Run Your APR

The Annual Performance Report (APR) is the report you submit to the U.S. Department of Education each year. TRIOPilot builds it from the data your staff enter: demographics, eligibility and outcomes. The report covers your program type's sections and objectives; this article notes where a program differs.

Set Up Your APR Configuration First

The report reads a few grant-level numbers from the Reporting tab in Settings. Enter them before you run the report.

1. Go to Settings, open the Reporting tab, and find the APR Report Configuration card.
2. Enter your Number Funded to Serve: the number of participants your project is funded to serve, from your approved grant award. This is separate from your Annual Enrollment Goal, which is your own internal target. The funded number, your objective targets, and the EOC enrollment option are saved per program year under Grant Numbers by Program Year: pick the year, enter that year's numbers, and every report for that year uses them. Enter each objective target as a whole percentage from 0 to 100; the card refuses any other value and names the box to correct. A year you never fill in inherits the most recent earlier numbers, so past reports keep computing against the targets that were true then, even after your grant changes. Talent Search's two Postsecondary Attainment choices are the exception: they belong to a grant cycle, so they have their own card (see below).
3. Enter your Annual Performance Targets (%): the approved rate for each objective in your grant application.
4. Choose Save APR Config.

Some settings on that card appear only for certain programs:

• EOC: the PSE Enrollment Objective (Section IV.D) option, Option 1 or Option 2. The federal EOC instructions had each project choose one on its 2021-22 APR, naming the interpretation its FY 2021 grant application used for the postsecondary enrollment objective, and they do not allow a change for the rest of that grant cycle. Choose the option your grant application's postsecondary enrollment objective uses. If you are not sure, check your grant application or ask your program officer. The two options count different people, so they can give very different Objective D rates. TRIOPilot never assumes one: until the option is set, the Objective D rate is left blank on the report, the worksheet, and the participant export, and each one says the option is missing. The setup wizard asks for it, and if the wrong option was entered, you can correct it here.
• UB and UBMS: State Assessment Cut Scores for Reading/Language Arts and Math. Once a cut score is entered, recording a student's raw score fills in the proficiency determination automatically. Staff can still override it, and a student already marked proficient is never downgraded.
• SSS: Institution Type (2-year or 4-year), which decides the code set the Persistence objective uses and which degree attainment objectives apply (for a 2-year institution, also the transfer objective). Your APR form in the TRIO portal shows it already filled in. TRIOPilot never assumes one: until it is set, the Persistence objective and the degree attainment objectives read Not calculated on the report, and so does the transfer objective; each one says the institution type is missing.
• TS: your two Postsecondary Attainment choices live on their own card below it, Postsecondary Attainment Choices (Section IV.E). Your project chose them in the first year it was funded in each grant cycle: Option 1 or Option 2 for which postsecondary enrollees make up a cohort, and whether you track all enrollees or a random sample. Your APR form in the TRIO portal shows both already filled in, in Section IV.E, and they cannot change during the cycle. Choose Add a Grant Cycle, enter the cycle's first and last program years, and pick both choices. TRIOPilot never assumes them: until a cycle that covers the year is recorded, the enrollee list is not built and Objective E is not calculated, and the report says so. If a list recorded as filed was built under different choices, TRIOPilot refuses a change that contradicts it (see Record the Enrollee List as Filed).
• TS: the Competitive Preference Priorities (Section II.L) card records, for each program year, whether participants took part in your project's activities for the Competitive Preference Priorities. Choose the program year, then Participants took part in CPP activities or The project did not address the CPPs, or no participant took part, and choose Save Choice. TRIOPilot never assumes it, and a choice for one year never answers for another (see Section II.L under How the Report Counts Each Section).

Two things follow from this setup:

• No target, no verdict. The report judges an objective only against a target you entered. Until you enter one, the Target column reads "Not set" or shows a dash, the rate is left uncolored, and no Met or Not Met status appears. Outside EOC, a Set target link sits in the Status column to take you straight to Settings. McNair's Bachelor's Degree Attainment row is for information only: the McNair Prior Experience rules score no bachelor's criterion, so the row takes no target and never shows Met or Not Met.
• The 90% rule. If you serve fewer than 90% of your Number Funded to Serve, federal rules hold back your Prior Experience points for the year. The report shows a plain banner when that happens, for every program. SSS also uses the funded number inside its Persistence and Good Academic Standing denominators, and so do the Upward Bound and UBMS GPA and Retention and Graduation objectives, so leaving it blank distorts those rates.

One more pointer: the Project Information card on the same Reporting tab (PR/Award Number, project director details, project period) populates Section I of the report. Your upload file also carries the PR/Award Number in its first column on every row, so for Upward Bound, UBMS, SSS, McNair and VUB the card accepts only the 11-character number your APR form describes (see Find Your Way Around Program Settings).

Some items on your APR form are not recorded in TRIOPilot, because the Department fills them in or you enter them in the TRIO portal when you file: the grantee name, the data entry person, the certification and warning statements, the competitive preference priority narratives and counts (except EOC's counts of military- and veteran-connected participants and the Talent Search Section II.F, II.I, II.K and II.L counts, which the report calculates), the Upward Bound project characteristics (summer residential program, number of weeks, contact frequency and, for UBMS, regional status; for the summer bridge program, the report shows each summer in which a participant on your file attended one, as described under Upward Bound and UBMS: Project Characteristics below), the SSS project characteristics (project type, summer bridge, grant aid and non-federal funds), the GPA scale, the IPEDS Unit ID and the institutional sector. The report calculates the rest of each target school table from your list of target schools and each participant's school; see Target Schools below.

Set Your Reporting Periods

Each APR covers one reporting period, and TRIOPilot counts every contact, application, status and text in the program year whose dates contain it. The setup wizard records the period in effect when your program is set up (for SSS and McNair, only if you enter the first day of classes). Until you enter your dates, every program year runs September 1 to August 31.

Where your dates come from depends on your program:

• EOC and Talent Search: the 12-month budget period in Block 6 of your Grant Award Notification. The federal instructions say: "The report covers the 12-month budget period. This information can be found in Block 6 of your Grant Award Notification."
• Upward Bound, UBMS and Veterans Upward Bound: the project year in Block 6. A project moving from a summer start to a fall start enters its longer year exactly as Block 6 shows it. For VUB, the instructions also say that completion years follow your project year's dates.
• SSS and McNair: the first day of classes at your institution (APR Section I, item 4b for SSS and item 6b for McNair). Your program year runs from that day to the day before the next year's first day of classes. Until you enter a year's first day, the report's Section I shows the day it assumes from another year, and a note under it asks you to enter it.

To enter them, open Settings > Reporting, find Reporting Periods, and choose Edit Dates on a year. Enter the dates and choose Save Dates. Before anything is saved, TRIOPilot tells you which days move to another program year and how many records are dated in them. Records you already have stay in the year they are in. New records follow the new dates, and this report lists the records dated outside their year so you can check them before you file. For EOC and Talent Search, saving new dates calculates Age at First Service again for the students whose age TRIOPilot keeps current.

You don't have to enter every year. A year you leave blank follows the nearest year you entered: a later year starts the day after the earlier one ends, and an earlier year starts on the same day of the year as the later one. Each row says where its dates come from. Choose Use Assumed Dates to remove dates you entered. If a new award starts after the old one ended, the days in between count in the earlier year, and the card and this report say so.

When records are dated outside the year they are counted in, for example after your dates change, the report shows Check Records Dated Outside This Year above Section I, with the number of each kind and links to the students. Its first line tells you to check each record listed before you submit your APR. Each record stays in the year it is counted in. SSS and McNair reports also show your First Day of Classes in Section I.

Target Schools

The EOC (Section II.H), Talent Search (Section II.M) and Upward Bound and UBMS (Section I, Part 3) APR forms list your project's target schools and count the participants served at each. SSS, McNair and VUB forms do not ask about target schools, so those programs do not see any of this.

Record your list. Go to Settings > Reporting, Target Schools, and choose Add a School for each school on the list the TRIO portal fills in from last year's report. Enter the school's 12-digit NCES School ID from the NCES school search. For a public school with no NCES ID, enter 555555555555; for a private school, 666666666666; for a parochial school, 777777777777. Talent Search may instead enter a private or parochial school's 8-character ID from the NCES private school search. EOC and Talent Search also record each school's city, state and ZIP Code; Upward Bound and UBMS record the state and whether the school was listed in your most recently approved grant application (and, if not, whether your program specialist pre-approved it). You need your program specialist's approval to add or drop a target school.

Archive, do not remove. A school that participant records name cannot be removed. Choose Archive instead: it leaves the list your staff choose from and stays on the records of the years that name it. Restore puts it back.

Record each participant's school. On a participant's profile, Target School (in the Status & Education card) holds the target school they attended this program year, or Did not attend a target school. If they changed schools, choose the one they attended when they were first served this year, so each participant counts once. A participant with no answer is never assumed to attend or not attend. To set it for many participants at once, use Set Target School on the Students page. To find the participants with no answer for the year, filter the Students page by Target School, Is Empty (see Find and Filter Students). On Talent Search, Upward Bound and UBMS programs, rollover carries Target School into the new program year by default; see Roll Students Into a New Program Year. EOC programs do not use rollover, so when you add a returning participant to a new program year, record their school for that year.

EOC programs. The EOC form marks target schools "if applicable". If your project serves target schools, add them, and Target School appears on the profiles of participants with a high school status at first service. If your project serves none, leave the list empty and tick Not Applicable in the TRIO portal; no profile shows the row.

Talent Search, Upward Bound and UBMS. Every participant's profile shows Target School. Until you add your schools, the only choice is Did not attend a target school. Talent Search profiles no longer have a separate Did Not Attend a Target School field: Target School holds that answer.

The report counts the participants at each school. The APR report shows the table your form asks for, over the same participants as the rest of the report: EOC Section II.H, the Talent Search Section II.M table under its count of participants who did not attend a target school, and Upward Bound and UBMS Section I, Part 3. Each participant counts once, at the school recorded for them that program year. The table lists every active school on your list, and any archived school a participant attended that year. A school with no participant shows 0. The report gives the form's instruction for that school only when every participant is placed, at a school on your list or as not attending a target school: for EOC and Talent Search it quotes the instructions, which say a school the project did not serve this year should be dropped from the list (you need your program specialist's written approval to drop one); for Upward Bound and UBMS it reminds you to enter 0 for that school in the portal and choose the explanation the portal asks for. While any participant is not placed, the report says it cannot tell whether that school was served, and asks you to record their answers first. In a year that counts no participant at all, every school shows 0, so the report asks you to check that the participants you served are marked Reportable before you drop a school or enter 0 for it. Below the table the report names the participants no school counts: anyone recorded as attending a target school without the school, and anyone with no answer. For EOC, it names the participants counted in Part B of the educational status section (secondary school-age students) and counts the others, the participants in Part A with no target school answer, on one line; the note about a school with no participant says how many of the participants it cannot place are on that line. Each name opens the profile on the report's program year. The EOC worksheet download lists the same table, one row per school with its NCES ID, then the total. If the report ever says Target Schools Do Not Agree, do not type the table into the portal: it is a defect in TRIOPilot, reported to us automatically.

EOC with no list. Until your list has a school, Section II.H says no target schools are recorded and what the portal expects: add your schools if the project serves target schools, or tick Not Applicable in the portal. The report never decides for you that the section does not apply.

Upward Bound and UBMS: the check. The form says the participants at a target school plus those who did not attend one must equal the participants coded 1, 2, 3 or 6 in Participant Status (field #27). Section I, Part 3 counts only those participants, so prior-year participants (code 4) are on your record file but not in Part 3. The report prints both sides; when they differ, it names each participant with no answer or without the school, and anyone whose Participant Status it cannot read.

