Arcling is built on trust — between students, families, and the expert counselors who guide them. All counselors in the Arcling network are expected to uphold the following principles, which are grounded in the NACAC Statement of Principles of Good Practice (SPGP) and adapted for the Arcling platform context. These guidelines are mandatory, not aspirational.
1. Student-Centered Practice
Act in the student's best interest
Your primary obligation is to the student and their family — not to any institution, ranking system, or metric. Recommendations must reflect the student's genuine goals, abilities, financial situation, and wellbeing.
Provide honest, accurate, and complete information
Do not overstate a student's chances of admission, inflate your qualifications, or misrepresent institutional policies. Students and families deserve complete transparency to make informed decisions.
- Give candid assessments of admission likelihood, even when difficult
- Do not encourage applications to schools where admission is extremely unlikely without that context
- Disclose any limitations in your knowledge of a particular institution or program
Respect student autonomy
Guidance should expand a student's options — not impose your preferences. Respect the student's right to make final decisions about their college list, essay content, and enrollment choice, even when you disagree.
2. Honesty & Integrity
Do not engage in misrepresentation
Misrepresentation of any kind is grounds for immediate removal from the Arcling network. This includes:
- Falsifying or fabricating any part of a student's application, essay, or credentials
- Ghost-writing application essays (coaching and editing are permitted; authorship must remain the student's)
- Misrepresenting your own credentials, experience, or institutional affiliations
- Making false claims about acceptance rates or outcomes
Disclose conflicts of interest
If you have a financial, personal, or professional relationship with any institution you recommend, you must disclose it to the student and family before making that recommendation. This includes referral arrangements, alumni relationships that may affect objectivity, or employment at an institution.
No incentivized referrals
You may not accept any payment, gift, or compensation from a college, university, test prep company, or other service provider in exchange for steering students toward that provider. NACAC's guidelines on incentive compensation apply in full.
3. Privacy & Confidentiality
Protect student information
All student information shared through the Arcling platform — including academic records, personal narratives, financial details, and family circumstances — is strictly confidential. Do not share, sell, or reference a student's information outside of the direct service relationship without explicit written consent.
Obtain consent before sharing outcomes
You may not use a student's admission results, essays, or personal information for marketing, testimonials, case studies, or social media without explicit written consent from the student (and parent or guardian if under 18).
4. Professional Conduct
Maintain professional boundaries
Keep all communication within the Arcling platform. Do not solicit students to work with you outside of Arcling, request personal contact information for off-platform communication, or establish personal relationships that compromise professional judgment.
Commit to ongoing professional development
The college admissions landscape changes rapidly. Stay current with admission policy changes, financial aid regulations, and best practices. Arcling may require annual certification or training to maintain active network status.
Respond promptly and reliably
Students and families depend on timely guidance — especially during high-stakes deadline windows. Maintain the response times you commit to, and communicate proactively when availability changes. Consistently poor responsiveness is grounds for suspension.
5. Platform-Specific Requirements
Billing is handled by Arcling
All client billing, invoicing, and payment collection is managed exclusively by Arcling. Do not charge students or families directly for any services delivered through the platform. Arcling retains a 20% administration fee and remits the remainder to you on a regular schedule.
Use the Arcling AI coaching assistant appropriately
Your Arcling AI coaching assistant is a tool to support your practice — helping with research, drafting, scheduling, and client preparation. It does not replace your professional judgment. You are responsible for reviewing and standing behind all guidance delivered to students, regardless of whether AI tools assisted in producing it.
Represent yourself and your practice accurately in your profile
Your Arcling counselor profile must accurately reflect your credentials, areas of expertise, institutional knowledge, years of experience, and any certifications. Arcling reserves the right to verify profile information and remove inaccurate listings.
Prohibited Practices
The following are expressly prohibited and will result in immediate removal from the Arcling network:
- Writing or substantially rewriting a student's application essays
- Submitting any application material on a student's behalf without their explicit review and approval
- Providing false or misleading references, credentials, or outcome statistics
- Accepting payments, gifts, or incentives from third-party providers for student referrals
- Soliciting students for off-platform services
- Sharing or selling student data to any third party
- Engaging in discriminatory conduct on the basis of race, gender, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation, or any other protected characteristic
Grounded in NACAC's Statement of Principles of Good Practice
These guidelines reflect and extend NACAC's Statement of Principles of Good Practice (SPGP), the professional standard for college admission counseling. Arcling strongly encourages all network counselors to become active NACAC members and stay current with updates to the SPGP. Where NACAC guidance is more restrictive than these guidelines, NACAC standards take precedence.
Questions about these guidelines?
Reach out to the Arcling counselor team. We're here to help you navigate questions and stay in good standing.
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