What Applicants See

Applicants never sign in to fill out your form. They open a public web page, answer your questions and submit, and TRIOPilot creates a new student record for you to review. Use this article to answer applicants' questions, share the right link or help someone through the form.

To change the questions, see Build Your Application Form.

Where the Form Lives

Your application form has its own public web address, and both ways to share it sit on the Application Builder page:

• The Your Live Application bar at the top, with Copy and Open buttons.
• The Application QR Code card just below it. Copy the link, Download PNG, or Print a scannable sheet for flyers and tabling.

Share it however you reach students: email, a text, your program's homepage or a printed code.

What the Applicant Does

1. Opens your link. There is no account to create and no password to remember.
2. Answers the questions. Required ones are marked with a red asterisk, and the form will not submit until they are filled in; an answer of only spaces counts as blank, and the form puts the cursor on that question and says so under it. If you add a required question while someone has the form open, their Submit Application names it and adds it to their page, keeping every answer they gave. The form also stops a first or last name with no letter from A to Z (a name written only in another alphabet, such as Chinese or Arabic), with its own sentence, in the language the applicant chose, asking for the letters A to Z. The browser stops, with its own message, an email address with no dot after the @, a date whose year is not from 1900 to 2200, a school code or a GPA outside the shape your program's APR file takes, and anything but a number in a question your program maps to a number field, such as a GPA. See Names, Numbers and Dates the Form Checks.
3. On an address question, types the street address and picks from the suggestions, which fills in city, state, and ZIP. Those boxes can also be typed in by hand.
4. On a file question, attaches a photo or a PDF, up to 25 MB each and up to 10 files for the whole application. Each file question says so. A file that is larger than 25 MB, or is not a photo (JPG, PNG, GIF, WebP or HEIC) or a PDF, is not added: right under the question, the form names the file and says why, in the language the applicant chose, and they can choose another file. If they choose more than 10 files across all the file questions, a note above Submit Application tells them how many they chose and asks them to choose fewer or bring the others to your program office. They can still submit: TRIOPilot sends the first 10 files, and the confirmation screen says how many were not sent.
5. Signs, if your form includes a signature question, then chooses Submit Application.

If your form is split into pages (see Split the Form Into Pages), the applicant sees one page at a time, with the page names and Step 2 of 3 above the questions. Next checks the required questions on that page before it moves on, Back keeps every answer, and Submit Application is on the last page. A page whose questions do not apply to them is skipped.

A confirmation screen follows: the message you wrote in the builder, or "Application Submitted" with a short thank-you if you left it blank. TRIOPilot also emails a short receipt to the address they entered, in the language they filled the form out in (English when your program no longer offers that language), saying only that the application was received. Admins can edit that wording on the Emails tab in Settings; see Edit the Emails TRIOPilot Sends.

What comes next depends on the After Submission setting in the builder:

• Just show the confirmation screen. They see the message, and nothing else happens.
• Send them to a web address. A ten-second countdown carries them to your page, with a Continue link to skip the wait.
• Invite them to book an appointment. An invitation appears just under your message, with a Choose a Time button. See below.

If Many Applicants Submit at Once

TRIOPilot accepts up to 60 applications a minute from one internet connection. Every computer in a school lab or on a campus network usually shares one connection, so a room that submits together can reach that limit.

• Past that, the next applicant reads, in the language they chose, that the application has not been sent yet, and is asked to wait one minute and choose Submit Application again. Every answer stays on the form, so trying again loses nothing.
• The address suggestions can stop for a minute in the same way. City, state and ZIP can still be typed by hand.
• The booking page can ask them to wait one minute and try again.

TRIOPilot records when this happens and which connection it came from, so nobody has to ask the applicant what they saw. In a lab, have applicants submit a few at a time.

The form also runs an automatic security check (reCAPTCHA) when the applicant submits. On a slow school network the check can take up to about 25 seconds, and Submit Application shows that it is working the whole time. If the check gets no answer, the form tries once more on its own. If the network blocks Google's usual address, the form uses Google's other address for the check (www.recaptcha.net), so the application still goes through. If the check still does not finish, the form says the application has not been sent yet and asks them to choose Submit Application again. Every answer stays on the form; the form never asks them to refresh the page.

If an Applicant Is Under 13

The public form does not take an applicant under 13. When someone leaves the date of birth question with a date that makes them younger than 13, a message under the question asks them to correct a mistake or contact your program's staff, and they cannot go on with that date. The form and its message name no age, as the FTC's guidance on children's privacy recommends.

• Nothing they typed reaches TRIOPilot, so no record appears for you to review.
• Everything they typed stays on the form, so someone who mistyped their birth year corrects it and goes on.
• A form with no date of birth question cannot make this check.

