Understanding School Approvals

Each school partnered with Handshake must review and approve each company profile before employer users attached to that company are able to post jobs to that school and connect with their students. This resource provides an overview of that process. 

How requests are made

When a new employer user creates a Handshake account, they can connect with an existing company profile, or if their company is not already on Handshake, they can create a new company profile. Once a company connection is established, the employer user requests access to specific schools.

If joining an existing company profile, all new users must be approved to attach to the company profile. Once approved, if the schools requested have already approved the company profile, they will be automatically added to the Favorites list. If this is a new school connection request, the school will need to process the request. 

Employers can request to connect with more schools at any time, not just during the signup process. For details, refer to School Network Management: Requesting, Adding, and Removing Schools.

For our recommendations, check out How Can I Get Approved By Schools?

How requests are processed

Each school partnered with Handshake is independently responsible for approving and giving roles to their employers or declining requests, and every school has their own deciding factors when selecting which employers to connect with and which jobs to approve.

Schools rely on several factors when considering approval, including their history with the employer, whether the employer has been approved by other schools, and how well established or recognizable the employer is, to name a few. 

While a request is pending or in progress, schools may communicate with employers via comments to gather more information or share unique guidelines for connecting with their students. 

While Handshake is unable to provide insight into specific requests, we require schools to share a reason when an employer is declined. Check out more information and how to followup if you've been Declined by a School.