Participant list download. The APR participant CSV (see Export Participant Data) adds two columns for the year after your program's fields: Target School and Target School NCES ID. An EOC program gets them once its list has a school or a participant has an answer. For Talent Search, the Section II.H Dual Enrollment column follows them: Yes for each participant Section II.H counts, No, Not recorded, or Not Yes or No for a stored answer the report cannot read.

Upward Bound and UBMS: Target School at Entry. The record file's field #23 is a different question: the target school the participant attended when they first entered the project, recorded once. Record it on the participant's profile, in the Eligibility & Program card. A participant with no answer is reported as Unknown (000000000000), and the file's validation report counts them. The participant list download ends with a Target School at Entry column. EOC and Talent Search do not have this field.

Talent Search Dual Enrollment

Section II.H counts the participants whose profile says Enrolled in a Dual Enrollment Program for the year. The field is on the profile's Program Outcomes panel, under Dual Enrollment; the ? beside that heading opens this section. Choose Yes for a participant in an established dual enrollment program, taking college or career courses through their high school, whether or not they earned the credit; choose No for a student taking a college course on their own. A participant with no answer is not counted. In the target school table, record whether each school had a dual enrollment program that year in Settings > Reporting, Dual Enrollment at Target Schools (Yes, No or Unknown). The report counts each school's participants in its program, enters 9999 for a school answered No or Unknown, and checks that the column adds up to Section II.H, as the form asks; it names anyone who makes them differ. The card lists your target schools, and an archived school for any year in which it has an answer or a participant attended it, so you can answer every school the report lists. If you choose No or Unknown for a school with participants recorded in a dual enrollment program that year, the card says how many before you save. The card's Use PY ... Answers button (it names the program year before the one shown, for example Use PY 25-26 Answers) copies that year's answers into the form for you to check; nothing is saved until you choose Save Answers.

Generate the Report

1. Go to Reports, then open Annual Performance Report (APR).
2. Pick the year in the Program Year selector at the top. The options read as program years with their dates, for example PY 25-26 (9/1/2025 - 8/31/2026). The dates are your reporting period (see Set Your Reporting Periods). The selector lists every program year from your program's earliest student record through the current year, or later if your program already has records for a later year, newest first, so you can open any past year's report, including the year a cohort objective measures. The APR is computed one program year at a time.
3. The report renders on screen: Section I project identification, Section II demographics, educational status at first service, and performance objectives. EOC and Talent Search number the last two Section III and Section IV, as their forms do; the other forms have only Sections I and II, so those cards read From Section II.

Only students whose status is Reportable for that year are counted. For EOC, TRIOPilot sets Reportable once every outcome that applies to a student has an answer. In every program you can also set it yourself: with the status steps on the student's profile, with Set Status on the Students page, or with Also mark these students Reportable when you log contacts or an event. In programs other than EOC, that is how a student becomes Reportable. If a count looks low, check statuses first. See Understand Student Statuses.

Read the Notes on the Report

Some sections of the report have a note under them, about the participants a count includes or leaves out. Every note is a box, and follows the same order:

1. First, whether anything needs doing. The box's color says the same thing as its first sentence:

• Gray: the note opens with For your information only. Nothing needs to be fixed. It explains a count and asks for nothing. The note that Prior Experience points are held back this year, because the project served fewer than 90 percent of its Number Funded to Serve, is gray: it is a fact about the year, and it says what to check if the count looks wrong.
• Amber: the note opens with exactly what to correct, for example Record Status at Time of First Service on the profile of each participant this note names before you submit your APR. An amber note always shows open; when it names many participants, they may be folded under Show the Participants.
• Red: a check inside TRIOPilot failed, a defect in TRIOPilot, not in your data. The note says what to do: for a table that does not agree, do not type it into the portal until it is fixed (it is reported to us automatically); for a random sample draw that does not recompute, ask TRIOPilot support to check it before you submit your APR.

1. The federal rule behind it, in plain words.
2. Each federal line or field by its plain name, every time the note names it, for example line A1 (an adult without a high school diploma who is enrolled as a senior or the equivalent) or Participant Status (#27). The names come from the line's own label on the federal form, shortened. The words beside a participant's name do the same, for example column (b), regular diploma within the standard number of years, did not complete a rigorous program of study.
3. The reason and the count.
4. What to change if a value looks wrong, when the note names participants, using the field names the profile shows, such as Date of Birth or Status at Time of First Service. Each name opens that participant's profile. When you correct the profile, the report updates on its own.

For example, the EOC note Participants Counted on a Different Line Because of Their Age is for your information only. The educational status section has two parts, and the federal form decides which part each participant goes in by their age at their first service this year: Part A is for participants aged 19 or older, and Part B is for participants aged 18 or younger. TRIOPilot places each participant on the right line automatically, so a participant aged 19 or older whose status is 12th grade is counted on line A1 (an adult without a high school diploma who is enrolled as a senior or the equivalent), not line B2 (high school senior). The note gives each kind of move with its count, and Show the Participants names the people, so you can see why the totals on those lines differ from what the statuses alone would suggest.

The EOC worksheet (Download APR Worksheet) carries the same notes in the same words, each followed by the participants it names.

How the Report Counts Each Section

These notes say how the report counts the sections where a program's form needs a closer reading.

EOC, Section III: a reportable student with no Status at Time of First Service on their record is still counted, on line A9 (unknown), so the Section III totals always match Section II. The report and the worksheet list those students by name; open each profile and record the status before you submit your APR, because the federal form asks for an explanation whenever A9 is above zero. A student aged 18 or under is marked with their age: they are counted on that line too until their status is recorded, though it is in Part A, for participants aged 19 or older, because Part B, for participants aged 18 or younger, has no unknown line.

Each student is counted on the Section III line that their educational status and their age at first service define. Part B is for secondary-school-age students (18 or under), and line A1 (an adult without a high school diploma who is enrolled as a senior or the equivalent), line A2 (an adult without a high school diploma) and line A8 (other participant, 19 years or older) are for participants aged 19 or older; the other Part A lines apply at any age. So, for example, a high school dropout aged 19 or older is counted on line A2 rather than line B3 (high school dropout aged 18 or younger), and a 12th grader aged 19 is counted on line A1 rather than line B2 (high school senior). The report's note under Section III says this is for your information only, lists each kind of move with its count, and names the students. If an age or a status looks wrong, correct Date of Birth (or Age at First Service, when it was entered by hand) or Status at Time of First Service on the profile, and the report updates on its own. A student aged 18 or under whose status is one of the adult statuses (on A1, A2 or A8) stays on that line and is listed with their age and status, because the status does not say which Part B line applies: record the status that fits before you submit your APR. The student's profile shows the same note under Status at Time of First Service as soon as the status and age disagree.

EOC, Section III A3 and A8: A3 is for participants who, in the federal instructions' words, "had already obtained a high school diploma or high school equivalency credential, but who had not enrolled in a program of postsecondary education". A participant aged 19 or older who already has a certificate or two-year degree, is not enrolled in college now, did not drop out of college and does not plan to keep studying is not on A3, because they enrolled to earn that credential. Record Other (19+) for them, which the report counts on A8. If they want to keep studying, record Potential postsecondary transfer (A6). New programs' applications word the A3 answer as "I graduated from high school or completed a GED, and I have never enrolled in college", so these applicants choose None of these describe me (19 or older).

EOC, adults in adult education. An adult (19 or older) without a diploma who is in an adult education or GED program counts in A1 only at the level of a high school senior. Record Adult without HS diploma (enrolled in adult ed) for that student, and Adult without HS diploma (in adult ed, below senior level) for one below that level, who counts in A2. The federal instructions put "alternative education students not at the level of a senior" in A2. The difference matters for Section IV: an A1 student is in the financial aid (B) and admissions (C) totals, and an A2 student is not.

EOC and Talent Search, Section II.A, new and continuing: both programs' federal instructions say "A new participant is one served by the project for the first time during this reporting period". TRIOPilot counts a participant as continuing when their records show service in an earlier program year: a Served or Reportable status for that year, or a contact logged in it. A student who applied in an earlier year but was not served until this year (their earlier record stayed Pending or Active, with no contact) is new. A participant whose Entry Year is earlier than any record TRIOPilot holds for them, for example someone served before your program used TRIOPilot, is counted as continuing. The Talent Search report shows the table as A. Types of Participants Assisted, and the participant CSV's last column, Section II.A New or Continuing, names each participant's line.

All programs, Low-Income: the report counts each participant's Low-Income as their profile records it. The online application and Add New Student set it from the student's income answer when the student is saved, and you can change it on the profile. The report, the participant CSV and your federal file or worksheet all use that value.

EOC, Section II: the form's sex block has only Male and Female. The form says its total must equal the number of participants, the federal instructions say these data are not mandatory, and the EOC APR User Guide (November 2025) shows the portal's total as "must be less than or equal to A3". If some students are recorded as neither, or not recorded at all, the report says the total falls short and lists them, so you can record their sex before you file.

Section II tables: the report shows the Section II tables your program's APR form has, labeled the way the form labels them. The Talent Search form letters its Section II tables, so the report does too, for example B. Eligibility, G. Limited English Proficiency and J. Also Served by Another Federally Funded Program, whose lines are the form's own: Upward Bound, UBMS, VUB, GEAR UP, Other, and served by more than one. A participant counts on the line of each program in their Other Federal Programs list (SSS, EOC and any other on line 5, Other) and, when the list names two or more programs, also on Served by more than one other federally funded program: the TS instructions do not ask for an unduplicated count, as the EOC instructions do. A participant served by SSS and an EOC project counts once on line 5 and once as served by more than one. The Upward Bound, UBMS, SSS, McNair and VUB forms list Section II as the numbered fields of the participant record file, so each table shows the numbers of the fields it counts, for example 16. Eligibility and 10-15. Race & Ethnicity for Upward Bound. A topic your form has no field for has no table: SSS and McNair show no Limited English Proficiency or other federal programs table, and VUB shows no Limited English Proficiency or Veterans Served table. EOC's G. EOC Participants Also Served by Another Federally Funded Program counts each participant once, as the EOC instructions ask ("an unduplicated count of participants in each applicable category"): a participant whose Other Federal Programs list names one program counts on that program's line, one whose list names two or more counts only on line 8, Served by more than one other federally funded program, and lines 1 to 8 add up to the Total. The form has no line for another EOC project, so a participant whose list names only EOC counts on line 7, Other. VUB's 27. Served by Another Federal Program Similar to VUB counts each participant's answer by its federal code. Upward Bound and UBMS field 29. Served by Another Federally Funded College Access Program is counted the same way: staff record it for each program year on the participant's profile, under Served by Another Federally Funded College Access Program (for reporting year), choosing the form's code (for example 3 for Talent Search, or 8 when only your project served the participant). Your application can ask it too, in an applicant's words, and the answer stores the same code (see Build Your Application Form). It starts blank each new program year, because the form asks about the reporting year. A prior-year participant with nothing recorded counts as 9, as in the record file, and a current participant with nothing recorded is under Not recorded and blank in the record file, listed on the validation report. TRIOPilot never works this code out from the built-in Other Federal Programs list. Upward Bound and UBMS do not use that list: their profiles, Settings, Students table, downloads and application builder do not show it, and any answers recorded in it before stay saved.

