Countdown To College

NC Countdown to College (C2C) kicks off in October; it’s a year-long initiative where we encourage students to complete the following three steps in college enrollment: residency, financial aid, and college applications.

One of the most anticipated events of the campaign is College Application Week (CAW), where many NC colleges and universities waive their application fees.

We ask that all high schools and college access partner organizations register as a C2C host site. Host sites are re-enrolled each year automatically. Your school or organization are also automatically enrolled when you participate in a C2C Regional Training. Only high schools or organizations that haven’t previously attended a C2C Regional Training need to complete the host site registration form.

This year’s College Application Week will take place from October 19th at 7:30am through October 25th at 5pm. Download the save-the-date flyer and the List of Participating Institutions to share with your students.

Resources

To help you share important information with students about residency, financial aid, and college applications, we have created the following easy to access resources:

  1. List of CAW Participating Institutions
  2. CAW Save-The-Date
  3. Senior Year College Checklist
  4. Social Media Guide 
  5. Social Media Post 1
  6. Social Media Post 2
  7. Social Media Post 3
  8. Ask Me About College Door Sign
  9. CFNC C2C Year-At-a-Glance
  10. Trusted Influencer’s Newsletter Sing Up

More resources for education professionals including handouts, webinars, and trainings can be found in the Educational Professionals Training 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 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.[NC5.1]
  • 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.