# Tags & prioritization

Learn how to create custom tags, apply up to three per school, and use them to filter your target list, college search, and email campaign recipients.

Tags let you organize your [target list](/docs/colleges/target-list) your own way, beyond the built-in recruiting pipeline. Label schools as "Dream School," "Safety," "Academic Fit," or anything else that helps you think through your list.

## Create and manage tags

Head to the **Tags** page to see every tag you've created, how many schools currently wear it, and its description. Click **Add Tag** to create a new one with three fields: a **Tag Name** (up to 24 characters, must be unique — you can't reuse a name you already have), a **Color**, and an optional **Description** (up to 255 characters).

You get up to **10 tags total**. A counter next to the page heading tracks your usage, and once you hit the limit the **Add Tag** button disables with a note to delete one before adding another. Colors come from a set of 18 options. Pick whatever helps you scan your list at a glance.

## Apply tags to a school

A single school on your target list can carry **up to 3 tags** at once. Add or change them from a few places:

- The **Edit tags** option in a target list row's menu.
- The tag badges on a [program profile page](/docs/colleges/program-profiles) — click them to open the same editor.
- The **Add to List** modal when you first add a school from [college search](/docs/colleges/college-search).

Trying to add a fourth tag to a school gets blocked with a warning — pick your top three instead of piling them all on. Every tag change is also logged to that program's activity feed, so you can see when and what changed.

## Use tags to prioritize your list

Tags aren't just labels. They're a filter. On both college search and your target list, filter by up to 3 tags at a time to quickly pull up, say, every "Dream School" you've targeted or every program you've flagged as a "Safety." Combine that with [status filtering](/docs/colleges/tracking-status) (Researching, In Contact, Offered, and so on) to see exactly where your top-priority schools stand in your outreach.

There's no built-in ranking that tags create automatically. Prioritization is manual. If you want a strict order instead of (or alongside) tags, use the target list's re-rank mode to drag schools into a numbered order.

## Email a whole tag at once

Tags carry into outreach, which is where they pay off most. When you pick recipients in step 1 of [creating a campaign](/docs/email/campaigns), there's a **Tags** filter alongside sport, division, conference, and state. Choose up to 3 and the coach list narrows to schools carrying any of them, so "email every Dream School coach I haven't contacted yet" takes a couple of clicks instead of hand-picking rows.

> **Picking a tag scopes you to your target list**
>
> Only schools on your target list can be tagged, so selecting a tag automatically flips on **Only show coaches from my target list**. That also unlocks the **Status** and **Last contacted** filters, which only apply to targets. Clearing the tags leaves the toggle where it is, so switch it back off yourself if you want the full college database again.

The tag filter only appears once you've created at least one tag.

## What's next

- Learn how schools land on your list in the first place: [Building your target list](/docs/colleges/target-list).
- Understand the full recruiting pipeline in [Tracking status](/docs/colleges/tracking-status).
- See tag badges and activity history in context on [College program profile pages](/docs/colleges/program-profiles).
- Put your tags to work in outreach: [Email campaigns](/docs/email/campaigns).

Source: https://productiverecruit.com/docs/colleges/tags-and-prioritization