next4
Support
next4 helps high-school students build a college list from a card sort. If something is broken, confusing, or wrong, we would rather hear about it than not.
Contact us
luka@yournext4.comEmail is the only way to reach us, and it is read by a person. We usually reply within two or three days.
Using next4
Do I need an account?
No. next4 has no sign-up, no password, and never asks for your name, email address or phone number. Open the app and start.
Why does it ask what year I was born?
It is an age check, not a birthday. The year is checked on your phone and never sent to us. If you are 13 or younger the app works the same way and gives you the same matches, but nothing about you is recorded at all.
Why can't I pick more than 7 must-haves?
Must Have is capped at 7 on purpose. Must-haves are treated as hard requirements, so past a handful they start ruling out schools you would actually have liked. Everything else you care about belongs in Would Like This, which still counts. If you place more than 7, the extras move to Would Like rather than being dropped.
How long does the sort take?
The deck is 86 cards across 6 categories, and most people finish in a few minutes. There is no way to shorten it: the sort is what the matching runs on. Any card you genuinely do not care about can go straight into Doesn’t Matter.
Can I change my answers or start over?
Yes. Retake Sort at the bottom of your results puts the deck back in front of you, and Start Over clears everything and returns you to the beginning.
I finished the sort and it says it couldn't find my matches.
That message means the app could not reach our matching service, not that no schools fit you. It is almost always a connection problem, so check your signal and tap Try Again. If it keeps happening, email us and say roughly when it happened.
Are my results saved if I close the app?
Your sort and your saved schools stay on your device. Because there is no account, they do not sync between devices, and deleting the app deletes them.
About the matches
Where do the numbers about each school come from?
Public United States federal and public-sector data: IPEDS for enrollment, cost and programs, Clery for campus safety statistics, EADA for athletics, the National Collegiate Honors Council for honors colleges, and the Bureau of Economic Analysis for cost of living. We do not reproduce anyone else’s college rankings.
How is the ranking decided?
By your own card sort, run against that data. The same answers always produce the same list. Every school in your results carries the specific cards of yours that put it there, which is what the “Why this is a match” section on each school shows.
Does next4 tell me whether I will get in?
No. The Reach, Target and Likely labels describe how a school’s past admissions data compares with what you told us, and nothing more. next4 does not predict or guarantee admission and is not a substitute for a school counselor or professional advice. Always confirm cost, deadlines and program details directly with a college before relying on them.
A school is missing, or something about it looks wrong.
Please tell us. Send the school’s name and what looks off, and we will check it against the source data. Some fields are genuinely missing for some institutions. When the data cannot answer for a school, that school is neither rewarded nor penalized for it.
Your information
The full detail is on the privacy page. The short version:
How do I turn off usage tracking?
Open Settings in the app and switch off “Help improve next4”. Collection stops immediately and the rest of the app works exactly as before. If you live in New York it starts switched off and you do not have to do anything.
How do I delete everything you have about me?
Uninstall the app. There is no account to close, and what is on your device goes with it. To be removed from the website waitlist, email us.
Can you look up my answers and help me with them?
Usually not, and that is deliberate. The app never learns your name or email, so there is no record for us to find. It is the cost of collecting as little as we do, and we would rather explain it than collect more.
Reporting a problem
If you email us about something broken, these three things make it much faster to fix: what you were doing when it happened, what you expected instead, and roughly when it happened. A screenshot helps more than anything else. You do not need to include anything about yourself.