WEBINAR recordings
Please note: Recorded webinars are now hosted on the MCAN Professional Development Hub. You will need to create a free account to access the recording and SCECH quiz.
As the 2026-27 school year begins, we are excited to kickoff another cycle of MCAN's College Bound Michigan (CBMI) initiative. This session will be useful for both site coordinators already registered for CBMI and those who are looking to learn more about the program before signing up.
This comprehensive training will introduce the purpose and vision behind MI College Match, explain how the program works, and clarify the important role counselors play in supporting participating students. Attendees will leave with the information, tools, and next steps needed to successfully implement MI College Match during its inaugural year.
Watch Recording
Join the College Bound Michigan and MI College Match team as we get ready to celebrate Michigan College Month in October! Hear about best practices CBMI sites have used to have successful campaigns, plan for data collection and reporting, and learn how MI College Match can plug-in to and elevate your existing structures to make college an option for even more seniors.
Resources for counselors and schools
FAQs
MI College Match is designed to work best as part of College Bound Michigan, a year-long suite of initiatives designed to build and support college-going cultures in high schools and their surrounding communities.
What is Direct Admission and how does it help students?
Direct admission through MI College Match means you can receive real college admission offers based on your academic grades and the preferences you provide — no application, essays, or recommendation letters needed. It’s free, fast, and stress-free.
Why is Direct Admissions better for students?
The college application process is long, individual to each institution, and a lot of work for students. Applying to five colleges means researching all the options, deciding on five, completing an application five times, and facing the fear of rejection. With MI College Match, there is no application — no essays, no letters of recommendation, never any application fees. Let’s face it, most of that information wasn’t being used to determine students’ acceptance anyway — decisions are largely being made based on high school grades and coursework.
With MI College Match, that’s what a college sees: a transcript (with no Personally Identifiable Information) to make the determination on college acceptance. Students don’t have to select which colleges to hear from — they get offers from all participating colleges that will admit them.
Students can complete their one-time profile in 15-20 minutes, and colleges make real offers to students based just on the profile and student transcript. These are real, verified admission offers from participating colleges. No additional application is required.
MI College Match is:
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Free: Never a cost to schools and students.
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Accessible: All students can create a profile to see what offers they get from Michigan colleges — including colleges they may not have previously considered. This changes the conversation from “you should apply to college” to “you got into college.” This is especially important for students who are on the fence about college or aren’t sure if it’s for them.
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Quick: Students can complete their profiles in 15-20 minutes. We have step-by-step guided tutorial videos that are available to play in class or send to students directly.
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Exciting: Students don’t receive any rejections; they only receive offers and scholarships from colleges that want them. They can then work with you to research and consider match and fit for colleges that have offered admission already and move forward with colleges they are interested in.
How do I support my students using mi college match?
Create an educator account on the Match site. Please note: because counselors are given access to sensitive student data, Match has two separate verification steps. Each verification step can take 24 to 48 hours. Once you have created your profile, you can learn more information about next steps through the tutorials available in your profile (Click the ? icon in the top right corner to access video tutorials).
What is the role of the counselor?
Counselors have a Counselor Dashboard in the Match system so you have more information than ever before about where your students are in the college application process. After creating an account, counselors have access to the dashboard with real-time insights. You’ll see who’s submitted their Match profile, who’s received offers and scholarships, where they’ve been admitted, and how students are responding. Students will have to add their counselor’s name on their profiles for counselors to get access to student direct admission data.
MI College Match has the opportunity to DRIVE students to connect with counselors about admissions. We know sometimes students who may be on the fence can avoid you like the plague because you’re going to ask them again about college. Instead, with MI College Match, you’re going to get to show students real offers and financial aid from colleges and can talk with students about next steps, match and fit, and FAFSA. It takes away the question of “Can I get into college?” and changes it to “What is my best option?”. Counselors get to focus on college advising rather than nagging and data entry.
What data do counselors get?
