Student Pack application says 2FA is disabled after setup

[andrewkim25]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Bug

💬 Feature/Topic Area

Form Errors & Technical Issues

Hi everyone,

I’m applying with a verified @usc.edu email. GitHub recognizes USC, and authenticator-app 2FA is enabled and set as my preferred method. I signed out and completed a new 2FA sign-in, but the Education application still says 2FA is not enabled and keeps Continue disabled. Is there a known propagation delay or account-side fix?

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[SaulMoreno3]

The Education form may be reading the account-level 2FA state from a stale session, but first I would verify that 2FA is fully enabled rather than only having an authenticator method configured.

Open Settings → Password and authentication in the same GitHub account and confirm that the account shows 2FA as enabled and that recovery codes have been saved. GitHub's setup flow only completes after the six-digit TOTP code is verified and the recovery-code step is acknowledged:
https://docs.github.com/en/authentication/securing-your-account-with-two-factor-authentication-2fa/configuring-two-factor-authentication

Then sign out of GitHub, close the GitHub Education tab, open a private window, sign in again, and start the application from education.github.com rather than an old bookmarked form. If the form still says 2FA is disabled, check that the browser is using the same GitHub account that owns the verified @usc.edu email and that the email appears under Settings → Emails as verified.

If the account settings show 2FA enabled but the Education form still blocks Continue after a fresh session, it is likely an account-side state mismatch rather than a missing authenticator. In that case, include the account username, the exact form URL, and a screenshot with personal details hidden when contacting GitHub Education support. Do not share TOTP secrets or recovery codes.