Cialfo allows counselors to manage and track student's individual college applications in the below ways, and this article includes all that, including troubleshooting:
Accessing an Application
To check which college or the university a student has applied to, counselor can go on the student's account and click on the Application tab on the left menu.
On the Applications page, you will see all the colleges students have applied for.
Adding an Application
If you have given your students and/or their guardians the permissions within Account Configuration, they will be able to add applications to the student's Applying List.
Counselor can add an application in 2 ways:
From the Application page- Go to "Add Application" and select the university, course/Major and click on Add Application.
2. From the Universities page- Click on the "Universities" tab within the student's account, select the university you want to add and click on the 'Add to list' > 'Applying'.
Updating Application Information
On the application page click on "chevron down" icon in front of the application you want to update.
*Note: If your Cialfo - Common App Configuration of syncing rounds and deadlines is turned on, you will be unable to manually update the application round and application deadline.
Additionally, following data points are available in all applications:
Round: Indicate the application's round (EA, RD, Spring Transfer, etc.) if applicable
Deadline: This is auto-generated based on your selected Round, but you can manually change the deadline later.
Test Submitted: Indicate whether a test was submitted as a part of the application or indicate if none were submitted (for test-optional colleges!)
Result: Indicate the result once received!
Scholarship: Indicate if the student is applying for a scholarship and if awarded one, the quantity of said scholarship.
Notes: The counselor may want to include any helpful information about how the student applied here. The Notes are visible to students, while the Counselor Notes are visible to counselors only.
Flags: Counselors may want to track certain characteristics of student applications, hence Application Flags. These are only visible to counselors. The Application has a drop-down menu of preset flags to choose from. If a school needs custom flags, these can be created in Account - Configure. Multiple flags can be added per application if necessary.
Likelihood: It is a data projection representing the likelihood of a student achieving a possible acceptance to a college or university
Counselor documents sent: This will indicate whether the Counselor documents have been sent to the university or not.
Troubleshooting & FAQ's
(1) Unable to update Application rounds and deadlines
If you cannot add or edit the application round here, it's quite likely that due to an account configuration, student rounds and deadlines are getting auto-updated here from the Common app.
(2) I don't want my students to edit application details
You can prevent students from going in and updating the applications page using one simple account configuration. Under the Configuration- Click on university- scroll down to 'Miscellaneous'- 'Allow students to edit their application details'- you can toggle off this setting.
When turned off, this option will prevent the student from making any changes to their applications. You can turn it back ON when you would like students to go ahead and make changes to their applications.
What is new?
University Logos Now Clickable in Applications page
Prior to February 2026, university names in the Applications page were clickable and redirected to the university profile page, but university logos were not creating an inconsistent experience for counselors and students who naturally expected logos to be clickable too.
Now, university logos across all Applications-related subsections (for both counselors and students) are now fully clickable and redirect to the corresponding university profile page, consistent with how university names behave. This applies to all views within the Applications module where university logos are displayed.
How to reverse an accidentally submitted application
If a student or counselor accidentally clicks Mark as Submitted on an application and the application has not actually been submitted, there are two scenarios to get the application status back to In Progress.
1. Request the Counselor
Students can request their counselor to move a submitted application back to "In Progress" if it was accidentally marked as submitted. Counselors have the necessary rights and permissions to make this change.
2. Reach Out to Cialfo Support
If the counselor is unable to move the application back to "In Progress" or is facing any issues, they can reach out to us through the Chat with Cialfo feature.
Please make sure to provide the following details:
Student's full name
Name of the affected university
Screenshot of the Applications page
Can students mark their own applications as submitted?
Only if your school's Account Configuration allows students to edit application details. If you want to prevent students from accidentally clicking this, navigate to Configure > University > Miscellaneous and toggle off Allow students to edit their application details.
Application Management Fixes
Missing Application Round Options for Hong Kong Universities
Some students were unable to see the pre-configured round options when adding applications to Hong Kong universities.
Now the affected students can see and select the correct pre-configured round options for Hong Kong university applications.
If you encounter this issue, please contact support with the affected student's name and the university concerned.
Application Deadline Label and Date Field Visibility Fixed
Two UI issues were identified and resolved related to the Applications module:
Label rename: The field previously labelled Deadline was not correctly displaying as Application Deadline in some views. This has been corrected, the field now consistently shows the updated label "Application Deadline" across all relevant screens.
Start date field visibility: A start date field was incorrectly visible in some application views where it should have been hidden. This has been fixed, and the start date field no longer appears where it is not applicable.
Fee Waiver Sign-Off Issue: Previous Year's Waiver Blocking Current Year
Counselors reported being unable to sign off a student's fee waiver when the student was reapplying in a new academic year.
The cause was that the previous year's signed fee waiver was still visible and blocking the sign-off workflow for the current year. This has been resolved via a data fix. Counselors can now successfully sign off the current year's fee waiver for reapplying students without being blocked by prior-year records.
If you encounter a similar issue with a specific student, please reach out to Cialfo Support with the student's name and school.
Need More Help?
Our Client Support team is available via Live Chat 24 hours a day, Monday through Friday, so you can get help anytime during the work week through Chat with Cialfo.
If you're unable to find a solution in our help articles or need further assistance, you can contact the Cialfo Support team via Live Chat or email us at [email protected]