Every student is real. Here is exactly how we know.

Verification is layered, never based on one signal. A student who signs in with a verified school email ending in .edu clears the first layer automatically with no documents. Every other student uploads one document that proves enrollment, such as a student ID, an enrollment letter, a class schedule, an educational plan, an acceptance letter, or, for recent graduates, a diploma. A dedicated trust and safety team reviews each submission by hand and marks the student verified when it checks out. On top of that, each school declares the email format its students use, so students whose address matches stay verified at scale. The combination is what makes the result accurate.

No. Signup is open to any email so that no real student is shut out by the address they happen to have. A verified .edu email is simply the fastest path to being trusted, because it clears the first verification layer automatically. If you do not have one, you upload a single document that proves you are enrolled and our team reviews it.

No. A school signs up with its institution details and the email of an authorized representative, which does not have to be a .edu address. Every school application is reviewed by a real member of our team before it is approved, and schools are never approved automatically. After approval, the school declares the email format its students use, which powers verification for that campus.

You can sign up with almost any working email, including a personal one. The fast path specifically rewards a verified school email. When you later try to prove that an address is school-issued, known personal email providers such as Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, iCloud, and similar are not accepted as proof of school issuance, because a personal inbox cannot prove enrollment. A personal email is still perfectly fine as your account login and as a permanent backup address.

A school cannot declare a personal email provider, such as Gmail or Yahoo, as its student email format, because those addresses do not belong to the institution and cannot identify its students. A school declares a domain it controls, for example school.edu or students.school.edu. The declared format is locked once submitted so it cannot be quietly changed; if a typo slips through, the school contacts our team to correct it.

You can skip it and keep using the platform right away. We remind you gently while you explore. After ten sign-ins or thirty days, whichever comes first, we ask you plainly to upload proof before continuing. This grace window means a genuine student is never blocked at the door, while anyone avoiding verification is eventually asked to complete it.

We aim to review every document submission promptly, typically within a few business days. While a review is in progress you can keep using the platform during the grace window, so verification never becomes a locked door for a real student.

A dedicated trust and safety team reviews each submission by hand. Documents are stored in encrypted object storage with AES-256, scoped to your account, and reviewers open them only through signed links that expire in minutes. Every time a reviewer opens a document it is written to a tamper-evident audit trail. Your documents are never shown to schools, employers, or other students.

When your school declares the email format its students use, every current student is checked against it. If your address does not match the declared format, your status is set back to pending so we can confirm you are genuinely enrolled. We reach out to you and, when it helps, ask your school to confirm whether you are one of theirs. Once it is sorted, your verified status is restored. Nothing is decided silently.

A temporary suspension is exactly that. It is enforced at the sign-in pages, and the moment you respond with what we asked for, we lift it and restore your access. A permanent removal is reserved for clear cases of deception or abuse and is always reviewed by a person. If an account has been removed and its email blocked, that email cannot be used to create a new account, and we tell you plainly rather than leaving you guessing. If you believe a decision was a mistake, contact support@studentlifeos.com and a real person will look at it, because our actions are reversible.

No. The verified badge is a trust signal shown for display only. It looks the same and means the same thing everywhere your name appears, on a profile, on an application, in search, and in messages. It never changes a match score, a ranking, or your odds. It simply tells a school or an employer that you are a confirmed, enrolled student.

When our team needs a second pair of eyes, for example when a verified student has an address that does not match the school declared email format, we ask the school directly. The student appears in the school Needs review tab, the school answers whether the student is enrolled, and our team makes the final call. A school never blocks an account itself; it only answers the question.

It is built to be as accurate as verification can reasonably be. We combine three things: an automatic fast path for verified school emails, a careful human review of every document for everyone else, and a school-level confirmation of the email format an entire campus uses. Each layer catches what another might miss, and a real person makes the judgement calls. The goal is simple: when you see a verified student, they are a real, enrolled student.

You keep it. As your graduation year approaches we send reminders, in the app and by email, asking you to add and verify a personal email so you never lose access. After your listed graduation year ends, your account moves to recent graduate status automatically: your school is saved to your education history and you keep full access for five years. If we got the year wrong, you can mark yourself as still enrolled at any time and your account is restored. Nothing is ever silently locked.