EOC and Talent Search, age at first service: the age block counts each participant's Age at First Service in the program year you are viewing. For both programs, a participant younger than 10 at first service is counted on the age table's first line, shown as 10-13, and any younger, because the federal instructions extend that line to participants younger than 11, and the table's total includes them; the report lists them so you can check each age. The federal instructions ask for "the age of project participants at the time of first service in the reporting period", so each program year's record holds its own age, and TRIOPilot treats the student's first contact in the year as their first service. When a year's record is created, TRIOPilot calculates the age from the date of birth, as of their first contact in that year, or the day the record is created if there is no contact yet; on Talent Search, rollover uses the first day of the new program year (September 1 unless your program enters other dates). When the note under the field on the profile says Calculated from the date of birth, TRIOPilot calculates the age again when the year's first contact is logged (including a contact logged later with an earlier date), when that contact's date is changed, and when the date of birth is corrected. For EOC, that can move a student between Section III lines, because Block B is for students 18 or under. It never replaces an age someone entered by hand. An age whose note says TRIOPilot does not keep this age current (saved before TRIOPilot began keeping ages current, or imported) is not updated when the first contact comes later. Before you file, check it against the student's first service in the year. For an age saved in TRIOPilot, that is the first contact in the year, and Calculate From Date of Birth calculates it. For a record imported from a previous system, the imported contacts may not include the first service, so check your program's own record of it, for example in the previous system, and choose Calculate From Date of Birth only when the first contact in TRIOPilot is that first service. If the date of birth is missing, falls after the first service, or gives an age under 5 or over 130, a calculated age stays blank and the participant is counted on the Unknown line: correct the date of birth, and TRIOPilot calculates the age. See How Age at First Service Is Calculated.

McNair, Section I, Part 2: the report counts the participants who received each required and permissible project service, from the service fields on each participant's profile. A participant counts once per service when a positive number is recorded for it, so no row can be larger than the number of participants. Record each service on the profile of every participant who received it, in the field named Service Received: and the service; a number on one profile is never a project total. If a service field is not set up for your program, the report says so and names how many are missing; use Repair Missing Fields in Settings, on the Participants tab.

Talent Search, Section II.L and II.M: the report counts each participant once, in the Competitive Preference Priorities row that the Competitive Preference Priorities Engaged (CPP 1 / CPP 2) field on their profile names, and counts the participants whose Target School is Did not attend a target school. The CPP field is on the profile's Program Outcomes panel, under Competitive Preference Priorities; Target School is in the profile's Status & Education card. A participant with no answer is counted as Not recorded, never as having taken part in no CPP activity or as attending a target school: record the answer before you file. The TS APR instructions also say: “If the project did not address the CPPs at all, or if none of the project’s students participated in CPP activities that the project offered, the total number of students served should appear in II.L.4”. Record which applies for each program year on Settings > Reporting, in Competitive Preference Priorities (Section II.L). When you record that the project did not address the CPPs or no participant took part, the report puts every participant in line 4, Participants who did not engage in either of the CPP activities, and names anyone whose profile records CPP 1, CPP 2 or both, so you can correct the profile or the choice. Until you record the choice for the year, the report counts each participant by their profile and says the choice is not recorded.

Talent Search, Sections II.F, II.I and II.K: Veterans Served (II.F) counts participants whose Military Connection is Veteran. The TS instructions count a member of a reserve component called to active duty for more than 30 days as a veteran, so choose Veteran for them. Section II.I counts each participant once on each funding source recorded in Rigorous Courses Outside Target Schools: Funding Sources on the Program Outcomes panel, seniors and non-seniors alike; a participant with two sources counts on both lines, and the form has no total. Section II.K counts the participants who were high school seniors or fifth-year dual enrollment students at first service (Section III, A5 and A8), by FAFSA Completion and, for those who completed the FAFSA, by Postsecondary Enrollment Outcome, both on the Program Outcomes panel. A participant with no FAFSA Completion recorded is counted on K3, the line for a completion that could not be confirmed, and one who completed the FAFSA with no enrollment recorded is counted on K1; the report names each one. The instructions also mention other participants interested in postsecondary education, such as those in a high school equivalency program, but the form's total must equal Section III A5 plus A8, so the report counts only those two lines and names anyone else with FAFSA Completion recorded. The report checks K4 against Section III. If the check fails, a red Section II.K Does Not Agree note replaces it.

EOC, Section IV: D6 is the form's total, which it defines as the participants in Section IV, A1 plus Section III, A3, A4 and A6; D1 through D5 add up to it. The Option 2 rate uses D6 minus the deceased in D4 as its denominator. In every Section IV block, a participant whose answer fits none of the listed lines (for example a diploma answer of Not Applicable) is counted on that block's Unknown line, so the block always adds up to its total. Update the answer on the profile if you know the real outcome.

How TRIOPilot Reads Unclear Federal Instructions

In a few places the federal APR documents for the same year say two different things, or say nothing. TRIOPilot follows one reading in each place, the same for every program of your type. These are the ones a program director is most likely to notice:

• Upward Bound and UBMS Objectives A and C: the participants an objective leaves out (for example, a participant who died during the year) come off the number served, and the denominator is the larger of that number and your Number Funded to Serve. The other reading takes them off after the larger number is chosen, which gives a smaller denominator when you serve no more than you are funded for.
• Upward Bound and UBMS summer bridge year: a summer bridge participant belongs to the summer that the Participation Level question (#28) names: in the report for PY 24-25, summer 2024. One example in the federal performance rules uses the following summer instead.
• VUB Program Retention and Completion (Objective B): the federal rules give no formula. TRIOPilot counts a participant who completed the VUB program this year or was still enrolled at the end of the year, because the objective asks participants to complete the program or remain enrolled in it.
• SSS Eligibility (#15a) for a student with a disability who is also first-generation: the form has no code for that pair. TRIOPilot reports the disability: Disabled and Low-Income (5) when the student is also low-income, and Disabled (4) otherwise, so these students count toward the federal requirement that one-third of participants with disabilities be low-income.
• McNair graduate school enrollment in the fall after the year: for a participant who earned a bachelor's degree during the year and started graduate school the following fall (fall 2025 in the report for PY 24-25), TRIOPilot reports that enrollment, including the Date of First Graduate School Enrollment, and counts it for the Graduate School Enrollment objective. Another note on the form says these fields describe the year being reported, which would leave the fall enrollment out.

EOC Diploma Answers for Section IV.A

The EOC form counts participants who did not receive a diploma on three lines: A2, enrolled in an alternative education program but did not complete; A3, enrolled in high school but did not complete; and A4, not enrolled in high school or an alternative education program. The instructions place each participant by where they enrolled during the reporting year, and say "If more than one response is possible for a given participant, choose the most recent status." On the profile, HS Diploma / GED Received offers one answer for each line (for example No, Enrolled in High School but Did Not Complete), and the report and the APR Form Worksheet count A2, A3 and A4 from those answers. A senior still expected to graduate is A3 until the diploma arrives; then choose Yes. A profile that still holds an older No or Anticipated answer shows it as (Older Answer: Choose a Specific One): those answers do not say which line applies, so the report counts them in the A7 total but on none of A2, A3 or A4, and lists them by name so you can choose the specific answer before you file. The Diploma/GED Received filter on the Students page and the Diploma filter on the Geographic Distribution map offer the same answers, plus the older No and Anticipated, so you can find the profiles to update. On the map, the Diploma filter is a dropdown of checkboxes: tick one or more answers to map the students with any of them, or tick none for all. If your program still shows a single combined A2-A4 line and a No answer, your program has not switched to the three answers yet; contact support@triopilot.com to switch.

See the Participants Behind a Number (EOC)

Under the rate of each EOC objective (A to D) and under the Section IV.E table, Show the Participants opens a list of every participant that block counts, grouped by its federal lines (for example IV.A1 and IV.A2-A4). If your program records one diploma answer for each line (see EOC Diploma Answers for Section IV.A), Objective A's list groups IV.A2, IV.A3 and IV.A4 apart, as the report counts them, and lists the older No and Anticipated answers under Older Answers to Review. Each name shows the participant's status at entry and their Section III line, and opens their profile on the same program year. The links at the top jump to each line, and Back to the APR Report returns to the report on the same year.

• The list's summary repeats the report's numbers: how many participants met the objective, out of how many are eligible.
• Deceased participants (IV.A5, and IV.D4 under Option 2) are listed in their own group, marked Not counted in the rate, because the rate leaves them out. So a list can show more names than the eligible number, and its summary names both.
• Objective D under Option 1 lists the participants who received a diploma this year (IV.A1), the Option 1 pool. Each group is headed as that pool's part of a line, for example IV.A1 Participants on IV.D3, because the report's D1 to D5 also count the participants who already had a diploma. Every other group is headed by its line, and its count equals that line on the report.
• There is no list for Objective D until your Objective D option is recorded, and none for an objective with no eligible participants.

The links do not appear on the printed report. The admin dashboard's objective numbers and placement cards open the same lists. See Read the Admin Dashboard.

Print or Save a PDF

Choose Print / Export PDF. It opens your browser's print dialog, where you can print or choose "Save as PDF". On-screen controls are hidden from the printed copy. Wide tables wrap their text to fit the page, so every column prints, at the browser's default margins or with 1 inch margins.

Export Participant Data

Need the underlying records? Choose Download Participant CSV. You get one row per Reportable participant for the year, by last name: identity, demographics, eligibility, educational status at entry, Section IV outcomes, and every profile field your program captures. The built-in outcome columns (HS Diploma / GED Received, Financial Aid Completed, Applied for Postsecondary, Enrolled in Postsecondary and Institution Type) appear only where your program's APR uses them: all five for EOC, Institution Type for Talent Search; every other program's outcomes are its own field columns. For Talent Search, three more columns name the Section IV.A Line, the Section IV.B Line and the Section IV.C Cell (for example 1(b)) each participant is counted in, the Section II.K Line column names the FAFSA Completion line (K1, K2 or K3, blank outside Section III A5 and A8), and the last column, Section II.A New or Continuing, names each participant's Section II.A line, so you can filter the file to the names behind any number on the report. The columns for your program's fields are in a fixed order, so they stay in the same place from one download to the next unless your program adds or removes a field.

For EOC, TS, UB, UBMS, and McNair, each single-year objective also gets its own column reading Met, Not met, or blank when the student is not in that objective's pool, and those add up to the on-screen rate. The one exception: the Upward Bound and UBMS GPA and Retention and Graduation objectives divide by the larger of your Number Funded to Serve and the number served, as the federal rules require, so their columns add up to the numerator and the served pool rather than the on-screen denominator. The participants each objective leaves out (for GPA, anyone with no high school GPA possible, coded 8.888; for both, anyone served this year who died or became permanently incapacitated, Deceased or Incapacitated #26 option 3 or 4) come off the number served before the two are compared, never off your funded number. SSS and VUB have no per-row objective columns: SSS denominators depend on the funded number and your institution type, and TRIOPilot calculates VUB's objectives for the program as a whole. Their rates live on the report itself.

Checking college enrollment with the National Student Clearinghouse? Admins see a link under the report's title, Download a Clearinghouse file, that opens the National Student Clearinghouse page in Reports for the year you are viewing. See Check College Enrollment With the Clearinghouse.

