From "You're Accepted" to "You're In" in One Click

PROPEL Center, a national nonprofit that runs skills challenges for college students, in partnership with major employers.

Getting students to apply was working. Getting them to actually start was not.

After applying, a student had to wait for a separate invitation email, find it, open a different website, retype information they had already given, and create an account from scratch. Every one of those steps was a place to drop off. Some invitations went to the wrong place. Some students signed up with a personal email instead of their verified school email, which put eligibility checks at risk. Students who had joined a past program sometimes ended up with duplicate accounts.

The result: students who said yes on the application never made it to day one, and the team spent time chasing accounts by hand.

We turned the confirmation page into the front door.

The moment a student finishes their application, they see their verified school email already filled in and locked, and a single box to choose a password. One click, and:

• Their learning account is created
• They're enrolled in the right program
• They land on the sign-in page, ready to start

No waiting for an email. No retyping. No second website to figure out.

Returning students are recognized automatically. Their existing account and password are never touched; they're simply added to the new program.

If a student leaves before finishing, their reminder emails bring them straight back to the same one-click setup. And if anything goes wrong, they see a clear, plain-language message telling them what to do, not a dead end.

• Applying and getting started became one moment instead of two separate steps days apart
• Every account is tied to a verified school email, so eligibility is protected from the first click
• No more manual account setup or invitation chasing
• No duplicate accounts for returning students
• The team can see exactly who has set up their account and who hasn't, so follow-up goes only to the students who need it
• Built once, reused for every new program: launching the next challenge means switching it on, not rebuilding it

Most organizations lose people in the gap between "yes" and "start." We find that gap and close it, turning sign-up, onboarding, and first access into one smooth step your audience barely notices.