Sneak Peek for High School College Counselors (2026)
We're putting the finishing touches on the next edition of College Kickstart for High School Counselors and thought we'd give you a sneak peek. In addition to expanded school coverage and new tags, we've introduced a new plan sharing feature for counselors wishing to update plans in student mode, Bulk Plan PDF generation, and a QuickTips package to help streamline communication with students and families. You'll also find improvements to the Local Context workbench, including a consolidated Scattergram, as well as adjustments throughout our application to comply with WCAG 2.1 accessibility guidelines. Finally, the Plan Impact visualization is updated to be tabulated daily and allow filtering by counselor.
What's New for High School College Counselors in 2026
Expanded School and Department Coverage
Our coverage universe now includes 790+ U.S. four-year institutions as we continue to enhance regional and HBCU coverage based on customer feedback. We also cover admission profiles for 600+ departments across 80+ popular institutions. We also now provide residency based data for over 33 popular institutions.
New Tags
We've added new tags to identify schools with strong animal science programs or veterinary schools, and to identify schools with highly inclusive LGBTQ+ policies based on the Campus Pride Index. We've also updated our existing business tag based on new data.
Plan Sharing in Student Mode
Wishing you could make a change to a plan in student mode? After all these years, we're finally ready to beta test our new Plan Sharing feature. Offered as an opt-in feature, Plan Sharing makes it possible for counselors to make updates to plans that are student owned. You'll be able to update the school list, academic profile, and include an optional message, all of which the student will see when they next log into their account.
Bulk Plan PDF Generation
Looking for a way to generate personalized plan PDFs for multiple students at once? Then take advantage of our new Bulk Plan PDF Generation feature. Offered as an opt-in feature that we're also beta testing, Bulk Plan PDF Generation makes it possible for counselor admins to generate and optionally email personalized plan PDFs for multiple students at once. It's a terrific way for counselors with large case loads to send plans to students at the end of spring semester or in the early fall.
QuickTips Package
Looking for an easier way to help your students understand how to get the most out of College Kickstart? Our new QuickTips package covers all the useful features that students can use in College Kickstart. It includes brief descriptions and images that can be easily embedded in an email or newsletter. It also includes videos recorded and narrated by a former high school student that used College Kickstart during their college planning.
Local Context Updates
We've made a few improvements to Local Context for 2026. Given that many institutions still offer test optional admissions, Local Context will no longer restrict you from seeing a school because you did not have enough admitted outcomes with test scores. Furthermore, profiles with test scores are no longer required if you want to publish the school in Local Context. We've also introduced a consolidated scattergram that allows you to see both SAT and ACT test scores at once.
Customizable Minimum GPA Enforcement
In our 2025 edition of College Kickstart, we introduced minimum GPA capabilities that automatically categorizes a school as an unlikely if a student's GPA falls below minimum GPA threshold. Based on your feedback, the Local Context aspect is now optional. By default, minimum GPA enforcement based on Local Context data will not be activated. If you want to activate this feature, you can also customize which schools published in Local Context automatically enforce a minimum GPA based on selectivity. Note that minimum GPA thresholds based on national data from the common data set or the instiution's minimum GPA requirements will still be enforced.
Updated Plan Impact Visualization in CK360™
The Plan Impact visualization has been enhanced to now reflect up to date results. You can also filter results by counselor with a new dropdown. This will be a great way to analyse our application utilization not just by class, but by caseload as well.
Accessibility Enhancements for 2026
The 2026 edition of College Kickstart is now compliant with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1. We've made a series of improvements to our application to ensure a more inclusive experience. You may notice some subtle UI adjustments, but these changes will not affect your day to day use of our application.
We'll fill you in on the details in January. In the meantime, feel free to learn more about College Kickstart for Counselors, request a demo or check out what our customers have to say by clicking on one of the buttons below.