The Funded Number and the 90 Percent Rule

Section I shows your Number Funded to Serve, set on the Reporting tab of Settings. Federal scoring holds back Prior Experience points from a project that served less than 90 percent of that number, and the report tells you plainly when that is the case. The Funded Number line (EOC) and the Number Served vs Funded row (other programs) show the rate the way federal scoring computes it, with no rounding: 99.6 percent shows as 99 percent, because a project earns the Funded Number criterion only by serving at least its funded number. Only the 90 percent rule rounds, from 89.5 up to 90, so 89.5 to 89.9 percent shows as 90 percent. The criterion shows as Met or Not Met: in the Prior Experience table for EOC, and in the row's Status column for the other programs. For McNair, Upward Bound and UBMS, while some participants have no Participant Status recorded, Not Met shows a dash, because an unrecorded status could be a served one. Each objective's rate is rounded to the nearest whole percent, a half rounded up, so 57.5 percent is 58 percent. Until you enter your Number Funded to Serve, the row shows no rate. For VUB, Program Retention and Completion counts a participant who completed the VUB program this year or was still enrolled in it at the end of the year, as the objective says ("complete their VUB educational program by the end of the project year or remain enrolled in the program"): VUB Educational Program Completion Year (#31) this year, 8888, or 3333 for a reentry participant still in the program; a Completion Year after this one (they were still enrolled when this year ended); or Reason for Leaving Project (#32) 88, still in the educational program. Under the eligibility table, VUB also shows the federal two-thirds requirement: how many participants served (Participant Status 1, 2 or 3) are low-income and first-generation (Eligibility #16 option 1 or 7), out of all participants served, and whether that is at least two-thirds. For Upward Bound, UBMS, and McNair the served count comes from each participant's Participant Status field. For McNair, if some participants have no status recorded yet, the report says the comparison cannot be made rather than guessing. For Upward Bound and UBMS, a participant with no status recorded is counted as Prior-year when their record carries one of the form's prior-year codes (Deceased or Incapacitated #26 option 1 or 2, Participation Level #28 option 6, or 60 for a project moving from a summer start to a fall start, or a GPA of 9.999), and otherwise as New (first served this year) or Continuing, from their first year of enrollment, both on the report and in the federal upload file; the report says how many, and the file's validation report lists each one. Record the status for anyone who is a Reentry, Prior-year, or Transfer participant, because those cannot be worked out from the first year. The report also says how many participants have a regular diploma recorded with no high school graduation date: Objective D counts a graduate by that date, so each one is left out of Objective D until the date is recorded.

Upward Bound and UBMS prior-year participants. The federal upload file must include every record in the Department's match file, including prior-year participants who were not served this year. TRIOPilot's file holds the year's Reportable participants, so a prior-year participant who has a record for the year should be marked Reportable with Participant Status Prior-year participant. They then appear in the upload file and stay out of the served counts behind the GPA, test score, and retention objectives. The report lists any member of the Objective F cohort who has a record for the year but is not Reportable and was not on last year's file. Rollover carries each record on last year's file into the new year (see Roll Students Into a New Program Year). Under Records Missing From This Year's File, the report lists anyone on last year's file who is not Reportable this year. For a record with this year's status, record Participant Status (Prior-year participant for anyone you did not serve this year) and mark it Reportable. For someone with no record this year, use Carry Into PY on the card, which carries the record with its federal fields; Add to PY on the profile does the same for a record on last year's file. A second group lists last year's records that the Department is expected to drop this year: TRIOPilot applies the 2024-25 record-drop criteria one year later each year, so check your download file, and carry any record that is still in it. Each group shows its first 10 records; choose Show All to see the rest. The file's validation report lists the same records, and also flags any Reportable record that the record-drop criteria remove, or are expected to remove, from this year's download file. A record whose Postsecondary Enrollment Cohort (#54) drops it by Criterion 1 (cohort 2018 or earlier for 2024-25, one year later each year after) is left out of the upload file, because the instructions say a dropped record "must not appear in the upload file"; the validation report names it. If your download file still holds that record, correct its cohort. The file keeps a record the other criteria drop, because only your download file can confirm it: if the record is not in your download file, remove its Reportable status. On the student's profile, the Students list and the dashboards, a record whose Participant Status for the year you are viewing is Prior-year participant shows a Prior-Year Participant tag in place of Continuing, because the federal form treats the two as different statuses.

SSS, McNair, and VUB prior-year participants. Each of these programs' APR data files must keep last year's records by the program's own rule. The SSS instructions say a project "must retain the participant records for six (6) years from the time of first service" (four years at a 2-year institution), and keep a prior-year participant with cohort 99 only if they were served in the past five years (three at a 2-year institution). The McNair form requires "all records in your final" APR data file of the year before, except the bachelor's cohorts the Department no longer accepts (for 2024-25, cohorts before 2014-15). The VUB instructions require in your upload "all the records in the download file", which leaves out the records the Department retires. Rollover carries those records into the new year (see Roll Students Into a New Program Year). Under Records Missing From This Year's File, the report lists anyone on last year's file who is not Reportable this year, with your program's instruction: record Participant Status, then mark the record Reportable, or use Carry Into PY for someone with no record this year. The Participant Status to record: for SSS, Continuing participant if you served them this year; Prior-year participant (enrolled but not receiving SSS services) or Prior-year participant (no longer enrolled at grantee institution) if not. For McNair, Continuing if you served them this year; Prior-Year Participant, or Prior-Year Participant, Deceased, if not. For VUB, Prior-year participant for anyone you did not serve this year. A second group lists the records your program's rule drops: for SSS, a participant first served before the retention period, or a cohort 99 participant not served within it, unless you serve them this year; for McNair, a bachelor's cohort the Department no longer accepts; for VUB, a record the Department is expected to retire. For a year whose McNair form or VUB instructions are not published yet, TRIOPilot moves the cohort or criteria one year forward each year, and the card says so. Keep a dropped record only if it is in your download file (or, for SSS, you serve them this year): Carry Into PY carries it as a current participant, and then you record Participant Status and mark it Reportable. The file's validation report lists the same records, and adds notes on Reportable records: an SSS record outside the retention period (it reads Student Cohort Year first, then the first program year, and a cohort 99 record by its Date of Last Project Service), a McNair record whose bachelor's cohort the Department no longer accepts, a McNair record with no bachelor's degree cohort first served ten or more years ago (the instructions keep a record "for a period of ten (10) years" but do not say when that period starts without a degree), and a VUB record the retirement criteria retire. The file keeps every such record, because only your download file can confirm it. The Prior-Year Participant tag shows for these programs too, when Participant Status is a Prior-year participant option. The file fills each field you leave blank that the form codes as Not Applicable for a prior-year participant: for SSS, when Participant Status is Prior-year participant (no longer enrolled at grantee institution), for example Enrollment Status (#23) 9; for McNair, when it is either Prior-Year Participant option, for example Research (#32) 99; for VUB, when it is Prior-year participant, for example the four project services (#33 to #36) 9. SSS Prior-year participant (enrolled but not receiving SSS services) gets no fills, because the form asks those fields of prior-year participants who are still enrolled. The SSS form also codes these fields for a New Summer participant: for one who did not earn college credits (Participant Status option 9), a blank Enrollment Status in Year First Served (#20), Enrollment Status (#23), Academic Standing (#24) and College Grade Level at End of Year (#27) are filled with 10, Cumulative GPA (#25) with 9.999, and College Grade Level at Beginning of Year (#26) with 15; for one who earned credits (option 8), #26 is filled with 15. The report's Section II tables count these filled codes too, so they match the file. Amount of Financial Aid Received (#35) is left blank for a prior-year participant no longer enrolled, and Amount of SSS Grant Aid Awarded (#36) for either prior-year option, as the form says; an amount you recorded for one is left out of the file and the report's totals and listed on the validation report. Every other participant needs an amount in each field, 0 if they received none: when no amount is recorded, the file leaves the field blank rather than guess, and the validation report lists it as missing so you can record it before you file. A value you recorded that differs from the form's code stays in the file and is listed on the validation report. The report also lists the reverse, also kept in the file: the form's prior-year code recorded for a participant whose Participant Status is not a prior-year option, for example Enrollment Status (#23) 9 for an SSS Continuing participant. SSS Cumulative GPA (#25) 9.999 is also the form's answer for a New Summer participant who did not earn college credits, so the report does not list it for that status. Rollover starts these fields blank for a record it carries as a prior-year participant.

Date of First Project Service: Upward Bound, UBMS, SSS, McNair and VUB. Each of these record files asks for the date the participant first received a service from your project (Upward Bound and UBMS #24, SSS #18, McNair #20, VUB #22). Record it in Date of First Project Service on the participant's profile; it carries over from year to year, because the forms ask for the original date even if the participant left and came back. When it is blank, the file uses the date of the participant's earliest logged contact, and the profile shows that date under the field. If that contact falls in a program year after the participant's first program year (for example, a participant whose earlier contacts were never logged in TRIOPilot), the file does not use it. With no date to use, the file holds the form's Unknown code, 00/00/0000, and the validation report lists the participant so you can record the date. The forms let you use the 15th when you do not know the exact day.

SSS: Enrollment Status in Year First Served and College Grade Level at Beginning of Year. Fields #20 and #26 have their own fields on the profile, with the form's own choices. Enrollment Status in Year First Served (#20) carries over from year to year, because the form says it "must match the value for the participant in the prior-year APR"; update it only for a participant you reported last year as a new summer participant. College Grade Level at Beginning of Year (#26) is recorded each year. Neither is filled from Enrollment Status (#23) or College Grade Level at End of Year (#27), which describe a different point in time. For a prior-year participant no longer enrolled, a blank #26 is filled with 99, the form's Not applicable code, and for a New Summer participant with 15. The report shows #26 and #27 as two tables.

McNair: Cumulative GPA and Enrollment Status. Record field #31 in Cumulative GPA at Bachelor's Degree: the participant's cumulative GPA when they earned their bachelor's degree, from 0.001 to 5.000 on your institution's scale, or 0.000 if it is unknown. It carries forward each year, because the instructions say not to change it once reported. Leave it blank while the participant has no bachelor's degree: when Bachelor's Degree Earned (#27) is No, the file reports 9.999, the form's code for that case. The file leaves blank a value outside 0.001 to 5.000 that is not 9.999 or 0.000. It keeps a value that does not fit #27, for example 9.999 when #27 is Yes, and lists it on the validation report. Date of Bachelor's Degree (#28), Graduating Cohort Year of Bachelor's Degree (#29) and Main Field of Study (#30) work the same way: when #27 is No and you leave them blank, the file reports the form's codes for a participant with no bachelor's degree yet (99/99/9999, 99 and 99). The file keeps an answer that does not fit #27, such as a degree date when #27 is No, and lists it on the validation report. Enrollment Status (#23) offers McNair's own choices (Enrolled, Not enrolled and Unknown), and the file reports it.

VUB: Academic Need. Record field #20 in Academic Need (at initial selection) on the participant's profile. It offers the VUB form's own list, for example Need for refresher courses or Lack of employable skills. Choose the one that was primary when the participant was first selected, as the instructions ask; it carries over from year to year. The file reports its code. If your program's Academic Need field still offers another program's list, the file leaves #20 blank for every participant and lists each one on the validation report, because those codes mean other things on the VUB form. Choose each answer again once the field shows the VUB choices.

Upward Bound Objective F and UBMS PM9. Objective F counts each record in the cohort its Postsecondary Enrollment Cohort (#54) names: the value you recorded, or, if none, the cohort TRIOPilot set when the enrollment was recorded. When your download file shows a cohort year or 9999, record it exactly as it appears: it must match the Department's file and never changes. When TRIOPilot sets the cohort from a recorded enrollment, the cohort is the school year (September 1 to August 31) of the High School Graduation / Equivalency Date (#35), as the form defines it: a student who graduated in June 2025 is in the 2025 cohort even when the enrollment was recorded on the program year that starts June 1, 2025. A value of 8888 (not yet completed high school) is expected to change when the student graduates, so once High School Graduation Status (#34) records a regular secondary school diploma and an enrollment is recorded, TRIOPilot uses the cohort that enrollment sets and asks you to update #54. Until #34 records the regular diploma, the record keeps 8888 and is in no cohort, and the validation report names it (a dual enrollment course is not postsecondary enrollment). UBMS PM9 counts the same cohort, and the upload file's #54 uses the same value.