The counselor data gives counselors all of the information on a student and school-level that you need to support your students. You can see for each student total admissions offers, total scholarship dollars won, and where they have pending or accepted offers. For your school, you will see real-time total admissions offers, average offers per student, total scholarship dollars offered, and average financial aid dollars per student. You can easily download graphics with that information to share with other district stakeholders.
This is a lot of information. Want a quick video to share with staff, administration, students, and parents? We’ve got you. Click here.
What about FERPA?
No Personally identifiable information (PII) is shared with colleges until a student authorizes it. What is shared with colleges to make an offer of admission, a profile and transcript, does not have the student's name or any other PII. If, and only if, a student decides they want to accept an offer from a college and receive more information, then the student authorizes the information to be shared with the college. Until then, the college doesn’t know who the student is and the student's information is protected.
How much time does it take to get students set up on Match?
Less than one class period. Students can complete their profiles in 15-20 minutes. We have step-by-step guided tutorial videos that are available to play in class or send to students directly.
What is included in the student profile?
There are three sections that ask about what a student is hoping for in their college experience. This helps ensure college offers are a good match for what the student is looking for.
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The first section asks about basics, including student name, address, and graduation year. No PII will be released until a student authorizes it.
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The second section is about where the student is looking to attend college — how close to home do they prefer to stay and if they want offers from out-of-state colleges.
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The third section is about their college preferences. This includes items like intended program of study, extracurricular interests, types of environments they want to be in, size of college, etc.
The most important part is uploading the transcript. This can be done by either the student or the counselor. Profiles are not complete, and students will not receive offers, without uploaded transcripts.
This onboarding guide provides an overview of the student profile.
Can my students still create a Match profile if they’ve applied directly to a participating college?
Yes, a student should still create a Match profile. If they’ve applied directly to a participating Match college, the student should indicate this when prompted in their Match profile creation.
Can my students still apply directly to colleges that are NOT participating in MI College match?
Yes, absolutely! Match is designed to expand choices, not limit them. Students can apply directly to any college in addition to using Match.
How will I know which students received Direct Admission offers?
After creating an account, counselors have access to a dashboard with real-time insights. You’ll see who’s submitted their Match profile, who’s received offers and scholarships, where they’ve been admitted, and how students are responding. Students will have to add their counselor’s name on their profiles for counselors to get access to student direct admission data.
What information should my students include for best results?
Students should complete their full profile, including a transcript with three years of grades to be eligible, preference section, and academic interests. The more detail, the better and strong test scores being added can result in additional scholarship awards.
Are the offers students receive through Match official?
Yes! These are real, verified admission offers from participating colleges. No additional application is required.
What happens after students receive offers in the system?
When offers arrive, students receive notification that they have offers to review and they will all be found in the student's Offers tab. Remember, these are real offers of admissions and no further application is required of students. But at this point, the college doesn't know who the student is and doesn't have any information about them in their pipeline yet. The student has been admitted based on GPA and coursework.
This is where counselors get to engage in college match and fit conversations with students. Which of the offers available to them best align with what a student is hoping for? You can together do some research on these institutions, review the scholarship offers, and decide which offers the student is going to accept.
If students haven't yet accepted their offers, counselors can also send students nudges to do so through the counselor dashboard. Note, many of these offers have deadlines, so students should respond in a timely manner. This quick video shows how counselors can interact with and review student offer data.
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It is only once a student has accepted an offer in the portal indicating that they are interested in learning more and being directly connected to the institution that the college gets information about who the student is. During the review process, colleges see an anonymized version of the student profiles. This means they do not see any personal information or contact details about the student. If the student would like to receive their acceptance materials and have their admitted student records created at the institution, they must respond to the offer to indicate that they are interested. Clicking "interested" is not a commitment and is non-binding from the student's perspective. Students can indicate interest in as many offers as they would like.
Once this is complete, the student's information is automatically shared with the institution who will begin to process the admitted student's packet! Students should not be completing any additional admissions applications to the institution.
