Privacy Policy

Shortlist is a college admissions tracking app for iPhone and iPad. It is designed to be local-first: your school lists, essays, recommendation tracking, test scores, financial-aid offers, decisions, and notes are created by you and stored on your device through SwiftData unless iCloud sync is available and enabled through Apple services.

Shortlist does not require an Atlas Peak Media account for v1 launch.

Application data: school names, deadlines, decision dates, application status (interested, applied, accepted, waitlisted, denied), reach/match/safety classification, and per-school checklist progress.

Essays and recommendations: essay drafts, prompt text, word counts, version history, and recommendation status per recommender per school. Stored on your device.

Test scores: SAT, ACT, AP, TOEFL, IELTS, LSAT, MCAT, GRE, GMAT, and other standardized scores you enter. Used for the test-score advisor and per-school submission decisions.

Financial data: financial-aid award letters you enter (grants, scholarships, loans, work-study), expected family contribution estimates, true-net-cost calculations, and aid appeal drafts. Stored on your device.

Profile data: intended degree level, intended majors and CIP codes, persona priorities (e.g. value-seeker, prestige-oriented, equity-minded), and optional ASVAB composite scores when you use the pathway-fit scorer.

Subscription status: Apple StoreKit tells the app whether your Apple ID has an active Pro or Family subscription. Atlas Peak Media does not receive your payment card information.

Shortlist stores user-authored application data locally on your device through SwiftData. When iCloud and the signed app configuration are available, Shortlist uses Apple CloudKit private database sync.

Private iCloud data is managed by Apple under your Apple ID. Atlas Peak Media does not browse your private iCloud database.

Public federal data bundles (College Scorecard, IPEDS, BLS, ACS, etc.) ship inside the app. Bundle file sizes, SHA-256 hashes, and source manifests are visible inside the methodology section of the app.

Apple services: App Store, StoreKit, CloudKit, and LocalAuthentication support subscriptions, sync, and optional biometric app lock.

U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard: when configured for live data refresh, Shortlist requests public school facts (admission rates, tuition, enrollment) through the official Scorecard API. The user-supplied API key remains on your device.

Public federal datasets: methodology citations include College Scorecard, IPEDS, BLS Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics, BLS Employment Projections, BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, O*NET, ACS PUMS, NCES CIP Taxonomy, MAP State Equality Index, USDA Food Access Research Atlas, Clery Act, OCR Title IX, IRS 990 (via ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer), EADA, HUD Fair Market Rents, NY Fed Underemployment, and Hamilton Project Mobility (deferred — licensing). Each source carries a vintage label and row-count inside the app.

Shortlist does not sell your admissions data.

Shortlist does not use your essays, recommendation tracking, financial-aid figures, test scores, or notes for advertising.

Shortlist does not send essay text, deadlines, scores, recommender names, decisions, or financial-aid figures as analytics events.

Shortlist does not receive or store Face ID, Touch ID, or biometric templates. Biometric unlock is handled locally by Apple.

Shortlist does not accept payment for ranking placement. Rankings reflect public data only and are weighted by user preferences.

Shortlist does not provide admissions advice, financial-aid advice, or guarantees of admission, scholarship, or aid outcomes.

College applicants are typically 17 or older. Shortlist is not directed to children under 13, and Atlas Peak Media does not knowingly collect data from children under 13. Parents and counselors using the Family plan or counselor mode see read-only views of student-authored content; the app does not transmit student-authored data to any third party.

Shortlist is not a FERPA-covered education record system. School lists and applications you create in Shortlist remain your personal records.

You can delete individual schools, essays, recommendations, test scores, and aid offers inside the app. You can also delete all Shortlist data by deleting the app from your device. If iCloud sync is active, manage iCloud app data through Apple ID and iCloud settings.

For privacy questions, contact privacy@atlaspeakmedia.com.