Upward Bound and UBMS summer bridge participants (summer-start projects). If your project year starts in June or July (the start type in Settings > Reporting), the federal rules treat a participant whose Participation Level (#28) is Summer bridge only (option 5) in three ways. Objective C (retention and graduation) counts them as met only when their Postsecondary Enrollment Cohort (#54) is the year of the summer they attended the bridge program; in the report for PY 24-25 that is 2024. Their high school graduation status and grade levels do not decide it, and they stay in the denominator either way. If such a participant graduated from high school with a regular diploma before September 1 of the year you are reporting and has no GPA recorded, both GPA fields (#32 and #33) are reported as 8.888 (not applicable), so they leave Objective A's denominator. And the validation report notes any summer bridge participant whose Grade Level (#30) is not 99, as the form asks, any summer bridge graduate with a GPA other than 8.888, and any participant at Grade Level 8, an option the instructions describe for September or October starts. These rules read only the values you record, never service dates, so record #28 and #54 for every bridge participant. A senior who graduates in June, July or August belongs in the APR for the school year that ends that August 31, which for a June or July start is the APR of the year that ended before the graduation: the federal instructions ask you to report "participants served in 2025 summer bridge" in the 2024-25 APR. Record their High School Graduation Status (#34), date (#35), Postsecondary Enrollment Objective (#63) and first enrollment date (#53) on that year's record. The validation report notes any participant whose #63 says they graduated during the school year but whose #35 falls outside it. Fall-start projects and projects moving from a summer start to a fall start count summer bridge participants by the general Objective C rule, because the federal rule names option 5, which a transitioning project does not use. If your start type is not recorded, the report says so and uses the general rule.

Upward Bound and UBMS: Project Characteristics. Section I, Part 1 of your form asks about the summer residential program, the number of weeks, the summer bridge program and the frequency of academic year contacts: the first three for each of the two summers the form names, and the contact frequency once for the academic year. The report shows a Project Characteristics block in Section I as a reference for the portal. TRIOPilot does not record the residential program, the weeks or the contact frequency, so those read Enter from your records. For the summer bridge program, a summer reads Yes with the number of participants on this year's file whose Participation Level (#28) names a summer bridge in that summer; otherwise it reads Enter from your records, never No, because a file with no such participant does not show that the project ran no bridge program. Which summer a Participation Level names depends on your start type in Settings > Reporting: for a June or July start, options 2 and 5 name the summer the program year starts in (summer 2025 in the report for PY 25-26); for a September to November start, the summer after it (summer 2026); for a project moving from a summer start to a fall start, through PY 24-25, each transition option names its own summers (from PY 25-26 on the federal form has no transition options). If your start type is not recorded, the report says so and both summers read Enter from your records.

Upward Bound and UBMS Objectives D and E, and PM7. Objective D (graduation with a rigorous program of study) counts each participant whose High School Graduation Status (#34) records a regular secondary school diploma and whose High School Graduation / Equivalency Date (#35) falls between September 1 and August 31 of the year you are reporting, as the federal rules define it. Of those, it counts as met everyone whose Rigorous Secondary School Program of Study Completed (#36) is the completed option. So record #35 for every graduate: a graduate with no #35, or with Unknown, is left out of Objective D, and a graduate from an earlier year does not count again. Objective E (postsecondary enrollment) counts the same graduates, and of those counts as met everyone whose Postsecondary Enrollment Objective field (#63) records enrollment by the fall term or acceptance with deferred enrollment. PM7 (FAFSA completion) and field #44 in the upload file both read the same FAFSA Completed field on the student's record.

Each standard objective leaves out participants recorded as deceased or permanently incapacitated as its own federal rule says. For GPA and retention, the participants an objective leaves out come off the larger of your Number Funded to Serve and the number served. A GPA left blank counts as unknown (0.000): it stays in Objective A's denominator, and the report says how many are blank.

For Upward Bound and UBMS there is also an Efficiency Measure section, an estimate built from the Annual Grant Funding amount you can enter on the Reporting tab. The Department computes the official figure; the estimate is there so you can see roughly where you stand.

For SSS, the Project Required Services table in Section I, Part 2 counts, for each of the seven required services, how many participants received it from the project and how many the project referred to another provider. Record these on each participant's profile: a participant counts once per service when a number above 0 is recorded for it, so a number on one profile is never a project total, and one participant can count as both received and referred for the same service. If the section says the fields are not set up, use Repair Missing Fields on the Participants tab of Settings.

SSS Good Academic Standing: the denominator is the larger of two numbers: your Number Funded to Serve minus the new summer participants who did not earn college credit (Participant Status option 9), and the participants served with Participant Status option 1, 2 or 8. Persistence uses the full funded number and also counts option 9 as served.

VUB Postsecondary Completion: a certificate, associate degree or bachelor's degree counts only when its date is recorded and falls on or before September 30 just after the program year ends (for 2024-25, September 30, 2025), as the federal rules require. Record the date beside the credential on the student's Program Outcomes panel. A credential without a date in time does not count as a completion; the participant still stays in the cohort, unless they are recorded as deceased or permanently incapacitated, in which case the federal rule keeps them only with a credential dated in time. VUB: credentials and cohort choices. PSE Certificate/Diploma Completed (#43), Associate Degree Attained (#45), Bachelor's Degree Attained (#47) and Postsecondary Education Enrollment Cohort (#38) offer the VUB form's own choices. Not applicable 8 means the participant is still in, or has not yet completed, your project's educational program, and 9 means they left it and have not yet enrolled in postsecondary education; neither is about high school. Cohort 8888 means the participant has not yet enrolled in postsecondary education and could still join a cohort, and the form does not let you change a 9999 once it is reported. If a value was saved from the Upward Bound wording before your program's choices changed, check that it still says what you meant.

Talent Search Section IV.A appears on the report in the same layout as the portal. Type lines A1 to A6, shown in bold; the portal adds up A7. Section IV.A counts the participants who were in middle school, grades 9 to 11, or the fourth year of a five-year dual enrollment program at first service (Section III, A1 to A4 and A7), by their Secondary School Persistence Outcome for the year. A participant with no outcome recorded is counted on A6 (Unknown), the form's line for a status that is unknown or unconfirmed, so A7 always equals those Section III lines. The report names each one, so you can record the outcome before you file. A student who graduated early, for example a junior who earned enough credits to graduate, belongs on A1, and the report names anyone whose graduation is recorded but who is on another line. A persistence outcome recorded for anyone else, such as a senior or a participant who was a dropout at first service, is not counted, and the report names them too. Objective A is A1 divided by the result of A7 minus A4 (Deceased). The report checks Section IV.A against Section III and Objective A. If a check fails, a red Section IV.A Does Not Agree note replaces it. That is a defect in TRIOPilot, not in your data; it is reported to us automatically. Do not type Section IV.A into the portal until it is fixed.

Talent Search Objective C and Sections IV.B, IV.C and IV.D count only participants who were high school seniors or fifth-year dual-enrollment students at first service (Section III, A5 or A8), because the federal form defines Sections IV.B and IV.C that way. Section IV.D places each enrolled senior on one row from Institution Type on the profile's Program Outcomes panel. A senior with nothing recorded counts on Unknown Institution, and the report says how many, so you can record it and move them to the right row. The report says how many other participants recorded a postsecondary enrollment and were left out. The report shows Section IV.B (lines B1 to B10) and the full Section IV.C table (rows 1, 2 and Totals, columns (b) to (i)) in the same layout as the portal. Type the numbers in bold into the portal: B1 to B8 and B10, and the ten cells in rows 1 and 2 of columns (b), (c), (e), (f) and (g). The portal adds up B9, columns (d), (h) and (i), and the Totals row; the report shows them too, so you can check its sums. The IV.C column comes from the participant's Secondary School Graduation Outcome. A senior with no graduation outcome recorded is counted on B8 (Unknown), and a senior with no enrollment status recorded is counted in row 2, because those are the form's lines for an unknown status. The report names each one, and anyone whose recorded value it cannot read, so you can fix the record before you file. Row 1 is for enrollment by the fall term after high school graduation, or a deferred enrollment; TRIOPilot records no date for it, so choose the enrollment status with that window in mind. B10 counts participants who were secondary school dropouts (A9) or Other participants (A10) at first service and have Secondary Completion by Entry-Dropouts / 'Other' Participants set on the Program Outcomes panel. The report checks these tables against Section III, Objective C, the enrollee list and Section IV.D. If a check fails, a red Sections IV.B to IV.D Do Not Agree note replaces those three sections. That is a defect in TRIOPilot, not in your data; it is reported to us automatically. Do not type Sections IV.B to IV.D into the portal until it is fixed.

Talent Search Postsecondary Attainment (Objective E): a cohort is the enrollee list your project uploaded for the program year six years before the one you are reporting. When the cohort year's enrollee list is recorded as filed, Objective E counts exactly the people on that list instead of rebuilding it, and the report lists any differences from today's records (see Record the Enrollee List as Filed). Otherwise, TRIOPilot rebuilds that list from the year's Reportable participants, using the choices recorded for that year's grant cycle: the seniors in Section IV.C row 1 that your Option includes, and, when the cycle tracks a random sample, only those marked Y in the In the Random Sample (Postsecondary Attainment) field on the participant's Program Outcomes panel, on their record for the cohort year. A credential counts only when its date is recorded and falls on or before August 31 at the end of the program year you are reporting (for 2024-25, August 31, 2025), as the federal form requires. Record the date in Date Postsecondary Credential Earned, beside the credential on the student's Program Outcomes panel: the date it was awarded, or, for a combination (E4 or E5), the date of the credential that completed it. Each member's line comes from their most recent record from the cohort year on. A credential dated in time counts even when it is recorded on a record after the year you are reporting, and a later record that says none or unknown does not outrank an earlier credential dated in time. A credential with no date, with a date the report cannot read, or dated after that August 31 is not counted. The report lists it under Check These Records with the reason, unless a more recent record already decides the member's line. There are two exceptions. A credential with no date or an unreadable date is still listed when a more recent none or unknown decides the line, because recording its date would change the line. A credential dated after that August 31 on a record after the year you are reporting is not listed, because a later record is expected to hold later credentials. If a participant earned another credential after that day, record the credential they held on August 31 and its date. The report links each named member to the record that decides their line. The report shows lines E1 to E9 and the rate, E6 divided by E9 minus E8, and lists the members. It says Not Calculated, with the reason, when the cohort year has no Reportable participants in TRIOPilot (for example, the cohort was established before your program used TRIOPilot), when the choices for that cycle are not recorded, or when a random-sample member has no value (Y or N) in that field. For a cohort from before your program used TRIOPilot, import the Department's cohort list to calculate it (see Import the Department's Cohort List). The Department pre-populates the number of participants in the cohort from the list you uploaded, and E9 must equal it. When no list is recorded as filed for the cohort year, E9 is rebuilt from that year's records, so it changes when they change: if it does not equal the Department's number, that year's records, the random-sample values or the recorded choices changed after the upload. To check the enrollee list for the cohort year, choose the link under Objective E that opens that year's report, for example PY 20-21 report, and then choose Check Enrollee List. You can also pick the year in the Program Year selector. To see what changed on a member's record, open their profile on the cohort year: every change to that year's record is listed in its Activity Feed.

