NC Countdown to College
C2C Site Registration | C2C Toolkit | FAQs | Webinars & Training
Things to Know about NC Countdown to College.
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NC Countdown to College (C2C) is a year-long initiative to help high school students, their families and adult learners complete the three college enrollment steps: residency, financial aid, and college applications.
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C2C includes College Application Week, October 20-26, 2025, where volunteers at hundreds of NC high schools will help students submit online admission applications, and many colleges will waive their application fees on CFNC. The full list of institutions waiving fees will be published on October 1st.
- Advise your students to create an account and start applications on CFNC.org to ensure they benefit from the fee waivers. We cannot guarantee that fee waivers will extend to other application platforms, like Common App.
- Contact your regional Associate Outreach Director for more information about C2C and CFNC resources.
Site Registration
We're excited that you will participate in this year's NC Countdown to College (C2C). By submitting the site registration form, you will agree to host events that support high school seniors in completing three important college enrollment steps: 1) Submitting college applications (including being a host site for College Application Week), 2) Completing the NC Residency Determination Service (RDS) to get in-state tuition and grants, and 3) Completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).
*Please note that beginning with C2C 2025, all C2C 2024 sites will be auto registered for 2025.
C2C Toolkit
Help your students Countdown to College with helpful tools and resources all in one place!
Check back later for tools and resources to help your students Countdown to College.
More handouts can be found on the CFNC Training Materials page.
FAQ
Awareness and planning play a large part within each school or site. Try to make CAW a school-wide effort and a celebration. Get buy-in from school administration and other faculty and staff, involve students and parents, and connect with local organizations. Consider offering prizes (donated by local organizations, college access agencies, or colleges) as students participate. Use participation milestones along the way.
You can get parents, guardians, and local volunteers involved at any level of knowledge and effort. Even consider on-site and remote volunteer opportunities. You might want to categorize volunteers into admin, logistics, influence, and special skills.
Here are some examples:
- Admin: emailing, posting on social media, printing materials, helping students login to their http://CFNC.org accounts.
- Logistics: setting up the event tables and chairs, coordinating with local businesses, getting AV equipment set up.
- Influence: greeting students and families, recruiting volunteers, keeping energy up in the room, encouraging students to take the next step in C2C.
- Special skills: anyone with special skills or knowledge or access; IT, AV, rentable facilities, speakers of a foreign language.
- Also make sure that your volunteers understand the purpose of C2C. They do not need the detailed knowledge of each step; they are there to support you.
The quickest way to assist students is through educator access in ProTools. Once signed in, educators can search individual students connected to their school and reset their password by sending a link to the email address attached to the account.
The second way is for the student to click “forgot username” or “forgot password” on the account log-in screen. To recover a username, the student needs to know the first name, last name, and email address they used when they created the account. To recover a password, the student needs to know their username and last name.
The third way is to call CFNC directly. The student can call 1-866-866-CFNC and select option 5. They will be asked security questions and can update information at that time.
Note: there is no method for students to email or text CFNC for assistance with account login.
Students and educators can submit a technical assistance request or call our toll-free number at 866-866-CFNC for assistance during College Application Week.
Keep in mind that the assistance link will be live only during October each year.
Educators should ensure they can log into ProTools about one month before College Application Week. Due to an overflow of requests that come in right before October, it is important to check this early.
For CFNC.org login issues, please submit the technical assistance form.
For ProTools login issues (including creating an account), you can contact:
- Your District Administrator, if applicable
- CFNC by calling 866.866.CFNC (2362) and select option #5 or email [email protected].
If accessing for the first time, visit protoolshelp.cfnc.org for more details.
Webinars & Training
In-person regional trainings beginning in September will feature C2C site coordinator training that will be useful for new and seasoned site coordinators. The in-person trainings will also cover updates on state and federal financial aid, best practices from local experts, and new tools to help you and your students navigate the college application process. CFNC will also offer virtual programming covering important C2C topics throughout the year. Visit the Professional Development Opportunities page to learn more and register for in-person trainings and webinars.