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Frequently Asked Questions

What is Tessera?

Tessera is your AI career-discovery companion for teens aged 14 to 19 who are considering college and graduate school. Through short sessions it learns what makes you you: your interests, your strengths, the way you think. No exams, no grades — just conversations, guessing games, and quick quizzes about your life, on your schedule. It helps you discover the careers — from engineering and design to medicine, law, and research — that fit who you are.

How does it work?

You start with a quick setup under 10 minutes. After that you work through 12 short sessions, grouped into three milestones: First Read (your career interests), Personal Insights (how you think and work best), and Whole Self + Career Path (the two combined into real career paths and matched majors). Four sessions per milestone, about three weeks end to end. Each one adds to Tessera's understanding of your interests and personality using proven frameworks from vocational and personality psychology.

What are the sessions actually like?

They vary on purpose, so twelve of them don't feel like the same thing twelve times. Some are open conversations where you answer in your own words. Some are guessing games, where Tessera takes a shot at calling something about you and you tell it how close it got. Some are quick yes/no or would-you-rather quizzes that take a few minutes and barely any typing.

You also choose the style Tessera talks to you in — anywhere from playful and light to slow and philosophical — and you can change it whenever you want.

What age group is Tessera for?

Tessera is designed for students aged 14 to 19 (grades 9 through pre-college, including gap year) who are thinking about college and what comes after. The conversation style also adapts to the student's age — younger teens get more playful, scenario-based sessions, older students get more direct, practical guidance about majors, schools, and the careers a 4-year degree (or beyond) can lead to.

What if I don't want to go to college?

Tessera is built for teens whose plans involve a 4-year degree (and sometimes graduate school — a master's, PhD, MD, or J.D.). If your path is trade school, immediate workforce, military, or something else outside the college track, Tessera's recommendations won't be the right fit. We say this so you don't waste your time.

Is my data safe?

Yes. Tessera does not collect any personally identifiable information from teens: no last name, no email, no phone number, no address. The data we do collect is stored securely in the cloud with encryption. We never sell or disclose data for advertising, analytics, or marketing. Your conversations are processed by our AI provider (Anthropic) in real time and are never shared with parents, schools, or advertisers. See our Privacy Policy for full details.

How long does it take?

The initial setup takes under 10 minutes. After that, each session is about 10 questions and runs 5–10 minutes. There are 12 sessions in total, so at a pace of a few per week you finish in roughly three weeks. You can go faster or slower — nothing expires, and you always pick up where you left off.

Three weeks is the whole arc, not a trial period. If you keep checking in after that, Tessera continues to refine the picture over the following months, but the career direction is yours at the end of the twelve sessions.

What does Tessera cost?

The first two milestones are free. First Read and Personal Insights — everything about who you are — cost nothing. The third milestone, Whole Self + Career Path, where that gets turned into specific career paths and matched majors, requires an annual subscription. The short version: the mirror is free, the map is paid.

You see this at onboarding, not at week three. And the subscription gates the career report, not the app itself — sessions keep running either way, so you are never locked out of talking to Tessera.

What happens if my subscription lapses?

You keep everything you already unlocked. Insights that have been generated stay readable permanently, frozen exactly as they were at the time — we archive them, we never delete them. What stops is new generation and refreshing: sessions carry on and scores keep updating behind the scenes, but the visible report holds still until you resubscribe, at which point it catches up.

Put simply: your subscription expires, your report does not.

What platforms is Tessera available on?

Tessera is available now on iOS — download it from the App Store. The Android version is coming soon to Google Play.

Does Tessera replace a guidance counselor?

No — Tessera is a complement to your school counselor or college advisor, not a replacement. School counselors typically work with large caseloads, and the first half of a meeting usually goes on working out who the student is. Tessera closes that gap: a student who has finished the First Read arrives with an interest profile already done, so the meeting can start on guidance.

Because the arc is finite and has a completion state, a counselor can also assign it ahead of a meeting rather than hoping a student keeps using an app. Tessera maps who a student is; interpreting that into advice about specific schools and majors is still the counselor's job.

Can parents or counselors see my conversations?

No. Your conversations with Tessera are always private. If you choose to share your profile with a parent or a linked counselor, they only see your interest and personality insights — and, for a counselor, which milestone you have reached — never the conversations themselves.

Sharing is always your choice. You start the link, and you can revoke it from the app at any time.