The published instructions leave a few details open, for example whether E8 (deceased) is still subtracted when you track a random sample, and which line a deceased participant who earned a credential belongs on. TRIOPilot follows the form's formula as printed. If the portal calculates a different rate from the lines you enter, the portal's number is the one the Department uses, so tell us. The documents also do not say whether a credential earned before high school graduation counts (TRIOPilot counts it and lists it under Check These Records), or whether "earned" means the day the coursework ended or the award date (record the award date shown on the transcript or diploma).

Case Numbers for Returning Participants

The Department assigns each participant a case number the first time you submit them, and every later APR must carry it exactly. Programs with a federal record file (Upward Bound, UBMS, SSS, McNair, and VUB) have an Import Case Numbers From the Match File card on the APR Report page. Only admins see the card. Have your staff download last year's data from your own APR portal (on the Section II Getting Started page, Download Last Year's Submitted Data: choose Download Data), save it as a CSV file, and upload it here.

TRIOPilot shows a preview first: how many case numbers it can fill in, and every row it could not match. Nothing is written until you confirm. Only blank records are filled in; a record that already holds a different number is flagged for hand review, because a case number must never change once assigned. New participants are correctly left blank, and the Department assigns them a number at your next submission.

The preview also counts name and date of birth matches to record: rows that match a participant by last name, first name and date of birth when one of those changed after their latest match (see Names and Dates of Birth for Returning Participants). Apply records them with the case numbers it fills. When every row already holds its case number, the button reads Record with the number of matches, for example Record 2 Matches, and no case number changes. The message beside the button says how many case numbers were applied and for how many participants the match was recorded, and names any participant it could not save.

Names and Dates of Birth for Returning Participants

For Upward Bound, UBMS and VUB, the federal instructions say a returning participant's identifying data "must match the data in your 2024-25 APR, even if you have discovered errors or misspellings" (the UB and UBMS instructions for 2025-26; the VUB instructions say the same of the year before). The Department matches each participant's records across years by last name, first name and date of birth, so the APR must keep the values it already holds.

For SSS and McNair, the 2024-25 instructions say of the last name: "Once you provide the student’s last name, you cannot change nor update it in subsequent reporting years," and the same of the first name and the date of birth. They do not say it of the middle initial, so SSS and McNair files carry the middle initial as the profile holds it. A date of birth that was blank when first reported was never provided, so an SSS or McNair file carries the date recorded since, as the profile holds it now.

You can still correct a participant's name, middle initial or date of birth on the profile, and the profile shows the correction. The Federal Upload File keeps what the Department holds:

• A participant new in the year you are reporting is filed with the profile's current values.
• For a participant reported in an earlier year, a change you save after their first reported program year is left out of the file, which carries the value from before the change.
• When Import Case Numbers From the Match File matches a participant by their last name, first name and date of birth, the Department's file held exactly those values. From then on, the file carries the name and date of birth as they were at that import. This works whether the import fills the case number or finds the same number already recorded.
• When a participant's record was merged with another after one of these values changed, TRIOPilot cannot tell which record's value the Department holds. The file carries the profile's current value, and Check Federal Upload File says so, so you can compare it with your download file.
• When the file keeps an earlier first or last name, it puts the profile's current first and last name in the Name Change field (#67 for Upward Bound and UBMS, #50 for VUB, #37 for SSS, #48 for McNair), which each program's documents provide for the participant's changed full name. If you record a Name Change on the profile, the file uses yours.

For the year you are viewing, the profile shows a note under the field when the participant is Reportable and the file keeps a different value. Check Federal Upload File names each one with the date of the change. For Upward Bound, UBMS and VUB, a date of birth that was blank when first reported stays Unknown (00/00/0000) in the file and is counted with the missing values. If you corrected a name or date of birth before you submitted that participant's first APR, the Department's file has the corrected value: import your Download Last Year's Submitted Data file with Import Case Numbers From the Match File, choose Apply (or Record), then download the Federal Upload File again.

Other Values That Must Not Change for Returning Participants

The federal documents name more fields that must not change once a participant has been reported, and the Federal Upload File keeps them the same way. For Upward Bound, UBMS and VUB:

• From the participant's first reported year: Eligibility and the three at-risk fields (#16 to #19), Date of First Project Service (#24 for Upward Bound and UBMS, #22 for VUB) and Grade Level at First Service (#25). For VUB, also Educational Status (#23) and Employment Status (#24) at the date of first project service. For example, the Upward Bound form says "Continuing and prior year participants should receive values that were reported during their first year of participation."
• From the first year whose file carried a real value: for Upward Bound and UBMS, High School Graduation Status once option 3 was filed (#34), the dates in #35, #45, #53, #58, #60 and #62, a cohort year or 9999 in #54, and a school code in School Code for Postsecondary Institution First Attended (#55). For VUB, the dates in #30, #37, #44, #46 and #48, a completion year, 2222 or 7777 in #31, and a cohort year or 9999 in #38. A Not Applicable or Unknown code does not fix the field, so a later year can still file the real date or code.
• For #55, the Upward Bound form says "Once a grantee has provided a school code for the postsecondary institution the participant first attended, the data must not change in a later reporting year," and the instructions name #55 among the fields to review and update each year. So until a year's file carries a school code, you can update the field each year; once one has, the file keeps it. 555555 (an institution not in the Federal School Code Directory) counts as a school code. VUB's School Code (#39) is unchanged, because the VUB documents do not say it must not change.
• Date of Last Project Service (#45, VUB #30) and VUB's completion year (#31) may change for a reentry participant. From the reentry year on, the file keeps the value filed in that year or later.
• For Upward Bound and UBMS, Limited English Proficiency (#20), Disconnected Youth (#21) and Other Academic Need (#22) each say "The information in this field should not be changed or updated in subsequent data submissions except to correct previously entered erroneous data." The 2025-26 instructions say the same of Sex (#9), Ethnicity and Race (#10 to #15) and Target School at entry (#23): they "usually need no updating, but may be updated if the grantee finds that previously reported content was erroneous." A correction is allowed, so for these fields the file carries this year's answer, and Check Federal Upload File and the profile name the answer an earlier file carried. If that earlier answer was correct, change the field back. If you clear one of these fields, the file keeps the answer filed, and the note says the field has no answer this year.

For SSS and McNair, the 2024-25 instructions sort every field into You cannot update, You should not have to update and You may update. "You should not have to update" means "you should not need to update the field unless the response was incorrect or the response in a previous reporting period was “Unknown”". TRIOPilot cannot tell a correction from any other change, so for those fields the file carries this year's answer, and Check Federal Upload File and the profile name the latest answer an earlier file carried. If that earlier answer was correct, change the field back. A cleared answer is not new information, so the file keeps the answer filed. A blank or Unknown answer never counts as given. The earlier answer is always the latest one a file carried: when that was an answer that fixes nothing (for example No for Bachelor's Degree), the Department holds it, so nothing is kept.

For SSS:

• Academic Need (#16), Date of First Project Service (#18) and College Grade Level at entry (#19) say "Once you provide this information, do not update it in subsequent reporting years" and are in the "should not have to update" column: the file carries this year's value, with the note.
• Enrollment Status in the year first served (#20) is kept: "Otherwise, do not change it in subsequent reporting years." The exception: for a participant reported as a New Summer Participant in the prior year's APR, #20 "must be updated" in the next year, and the file keeps the value from that year on.
• Student Cohort Year (#21) is kept, 99 included. The SSS form says: "Otherwise, once a cohort has been established, you cannot change the cohort in subsequent reporting periods." A cohort the Department no longer uses to assess degree attainment (out of range) may be reassigned to 99, as the form directs.
• A participant reported as New again (the instructions' special case for someone last served long ago) has #18 to #21 completed for the year you are reporting.
• Reason for Withdrawal or Not Returning (#29) is kept once it gives a reason (options 1 to 6): "do not change it in subsequent reporting years, unless the participant re-enrolls in the program or is deceased." A year whose Participant Status (#22) says the participant is enrolled at your institution may change it, and a change to Deceased (9) is always filed.
• Undergraduate Degree/Certificate Completed at Grantee Institution (#31), once it reports a degree or certificate, and its date (#32): the SSS form says "Unless you reported the attainment of a bachelor’s degree incorrectly, once you report this degree, please do not change this response in subsequent reporting years," and the same of the other degrees and certificates. A correction is allowed, so the file carries this year's answer with the note. A certificate (options 1 or 2) may become an associate's degree (10 or 11) with no note, as the form allows, and the date moves with it. If a later file already carried an answer that reports no degree (for example 9, no degree and not enrolled), that answer is what the Department holds, so the field is open again.

For McNair, from the 2024-25 form:

• Bachelor's Degree (#27) once it is Yes ("Once you select “Yes”, do not update this field in subsequent reporting periods"), Date of Bachelor's Degree (#28) and Date of First Graduate School Enrollment (#36) once a date was filed, and Reason Left Graduate School (#43) once it gives a reason ("only update the field if in a subsequent reporting period the participant re-enrolls in graduate school") are in the "should not have to update" column: the file carries this year's value, with the note. For #43 there is no note in a year whose Current Year of Graduate Study (#40) records a graduate year.
• Graduating Cohort Year of Bachelor's Degree (#29) is kept once a year was filed (not 88 or 99): "Once the cohort year is established, it cannot be changed in subsequent reporting periods."
• Highest Graduate Degree Earned (#44) is kept: "Do not update this information in subsequent reporting period unless a more advanced degree has been earned." A master's can become a doctorate or a professional degree, and either of those a research doctorate; the form does not rank a non-research doctorate against a first-professional degree, so either can change to the other. A research doctorate (options 2, 3 or 4) never changes.
• Date Highest Graduate Degree Earned (#45) is kept: "Repeat the same date until a more advanced degree is earned." The date changes only in a year whose #44 is a more advanced degree.
• First Postsecondary Education Enrollment Date (#18), Attendance at Community College (#19), Project Entry Date (#20) and Grade Level at Project Entry (#21) say you "should not update it in subsequent reporting periods unless" the earlier answer "is incorrect". Main Field of Study for the bachelor's degree (#30) and in graduate school (#41), Cumulative GPA (#31), Graduate School Admissions Test (#35), Graduate Institution First Attended (#37), Institution Where Doctorate Degree Was Earned (#46) and Doctorate Recipient's Employment Activity (#47) are in the instructions' "should not have to update" column. A correction is allowed for each, so the file carries this year's answer, with the note.

The fields each table puts in the "should not have to update" column with no sentence of their own follow the table: for SSS, Middle Initial (#6), Hispanic / Latino and Race (#9 to #14), Eligibility and Disability Status (#15a and #15b) and First Enrollment Date (#17); for McNair, Middle Initial (#6), Hispanic / Latino and Race (#9 to #14), Low-Income (#15), First-Generation (#16) and Underrepresented Group Status (#17). The file carries this year's answer, with the note naming the earlier one; a cleared or Unknown answer keeps the answer filed. Sex (#8) is in the "may update" column, so it is filed as the profile holds it.

