What's planned
At more and more colleges, most admitted students have nearly the same top GPA, so a GPA and one test score no longer say much on their own. Colleges look at the courses behind the grades, the subjects that matter for a major, and the pool an applicant is coming from. These plans bring all of that to the site:
- How this college reads a record. A few plain sentences at the top of each college's admissions page: what it weighs most, how many of its first-years had a 3.75 or higher, how many sent test scores, and which courses it expects. No account needed.
- Your courses, against what your school offers. List your AP, IB, dual-enrollment, and honors courses with their grades, taken and planned, and see them read the way a counselor reads them: against what your own high school offers.
- The admit rate for your pool. The rate that actually applies to you, from the college's own figures: in-state or out-of-state, your major where the college publishes it, and automatic admission where a state program promises it.
- How your major is read. Where a college says your intended major matters (you're compared within that college or major, math and science grades get an extra look, certain courses are required), the profile and the planner say so and check your courses against it.
- Quad's estimate. Reach, Target, or Likely, computed by our own model from these inputs, with a panel showing what went into it. Never a percentage.
- Next year's courses. When it's time to choose classes, the planner suggests up to two advanced courses your school offers, each with its reason, and says plainly when your grades or schedule say not to add more.
- How well it did. Students can choose to share their admission results; each season the site will publish how well the estimate did.
Behind the scenes
How the estimate is calculated is Quad's own, like a home-value estimate on a real estate site, and it will improve as more outcomes come in. The site will always say which kinds of information it uses; the method itself stays private. The estimate never uses race, ethnicity, sex, legacy status, or which high school you attend. See the overview.