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Starfish - Accessing the Starfish App in MyUW

This document features instructions on what to do if the Starfish app is not available in MyUW.

Starfish is a scheduling tool commonly used to schedule appointments with academic advisors. If the Starfish app cannot be found or accessed in MyUW, follow these steps to troubleshoot the issue.

Finding the Starfish App in MyUW

  1. First, familiarize yourself with how Starfish access works by reading the Who Can Access Starfish? section below. If you believe you should have access as an active student or eligible staff member, proceed with step 2.

  2. Go to my.wisc.edu and search for "Starfish" in the search bar at the top of the page. Once found, click Starfish to access the app. To add the tile to your home page for easier access, click Add to home.

    Searching "starfish" in searchbar at top of MyUW homepage

    Search results for "starfish" listing Starfish, with options to Add To Home or see more Details

  3. If you are unable to find the app by searching for it, try going directly to https://wisc.starfishsolutions.com/starfish-ops.

  4. If the above link does not give you access to Starfish, please reach out to starfish@advising.wisc.edu for assistance.

Who Can Access Starfish?

Students

Starfish is only available to you if you are an "active student" which is defined as meeting one of the following criteria:
  1. You are currently enrolled in at least one course, either in the current term or a future term.
  2. You are not currently enrolled in any courses but have been made eligible to enroll for an upcoming term.
Please note, admission to the university does not necessarily mean you have the status of "eligible to enroll". Incoming first year and transfer students are made eligible to enroll via an automated process. The exact timing of this process varies, but usually follows this pattern:

Starfish Enrollment Eligibility
Matriculation Term Eligible to enroll in...
Fall Late May
Spring Mid to late December
Summer Early April

Note: Do not contact the Office of the Registrar to request early enrollment eligibility.
If you are a returning student and you need to meet with your advisor before you are made eligible to enroll, please reach out to your school, college, or program's advising unit directly via phone or email and ask them to schedule an appointment. If you are an incoming first year or transfer student, you will have your first advising meeting during SOAR.
Once you have been made eligible to enroll by the university, you will automatically gain access to Starfish via MyUW and be able to use it to schedule meetings with your advisor(s).

Staff

Staff gain access to Starfish in one of two ways:
  1. Having at least one assigned advisee in SIS. This will automatically provision you with a user account in Starfish, and you will be given both the Assigned Advisor and General Advisor roles.
  2. Manual provisioning. If you don’t have assigned advisees in SIS but still need to use Starfish, please email starfish@advising.wisc.edu (include your supervisor) and explain your situation. If it is determined that you have a viable use case, IT administrators will work with you to manually provision you with a Starfish role and user account. This may require discussion with others in your unit if your unit is not currently set up with a service (unit entity) or services in Starfish.
Note:
  • Starfish is currently available for use by academic advisors, career services professionals, student services staff (e.g. Financial Aid, Dean of Students Office), and some learning support staff. The instructional use case is not currently within scope of our Starfish implementation. 
  • Staff users of Starfish must be associated with a “service” (a unit entity) within the system for it to function properly for the user, and that association must be made administratively. 
Questions can be sent to starfish@advising.wisc.edu.

Errors Accessing the Starfish App 

If you are able to see Starfish in your MyUW portal but are experiencing an error when trying to access it, please take a screenshot of the error and send it to help@doit.wisc.edu for further assistance. Instructions for taking screenshots can be found here:


Keywords:
my uw scheduling academic advisor advising can't cant unable to be found not portal application error issue issues schedule meeting missing eligible eligibility access appointment 
Doc ID:
94880
Owned by:
Amanda M. in MyUW Madison
Created:
2019-10-08
Updated:
2023-12-13
Sites:
DoIT Help Desk, My UW-Madison Portal