For SSS, your Institution Type in Settings > Reporting also decides which answers the federal instructions allow. A two-year program reports Transfers (#30) 1, 2, 8, 9 or 0 and a four-year program 3, 4, 8, 9 or 0; Undergraduate Degree/Certificate Completed (#31) is 1, 2, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 or 0 at a two-year program and 4, 6, 8, 9 or 0 at a four-year one; a two-year program uses the first and second year for the College Grade Level fields (#19, #26 and #27); and Field of Study option 14 (#33) "is for two-year institutions". The profile and Log Contact offer only the answers your type allows, and so do the online application, Add a Student and a scan's Verify page: a two-year program's education question offers the first and second year only. The printable application prints the question as saved, so a paper answer your type does not report reaches Verify as read; Verify and Add a Student then ask you to choose another answer. The online application never turns an applicant away for it: the application is kept, that answer stays on the application but not on the student record, and you choose the grade level on the profile. A record that already holds another answer keeps it, with a note under the field, and Check Federal Upload File names it, so you can change the answer or correct the Institution Type. Until the Institution Type is recorded, an answer only one type reports is noted as not checked. College Grade Level at End of Year (#27) never offers 1st yr., never attended or the new summer participant answer (15), which are #26's answers, unless the record already holds one.

The value kept for a year is the one that year's record holds, so if your download file shows something else for that year, correct the field on the participant's record for that year and download the Federal Upload File again. For a year the participant is Reportable in, the profile shows a note under each field whose value the file keeps, and under Low-Income, First-Generation or High Risk for Academic Failure when the file keeps an earlier Eligibility. Check Federal Upload File names each kept value and the year it comes from. A record that was merged with another is not changed: the file carries this year's values, and the report names any that differ from an earlier year's, except the SSS and McNair fields you may correct, so you can check them against your download file. The APR Report page, its objectives and the participant CSV use the same kept values as the Federal Upload File, so their numbers always match the file. If the profile cannot load these notes, it says so above its fields; reload the page to try again.

Answers That Must Agree (SSS and McNair)

Some answers on one SSS or McNair record must agree with each other, and Check Federal Upload File and the profile (under the field, as you enter it) say when they do not. The file keeps both answers as you recorded them, so change whichever is wrong:

• SSS Student Cohort Year (#21) and Participant Status (#22). The instructions say "All other new participants served for the first time in the 2024-25 reporting period would be in the 2024-25 cohort year (option “26”)" and, for a new summer participant (8 or 9), "then you must select option “27” in field 21". So a new participant is in the cohort of the year you are reporting, and a new summer participant in the next year's.
• SSS Undergraduate Degree/Certificate Completed (#31), its date (#32) and its field of study (#33). The form says the date "must be the date of the degree/certificate noted in field #31", and the field of study is 16, Has not earned a degree/certificate, only for a participant with none. A degree or certificate with "No degree earned yet" or field of study 16 is noted, and so is "No degree/certificate, still enrolled" with a date or a field of study.
• SSS Amount of SSS Grant Aid Awarded (#36). The 2024-25 form says "individual grant aid awards should not be less than the minimum Pell Grant award of $740 nor exceed the maximum Pell grant award of $7,395", and the instructions' Definitions That Apply give $692 and $6,895. An amount from $1 to $739, or above $6,895, is noted (0 is no award), and in PY 24-25 the profile does not accept an amount above $7,395. No form for a later year is published yet, so a later year's amounts are checked against the 2024-25 ones and never refused.
• McNair Bachelor's Graduating Cohort Year (#29) and Graduate School Enrollment Status (#38) against Date of Bachelor's Degree (#28). The form says "Select option 24 (2024-25) if the participant earned a first bachelor’s degree (or equivalent) in this reporting period", and #38's options 1 to 4 are for a degree earned in the year you are reporting, 5 for any other. The date is placed on your program's own year (Settings > Reporting).
• McNair Current Year of Graduate Study (#40) with First Graduate School Enrollment Date (#36), First-Year Graduate Persistence Status (#39) and Graduate Assistantship (#42). A first-year graduate student's first enrollment date is "generally between August 1 and July 31" of the year, and #39 and #42 have their own answers for a first-year graduate student. The form also says "A participant cannot be reported as a 1st yr. graduate/professional student in more than one APR reporting period", so a first year beside an earlier file's first year is noted; if the earlier year was wrong, the form's answer is 98, Previously recorded as 1st-yr graduate incorrectly.
• McNair Highest Graduate Degree Earned (#44) with Doctorate Institution (IPEDS) (#46) and Doctorate Recipient's Employment Activity (#47). The form says "If you selected option 1, 5, or 6, in field 44, enter “999999”", and for a first-professional degree such as a JD, employment activity is 99.

Draw the Talent Search Random Sample

If your project tracks a random sample of postsecondary enrollees for the grant cycle, TRIOPilot can draw the sample for you. Admins draw it from the report; everyone who can open the report sees the record of the draw.

1. Open the report for the year the enrollee list belongs to, and go to Section IV.E, Subsection 1.
2. Under Random Sample Draw, choose Draw the Sample. The confirmation says how many enrollees are on the list and how many TRIOPilot will draw.
3. Choose Draw. TRIOPilot draws the sample, writes Y for each enrollee drawn and N for everyone else on the list, and replaces any Sample value marked before.

How the size is set: TRIOPilot uses the formula of the calculator the TS APR instructions name for the sample size, with the settings the instructions give: a margin of error of 5 percent, a confidence level of 95 percent and a response distribution of 50 percent. The only number that changes is how many enrollees are on the year's list. For example, 30 enrollees give a sample of 28, as in the instructions. With 20 or fewer enrollees, the sample is every enrollee.

How the draw works: TRIOPilot shuffles the enrollee list and then draws that many enrollees from it, so every enrollee has the same chance of being chosen. The randomness comes from the server's cryptographic random number generator. The federal instructions name the Raosoft, random.org and randomizer.org websites for these steps; TRIOPilot uses the same sample size formula and a cryptographically random draw instead, and keeps a permanent record of it.

The record: the report shows the date, who drew the sample, and how many enrollees were drawn from how many. The record also keeps the random seed, the list as it was drawn from, and the result, so anyone can recompute the draw and get the same sample; the report checks this each time it loads and says Checked when the draw recomputes exactly. If a value changes by hand after the draw, or an enrollee joins or leaves the list, the report says so under the record. Each draw also appears in the Audit Log as Drew the Random Sample, and each changed value as Edited Student.

When TRIOPilot does not draw:

• Your recorded Postsecondary Attainment choices track all enrollees, or none are recorded for the grant cycle.
• The year's enrollee list is recorded as filed. Its Sample values are fixed.
• An enrollee's entry status or graduation status is blank or cannot be read, so the list may still change. Record those statuses first, so every enrollee who belongs on the list has the same chance.

One draw per year: the instructions call for one random sample, so each year is drawn once. If you must draw again, for example because the list changed after the draw, choose Draw Again and say why. The new draw replaces the Sample values, and the earlier draw stays on the record with its date.

If your project already drew its sample another way, you do not need to draw again in TRIOPilot: mark the values as described in the next section.

Mark the Talent Search Random Sample

If your project tracks a random sample of postsecondary enrollees for the grant cycle, every name on the enrollee list needs Y (in the sample) or N (not in the sample) in the Sample column. Admins can mark many enrollees at once from the report. Other roles see the counts.

1. Draw the sample in TRIOPilot (see Draw the Talent Search Random Sample), or with the method in the appendix of the TS APR instructions. The report shows the recommended sample size for the year, from the formula of the sample-size calculator the instructions name, with a margin of error of 5 percent, a confidence level of 95 percent and a response distribution of 50 percent. With 20 or fewer enrollees, the recommended sample is every enrollee.
2. Open the report for the year the list belongs to, and go to Section IV.E, Subsection 1.
3. Select the enrollees in your sample, choose Set Sample, and then choose Y: In the Sample.
4. Choose Mark the Rest N to mark every enrollee who is not marked yet as N.

TRIOPilot asks you to confirm each change first, and says how many values will change. The report shows the number of Y values beside the recommended size; if they differ, Check Enrollee List says so too, and the file still downloads. Each change is saved on the participant's record for that program year and appears in the Audit Log as Edited Student, and each marking also appears as Marked the Random Sample (Bulk). You can also set the value for one participant on their Program Outcomes panel.

Once the year's list is recorded as filed, Objective E uses the Sample values the list was filed with. The marking panel no longer changes that year's values, and it says so. You can still change one participant's value on their Program Outcomes panel, but Objective E does not count the change, and the report lists the participant under A different Sample value today.

Record the Enrollee List as Filed (Talent Search)

The Department fixes a postsecondary enrollment cohort when you submit the APR that includes its enrollee list, and six years later it pre-populates the cohort size from that list. Record which list you uploaded, so Objective E counts exactly that list even if the records for that year change later.

TRIOPilot keeps each version of the enrollee list you download. Each file name ends with a file code, for example apr-enrollees-ts-2025-2026-12-01-a1b2c3d4.xlsx. Downloading a list does not record it as filed, because you can upload a corrected file until you submit the APR.

After you submit the APR in the TRIO portal and the project director and the certifying official certify it:

1. Open the report for the list's program year, and go to Section IV.E, Subsection 1.
2. Choose Record as Filed.
3. Pick the version you uploaded. The newest version that matches today's records is selected to start; when no version matches them, nothing is selected. Match the file code in the file name, or choose Choose the File You Uploaded so that TRIOPilot finds the matching version. The file stays on your computer. If you opened and saved the file in Excel, its contents changed, so pick the version by its file code instead. Two versions can share a file code when they were downloaded under different Postsecondary Attainment choices; pick the one built under the choices you reported for that year.
4. Confirm that you submitted and certified this list, and choose Record as Filed.

If no download of that year's list is on record, for example because you submitted it before TRIOPilot kept versions, choose Record the List as It Stands Now. TRIOPilot records the list your records produce today, so compare it with the names in the PDF the portal gave you when you submitted. The action appears only after your Postsecondary Attainment choices for that year are recorded in Settings > Reporting, and only when the list has names and every row has what the file needs (for a random sample, a Sample value of Y or N). Otherwise the panel says what to fix in its place, before you certify anything.

A filed list cannot be edited. If you recorded the wrong version, choose Withdraw, give a reason, and record the right one. Withdrawing changes only what TRIOPilot uses for Objective E, because the Department does not accept changes after an APR is submitted. Download the Filed List gives you the filed version again: the same file you downloaded, or, for a list recorded as it stood, the file TRIOPilot built when you recorded it.

Once a list is filed:

• Objective E for that cohort counts the people on the filed list, with the choices and Sample values it was filed with. The report names anyone whose record today would put them on or off the list.
• A participant who is later deleted from TRIOPilot stays on the filed list and counts on line E7 until the record is restored. If the record is merged into another record, the list row moves to the record you kept.
• Objective E uses the Sample values the list was filed with. The marking panel refuses changes for that year and says so. A change made on a participant's Program Outcomes panel is saved but not counted, and the report lists it under A different Sample value today.
• You cannot change your Postsecondary Attainment choices in a way that contradicts a filed list.
• Check Enrollee List and the report warn about any participant who is already on another year's filed list. A participant belongs to the cohort of the year they graduated from high school, so check that year's graduation and enrollment status.

Recording and withdrawing a filed list appear in the Audit Log as Recorded an Enrollee List as Filed and Withdrew a Filed Enrollee List. Only admins can record or withdraw a list; other roles see whether the year's list is filed.

Import the Department's Cohort List (Talent Search)

A cohort established before your program used TRIOPilot has no records for its program year, so Objective E cannot rebuild its enrollee list. Import the list instead. You can import either file:

• The Department's Cohort Download File (CohortDownload.xlsx). Your staff download it from the Cohort Download tab of your APR portal, or from the page after you submit your APR.
• The Enrollee File We Uploaded for that year (your project's own upload), in the published seven-column layout: PR, BatchAY, LastNM, FirstNM, MI, ID, and Sample.

