CollegeClearly is a calculator, not an account. There is nothing to sign up for and nothing to log into. This page describes what the site records when someone uses it, what it does not record, and which companies process that information.
Last updated September 13, 2026
Using the calculator, the comparison tool, and every article on the site requires no registration and no contact information. CollegeClearly does not ask for a name, an email address, a phone number, a mailing address, a Social Security number, or a FAFSA identifier, and there is no place on the site to enter one.
If a family shares information with CollegeClearly by writing to the contact address, that email is received the way any email is received. Nothing typed into the calculator arrives that way.
When an estimate settles, the site records the school selected, whether the estimate used in-state or out-of-state figures, the estimated monthly payment, the total amount borrowed, and the cost figures behind them. Cost of attendance, grants and scholarships, and family contribution are rounded to the nearest $500 before they are stored.
When a school is not in the database and a visitor types their own school name instead, up to 120 characters of that typed text is stored so the missing school can be added later. That field holds whatever was typed into it.
The comparison tool records the list of schools placed side by side, and the article pages record which page was read. These records are kept so the site can be improved: which schools families look up, where the calculator is confusing, and whether changes to the tool help. They are not attached to a name or an email address, because the site never receives one.
Some schools have merit scholarship data. The matching runs entirely inside the browser, and the code that performs it makes no network requests of any kind. GPA, test type, and test scores are never sent anywhere and never stored.
What is recorded is the outcome only: whether a profile matched an award tier, did not match, or fell outside the scope of the award, and where a tier matched, which award it was and the estimated amount.
On a first visit, the site generates a random value and stores it in the browser under the name cc_visitor_id. It is attached to the records described above so that several estimates from the same browser can be recognized as related rather than counted as separate families.
It represents a browser installation, not a person. It contains no name and nothing derived from one. It is not anonymous, though: it persists across visits and links them together, which is what makes it useful and also what makes it worth describing plainly here rather than calling it anonymous.
Clearing browsing data, using private browsing, switching browsers, or switching devices produces a different value or none at all. When a browser blocks storage, no identifier is recorded and the estimate is stored without one.
The site also uses short-lived browser storage that lasts only until the browser session ends. It holds where the visit came from, so that information survives moving between the calculator, the comparison tool, and the summary page, and it holds the figures being passed to a summary. It is cleared automatically when the session closes.
On the first page of a visit, the site records the referring web address reported by the browser, the full address of the page that was landed on including any tracking parameters in it, and the browser and device description the browser sends with every request, which is commonly called the user agent string.
CollegeClearly is small and independent, and understanding how families find it is how it gets built. These arrival records are deleted 90 days after they are created.
The referring address is limited by the site the visit came from. Most large platforms send only their domain name and not the specific page or video, which means CollegeClearly usually cannot tell which page on another site a visit came from, only that it came from there.
A summary record is created only when Email Summary or Share Summary is used. Save PDF and Print produce a file on the visitor's own device and create no record.
When a record is created, it holds the school figures shown on the summary and the random browser identifier, reachable at a web address containing a random code. It holds no name and no email address. Unlike the calculator records described above, the figures in a saved summary are stored as they were entered rather than rounded, because the summary has to show the family their own numbers.
Anyone holding that address can open the summary. There is no password on it, so a shared link is best treated as public to whoever receives it.
The Email Summary button opens the visitor's own email application with the link already written into a message. CollegeClearly does not see, receive, or store the address it is sent to.
Google Analytics. The site uses Google Analytics 4 to count visits and see which pages get used. It sets cookies in the browser and receives the IP address of the visit, from which Google derives an approximate city. Google uses that information under its own terms, described in the Google Privacy Policy. Google publishes a browser add-on that turns Google Analytics off across every site that uses it.
Google Fonts. Every page loads two typefaces from Google's servers, which means Google receives the IP address of that request even on pages where nothing else happens.
Netlify. The site is hosted on Netlify, which keeps standard web server logs including IP addresses, in the ordinary course of serving a website.
Supabase. The records described on this page are stored in a database hosted by Supabase.
jsDelivr. The summary page loads a PDF library from the jsDelivr content network, on the first click of Save PDF and not before.
CollegeClearly does not sell personal information. It does not carry advertising tags, remarketing tags, or third-party tracking pixels beyond the Google Analytics tag described above. It does not pass calculation figures, school selections, or the browser identifier to colleges, lenders, servicers, or any other organization.
If any of that changes, this page will be updated before the change takes effect rather than after. The About page describes how independence is handled where money is involved.
Clearing site data for collegeclearly.com in a browser removes the random browser identifier and the session storage described above. Blocking storage for the site, or browsing privately, prevents the identifier from being created at all.
Records already stored are not linked to a name, so they cannot be looked up by one. A summary link can be removed on request by sending the link to the contact address below. Any other question about what is held, or a request to delete it, can be sent to the same address.
This page is updated when what the site does changes. The date at the top reflects the most recent revision.
Questions about anything here can go to info@collegeclearly.com.