To help that student, add them yourself on Add a Student. Staff are never stopped by this check, so a Talent Search student who is 11 or 12 can still be served.

If You Invite Them to Book

With scheduling turned on and the builder set to invite booking, the applicant can go straight from submitting to your calendar:

1. They choose Choose a Time on the confirmation screen.
2. They pick the kind of appointment and how they want to meet. Steps with only one option are skipped, so a program with one appointment type and one format sends them straight to the calendar.
3. They pick a day and a time from your advisors' open hours, and can add a note about what they want to talk about.
4. They choose Confirm Appointment. The time is booked right then, not held pending review.

The booking page runs the same automatic security check as the form. If it does not finish, the page says the appointment is not booked yet and asks them to choose Confirm Appointment again. The time they chose stays selected, and the page never asks them to refresh.

The booked screen gives them a link to change or cancel the appointment themselves, and a confirmation email with that same link goes to the address from their application. Applicants have no account, so that link is their only way to change the appointment online. Tell anyone you help through the form to save it. Nobody has to sign in for any of this, and the advisor who holds the appointment gets a notification when it is booked, moved, or cancelled.

Have them pick a time before they close the page. The invitation works in the tab they submitted from, and for about two hours. Open it in a new tab, or come back tomorrow, and the booking page no longer knows which application it belongs to.

If someone opens your booking page without applying first, they can still see the open times, but they are told to start an application before they can book. Anyone who returns to the invitation too late, or in a new tab, gets that same message. If a student says the booking page will not let them in, this is usually why. Book the time for them from their profile.

While appointment scheduling is off (Settings, Features tab), applicants stay on the confirmation screen and see no booking link. See Set Up Appointment Scheduling.

Other Languages

When your program offers other languages (chosen in the builder; see Translations Are Automatic), a language choice appears just above the form: buttons such as English, Español, Kreyòl for up to two other languages, or a language menu for more. The language an applicant picks is remembered on their device; if your program later stops offering it, they see English. Arabic is shown right to left. TRIOPilot updates the translations each time you save in the builder. The form's own wording follows that choice: its buttons, the address boxes, its messages and the reCAPTCHA notice at the bottom. A message already on the screen changes with it.

If an applicant's browser translates the page itself, for example with Chrome's Translate, the form keeps their answers. If the browser keeps changing the page, a message above the questions asks them to turn off page translation and, when your form offers other languages, to choose one above the form instead. Their answers stay on the form. If the browser changes the page again right away, the form stops and the message offers a Show the Form button, which brings the form back with their answers.

What Happens on Your Side

Every submission creates its own student record with the status Pending, waiting for a human. Nobody is enrolled automatically, and submitting creates no account for the applicant.

You will find the new record in the Pending Review card on the advisor dashboard, the Pending Applications card on the admin dashboard, and in the Students list. Everything after that is staff work: review, assign an advisor, set the status. See Understand Student Statuses.

The submitted form is also saved onto the record as a PDF, signature included. TRIOPilot makes that PDF itself while it saves the application, so it does not depend on the applicant's phone staying connected. Anything the applicant attached lands in the student's documents. If an attachment cannot be uploaded, the confirmation screen tells the applicant to bring the document to their appointment or send it to their advisor. See Upload and Download Documents.

Someone Applied Before

Returning applicants fill out the form again. Nothing stops them, nothing is overwritten, and they are never told they are already on file. If a new application looks like someone you already have, TRIOPilot flags it for staff. See Review Possible Duplicates.

Filling the Form for a Student

You can fill out the form for a walk-in or phone applicant. Staff who can add students should use Add New Student at the top of the Students page instead: it opens the same form inside TRIOPilot, skips the receipt email and opens the new profile when you finish. See Add a Student by Hand. You can also open the public link and type their answers; it makes no difference whether you are signed in.

One thing matters: enter the student's own email address, never your own. It is how your program reaches them afterwards, and a matching email is one of the signals that flags a possible duplicate for review. Put your own address on ten applications and all ten will flag each other.

If an Applicant Gets Stuck

Help them yourself. This help center is written for staff, and applicants have no other place to ask.

If Submit Application gets no clear answer, for example on a dropped connection or a network that blocks the request, the form says it could not confirm that the application was sent, keeps the answers on the page and asks the applicant to submit again. TRIOPilot records the failure, so you do not need to ask what they saw. If the first try did reach you, the second one shows as a possible duplicate for you to review.

If the application, the booking page or the student portal cannot load, the applicant sees This Page Could Not Load with your program's name, your logo when the form shows it, and a Try Again button. The page tells them to contact your program if it keeps happening. TRIOPilot records each of these errors, so you do not need to ask what they saw.