TRIOPilot never signs in to the portal. Your staff download the file there and upload it here. The file can be an Excel workbook (.xlsx) or a .csv file, up to 1 MB. An older Excel file (.xls) is refused: open it in Excel and save it as an Excel Workbook first.

1. Open the report for the year you are reporting, and go to Section IV.E, Subsection 2.
2. In Import the Cohort Download File, choose the file and which kind of file it is. Optionally, enter the number your APR portal pre-fills for the cohort in Section IV.E, Subsection 2.
3. Choose Preview. TRIOPilot shows the columns it read, the number of names and how many of them the cohort counts, and which names it linked to your records. Nothing is saved yet. If you change the report's program year, the card starts over with no file and no preview, so a file you previewed for one cohort is never saved for another.
4. Choose Save the Cohort, and confirm. If it cannot be saved, the reason appears beside Save the Cohort and the preview stays; if the list recorded as filed changed since your preview, the preview closes and the reason appears beside Preview, so preview the file again.

TRIOPilot counts every name on the list, whether or not it can match the name to a record, because the Department's count includes everyone on the list. Under a random sample, the cohort counts the names marked Y in the Sample column. A name that is not linked to a record counts on line E7, attainment status unknown.

TRIOPilot links a name automatically only when the ID and the name both match one record, or when exactly one record has that name and a record for the cohort year. When exactly one record has the name but no record for the cohort year, the preview lists it as a suggested match; tick Link the Suggested Matches to link them when you save. Two names that match one record are never linked; link each one yourself.

After you save, the list's rows appear in Subsection 2. For each row you can:

• choose Link to search every year's records and link the row to the right record, or Unlink a row of an imported list;
• choose Record Credential to record the credential and the date it was earned on the row itself, for someone with no record in TRIOPilot. A value on a participant's own record always takes precedence. A credential with no date, or dated after August 31 at the end of the program year you are reporting (for 2024-25, August 31, 2025), counts on line E7 and is listed under Check These Records, as on a record. The Date Earned must be from January 1, 1900 through today on your program's calendar; any other date is refused with a message, so a mistyped year, such as 0025 or 2205, never leaves an earned credential uncounted.

If a change to a row does not go through, the reason appears under that row's buttons; for Link and Record Credential it appears in the window you are using.

TRIOPilot refuses a file it cannot read and imports nothing. It names the columns it found when it cannot find a last name and a first name column. It also refuses a file whose BatchAY is not the cohort year, whose Sample column mixes NA with Y and N, or whose Sample values contradict the Postsecondary Attainment choices recorded in Settings > Reporting for that cycle (correct Settings to match your APR form), and a file that lists no participants.

If the cohort year already has a list recorded as filed, the card reads Replace With an Imported File. The preview shows the differences, and a second confirmation names them; the earlier list is withdrawn and kept. A credential recorded on a row of the earlier list moves to the same name on the new list when that name appears exactly once on each. The preview and the confirmation count the credentials that move and name the ones that do not, because a name that is gone, or that appears twice, could be another person: record those again on the new list. Withdraw moves no credentials: they stay with the withdrawn list and count again only if you record that list as filed again, so to change the file, use Replace With an Imported File. Importing a list appears in the Audit Log as Recorded an Enrollee List as Filed, a refused file as Refused APR Upload File, and a change to a row as Updated a Cohort List Row. Only admins can import a list or change its rows.

File With the Department

What you can download depends on your program:

• UB, UBMS, SSS, McNair, and VUB: choose Download Federal Upload File. This is the coded per-participant record file you upload to the federal APR portal, with every value translated to its federal code. If TRIOPilot reads fewer Reportable participants than your program has for the year, for example while someone changes statuses during the download, the file is not downloaded and the page says so: download it again. The problem is also reported to TRIOPilot. Check Federal Upload File still downloads, and its first line names the difference. A refused download appears in the Audit Log as Refused APR Upload File.
• EOC: choose Download APR Worksheet. EOC has no upload file. You key aggregate counts into the portal, and the worksheet lists every form cell with its computed value so you can transcribe them.
• TS: choose Download Enrollee List (Excel). This is the Section IV.E postsecondary enrollee spreadsheet the federal portal asks for, in the exact seven-column layout the instructions require. It lists the year's Section IV.C row 1 enrollees that your recorded Option includes, with NA in the Sample column when you track all enrollees, or Y and N when you track a random sample. If you track a random sample, draw it on the report, which writes Y or N for every enrollee on the list (see Draw the Talent Search Random Sample), or draw it with the method in the appendix of the TS APR instructions and mark it on the report (see Mark the Talent Search Random Sample). Each file name ends with a file code that identifies the version (see Record the Enrollee List as Filed), and the report shows beside the link whether the year's list is recorded as filed. Until the choices for the year's grant cycle are recorded, the download link is replaced by a note that points to Settings.

Upward Bound, UBMS, SSS, McNair and VUB: when two answers on a student's APR Outcomes contradict each other, a note appears under the field as you enter them, naming both fields as the screen shows them and saying what to change. The validation report shows the same contradiction in its own words. The note stays until the answers agree, and it never stops a save, because you can edit the two fields in either order. For example, a GPA beside a prior-year Participant Status (Upward Bound and UBMS), a cohort year (#54) beside a High School Graduation Status (#34) that is not a regular diploma, a Postsecondary Enrollment Objective (#63) beside a graduation date (#35) outside the school year (Upward Bound and UBMS), a FAFSA Completed (#44) answer for a graduate beside a High School Graduation Status that is not a diploma or an equivalency credential (Upward Bound and UBMS), or a McNair Cumulative GPA (#31) beside Bachelor's Degree (#27) No. For an Upward Bound or UBMS project that starts in June or July, a summer bridge student's Grade Level (#30) other than Not applicable, or a GPA other than 8.888 for one who graduated before the school year, has a note too, and so does a Grade Level of 8th grade. If only one of the two fields shows in APR Outcomes, the note is under that one.

Upward Bound, UBMS, SSS, McNair and VUB: the validation report also names a date of birth after the first service, and any date after today. The file keeps what is recorded, so correct it on the student's profile. For Upward Bound and UBMS, it names a High School Cumulative GPA (Weighted) (#32) of 8 or more, other than the form's 8.888 and 9.999. The form sets no upper limit, "the project may enter a score that exceeds 4.000", so the file keeps that value, but it does not count toward the GPA objective.

Before you file, run the validation report: choose Check Federal Upload File. You get a CSV listing every value the file could not code, and every value it had to fill in, participant by participant, so you can fix the gaps before you file. If the PR/Award Number saved in Project Information is not the 11-character number your APR form describes (for example, one saved before TRIOPilot checked it), the report says so once for the whole file. The file still carries the number exactly as saved, so correct it in Project Information and download the file again. For SSS, a Cumulative GPA (#25) recorded outside the form's range of 0.000 to 5.000 that is not one of its codes, 9.999 or 7.777, such as 6.2, is left blank in the file, left out of the report's average cumulative GPA (25. Cumulative GPA), and listed on the validation report; the profile refuses such a value, so correct it there and download the file again. For Upward Bound and UBMS the file never leaves a GPA or a postsecondary cohort blank, because the federal form does not allow it: a missing GPA becomes 0.000 (Unknown), or 9.999 for a prior-year participant, or 8.888 for a participant whose Grade Level at the beginning of the year (#30) is 8th grade (the form's "the academic year ended before the participant had completed the first year of high school") when neither GPA field is recorded, or 8.888 for a summer bridge participant in a summer-start project who graduated before the year, or copies an 8.888 or 9.999 already recorded in the other GPA field, and a missing cohort becomes 8888 (not yet graduated from high school) or 9999 (an equivalency credential, which never qualifies) when the record shows which applies. Each one is on the validation report so you can record the real value. The file also fills Rigorous Secondary School Program of Study Completed (#36) with 8 (All other participants) when you leave it blank and High School Graduation Status (#34) and the graduation date (#35) show the participant did not graduate with a regular diploma during the year you are reporting. For a graduate of that year the file leaves #36 blank and lists the participant, because only your staff know whether the program of study was rigorous; record option 1 or 2. The validation report also notes a #36 you recorded that does not agree with #34 and #35. It also checks FAFSA Completed (#44) against #34 and #35. The federal form gives 1 and 2 to a participant who "graduated high school or received high school equivalency credentials during the reporting year", and 8 to one who did not. So the report notes a 1 or 2 when #34 is not a diploma or an equivalency credential, or when #35 falls outside the year you are reporting, and an 8 when #34 and #35 show a graduation inside it. The report checks the date against the year's dates on your Reporting Periods card in Settings > Reporting (September 1 to August 31 until you enter yours). For a summer-start project, or one moving from a summer start to a fall start (the start type in Settings > Reporting), the report checks the date only once you enter your project year's dates, and until then it says so. The student profile shows the same date check as a note under FAFSA Completed while you edit, for the program year you are viewing. These notes never change the file. The file reports the Middle Initial (#7) recorded on the profile as one capital letter, dropping a period after it, and leaves it blank (the form's No response) when none is recorded. A recorded Middle Initial that is not one letter, such as two letters, is left blank and listed on the validation report; the SSS and McNair (#6) and VUB (#7) files work the same way. Eligibility (#16) counts a participant as at high risk for academic failure when At Risk for Academic Failure is Yes, or when any of fields #17, #18 and #19 is option 1, because the instructions define high risk by those three criteria. The validation report notes a Yes when all three are recorded and none is option 1, since the form says a project that reports high risk "must have ascertained that the student met at least one criterion". The report's Section II eligibility table counts high risk the same way, so it matches the file. VUB works the same way with its own three criteria, At Risk: Out of School for Five Years (#17), At Risk: Low Standardized Test Scores (#18) and At Risk: Disability (#19): a Yes in any of them is high risk ("if the participant meets at least one of the criteria for high-risk status, the project should select option 7"), and the validation report notes a Yes answer when all three are recorded as No. For a prior-year participant (Participant Status Prior-year participant), the file fills the form's Not Applicable codes in any of these fields you leave blank: Participation Level (#28) 6, Served by Another Federally Funded College Access Program (#29) 9, both GPA fields 9.999, and the five project services (#47 to #51) 9. A project moving from a summer start to a fall start gets Participation Level 60 instead, as the form's transition list requires. These fills are not on the validation report when you recorded the status; when TRIOPilot worked the status out from Deceased or Incapacitated (#26), Participation Level (#28) or a GPA of 9.999, each fill is listed so you can record it. If your project's start type is not recorded in Settings > Reporting, Participation Level is filled with 6 and listed, because a transitioning project uses 60. A value you recorded in these fields is always kept, and the validation report lists it when it does not fit Participant Status: another answer for a prior-year participant, such as Work Study Position (#47) Yes, or a prior-year code for anyone else, such as #47 9 or a GPA of 9.999 for a Continuing participant. While your start type is not recorded, Participation Level 6 and 60 are both accepted for a prior-year participant. It works for every program's record file. For the TS enrollee list, choose Check Enrollee List instead: it lists every enrollee with no random-sample value (Y or N) and every participant the list leaves out, with the reason.

Before You File

• Confirm the right participants are marked Reportable for the year.
• Log any outstanding contacts. Two contacts in the current program year move a student to Served, which is the step before Reportable.
• Fill the outcome gaps. The Needs Attention report lists who is missing what for your program type, including outcomes with no supporting document where one is needed. Outside EOC and Talent Search it lists the end-of-year fields your federal upload file has no answer for.
• Check the totals against what you expect. The report uses the objectives and rules for your TRIO program, but you know your participants best.