables

With Xello’s college planning tools, college-bound students can easily track each school’s requirements and application and scholarship deadlines, as well as their overall progress.
With the College Applications tool, students are prompted to create applications for each of their desired schools. Using Peterson’s data, Xello automatically populates a checklist of application requirements, showing students exactly what needs to be submitted for each college.
Students can personalize their checklists by adding custom tasks such as a creative portfolio or interview, and they can assign due dates to individual requirements. As students make progress on their applications, they can simply mark requirements as complete and watch their checklists grow more colorful as they near application completion. Students can also record their college enrollment decisions—and educators and families can do it on their behalf as well!

Additionally, students can explore scholarship opportunities with Xello’s Scholarships tool. Students begin this exploration by filling out a brief profile that matches them to school, institutional, state, and national scholarships. This helps students narrow down their search to scholarships they have a greater chance of winning. 

To keep students motivated and on track, a visual snapshot of all started applications, deadlines, and pending action items is summarized within the Application Tracker. This makes it easy for students to see exactly where they’re at and what they need to do next. 

As an educator, you can view your students’ enrollment decisions in your educator account in Xello. This enables you to see the colleges your students are planning to attend. You can also easily identify which students haven’t yet made a decision, so you can provide them with extra support. By generating lists of how many students are applying to individual schools, you can gain an inside look at college application trends at your school. These data can help inform your planning for future college information sessions and visits.

Example of an educator report: college applications by institutionWith the ability to view and monitor each student’s application progress directly in Xello, you’ll be able to have more meaningful one-on-one discussions and help keep students accountable in their post-secondary planning.

Streamlining the college application process

Xello has teamed up with Parchment, an Instructure company, to offer even greater ease in the application process. Through this partnership, students, academic institutions, and employers can securely send and receive student application documents directly in the Xello platform!
This makes it easy for students to request and share the documents they need to successfully complete their college application requirements.
Once an application is created, students can simply click the Request button next to the transcript requirement, and their requests are automatically sent to their high school. Requests are fulfilled by the school administrator behind the scenes, which is then submitted to the college right from Xello.

Xello’s built-in tracking ensures your students are informed of the status of their transcripts, keeping administrators free from questions, concerns, and follow-ups from students. 

Students can also request letters of recommendation from within their application checklist. Xello understands the importance of crafting a clear and concise request, so students are educated about the process of requesting a letter of recommendation and offered tips on what makes a good request. And just like their transcripts, students are able to track the status of the letters of recommendation requests right from Xello.

Those receiving letter of recommendation requests will be notified by email when one is submitted. They’ll receive the student’s personal note and the requested deadline, and they can securely upload their recommendation letter in Xello (without the need for a Xello account).

Once letters of recommendation are uploaded into Xello, they are sent directly to the college. Both educators and students can easily monitor and track the progress of these requests.

Xello partners with Common App to consolidate application tasks

Xello’s College Applications tools are designed with you and your students in mind. The College Applications tools keep your students informed, inspired, and on track with their applications. For counselors and educators, internal processes are better streamlined, so you can spend less time on administrative tasks and more time preparing your students for the future.

Now, with Xello’s partnership with the Common App, the college application process is further simplified with the consolidation of tasks and documents into one workflow. With over 1,000 post-secondary institutions using the Common App, students can complete one application for multiple schools. By syncing their Common App account with Xello, students can easily track all of their college applications and request the necessary documents and transcripts in one place. 

Get started using college applications in just a few clicks

Ready to dive into the College Applications hub in Xello? The tools are available to your grade 11 and 12 students and are accessible from the Goals & Plans section of the student dashboard. To get started, check out this Xello Support article.
Additionally, if you’d like to enable the electronic sending of Transcripts and/or Letters of Recommendation, simply contact your Xello Success Manager or send us an email at help@xello.world.
Wishing you a swift and successful college application season!