Frequently asked questions.

Founding Families is for Ontario students planning to begin university in Ontario next year. The student participates fully and joins with a parent or guardian.

No. The current initiative is focused on Ontario students applying to universities in Ontario.

The student owns the choice, while the parent or guardian needs enough visibility to support requirements, costs, timing, and next steps. The process is designed to give both people a shared plan without taking the decision away from the student.

No. The intake can begin with interests, dislikes, courses, existing ideas, and open questions. BeaconEd does not expect the student to arrive with a settled program list.

Each Beacon is researched and reviewed around one student. Limiting participation protects the time needed for that work, the conversation with Matthew, and continued questions through application season.

The complete Founding Families experience includes supplemental application guidance, a 30-minute conversation with BeaconEd founder Matthew Svacina, a researched plan called Your Beacon, and general question support until application season is over.

Your Beacon is a researched, student-specific working plan for application season. It brings the student’s situation, a focused program shortlist, requirements, trade-offs, dates, sources, open questions, and the next five moves into one reviewed document.

The default shortlist contains five programs, with a maximum of seven when the family’s situation genuinely requires a wider view.

Pathway Check compares the student’s Grade 12 plan across the shortlisted programs. It distinguishes requirements that are met, courses that are planned or in progress, gaps requiring action, and information that still needs confirmation.

Cost, commuting, and residence considerations are included when they affect the decision. Scholarships are limited to a small number of relevant, verified opportunities rather than a database dump or an exaggerated potential-award total.

The Beacon ends with exactly five actions ordered by priority. Each action identifies who owns it, a target date, why it matters, and what completion looks like.

BeaconEd helps the student understand prompts and requirements, organize real evidence, plan written responses, prepare for interviews or portfolios, and check the process for clarity and completion.

No. The student’s thinking, words, and submitted work remain their own. BeaconEd does not write, substantially rewrite, or submit an application for the student.

Yes. Guidance can help the student understand the format, identify experiences worth discussing, organize their thinking, and practise how they would answer. BeaconEd does not provide a script to memorize.

No. BeaconEd can help the student understand published portfolio requirements, organize the work, and plan the submission process. The creative work and final submission remain the student’s responsibility.

The student and parent or guardian complete the family intake and payment. Their answers give BeaconEd the courses, grades, priorities, constraints, existing program ideas, and questions needed to begin the review.

The scheduling link arrives with Your Beacon. The family can read the plan first, then choose a time for a 30-minute conversation with BeaconEd founder Matthew Svacina.

Matthew meets directly with the student and parent or guardian. Together, they review what changed after reading the Beacon, discuss the most important trade-offs and unresolved questions, and confirm the next five moves.

General program and application-process question support continues until application season is over.

Families can bring back questions about the researched programs, published requirements, application steps, supplemental work, and new information that may change the plan.

The family pays $99 when joining. After the conversation with Matthew, completing the short honest-feedback form returns $20 and brings the final cost to $79.

No. The feedback can be positive, critical, or mixed. The rebate is for completing the feedback form, not for giving BeaconEd a favourable review.

Yes. Permission to quote feedback as a testimonial is optional and separate from the rebate. BeaconEd will not treat completion of the feedback form as permission to publish a quotation.

No. OUAC fees, university-specific fees, and other third-party costs are separate from the Founding Families price.

Important guidance begins with authoritative sources such as official university program, admission, faculty, and application pages. Sources and last-verified dates remain attached to the research.

It is marked as information to confirm. BeaconEd does not replace an unknown with a guess or present changing information as settled.

No. The Beacon does not use fake precision, match percentages, or invented admission probabilities.

No. BeaconEd provides planning guidance and source-backed research. Admission decisions remain with each university, and published requirements can change.

No. BeaconEd is an independent planning service and does not represent an Ontario university or make admission decisions.

Information supplied through the intake is used to prepare the family’s Beacon and provide the service. BeaconEd does not sell, rent, or trade personal information. Additional details are available in the Privacy Policy.