Quad

PlansPull request #61

Ideas: seven fresh directions, and a place on the roadmap for them

The roadmap gains an Ideas section with seven directions that aren't planned yet, written up from a look at competing college sites and at guide-and-advisor sites in other fields, so the owner can judge each one.

What's planned

The roadmap now ends with an Ideas section: directions worth judging, each written up far enough to say yes, no, or later, but not yet planned work. They came from two pieces of research done on 2026-10-03: a close look at two competing college sites, and a survey of how guide-and-advisor sites in other fields (travel, real estate, summer camps, cars, and measured product reviews) help people choose among a thousand options. None copies a competitor; each builds on what this site has that others don't: twenty-plus years of history per college, a source and year on every number, an agent that reads colleges' own documents, households where a parent's finances stay private, standing from published rules, and no leads sold to anyone.

  • Guides: common questions ("where merit aid is the norm", "four years means four") answered as living lists. Each is a published query with its criteria shown, recomputed with every data release, and openable in Explore to adjust. A guidebook, re-issued every edition.
  • Cost to a degree: what the degree costs here, not one year of it: the four-year plan beside what finishing typically takes at this college, and the debt of those who leave without a degree. Comparative, the way car sites compute a five-year cost to own.
  • Near and far: a map view of Explore, how far each college is from home and what getting there costs, and the colleges on a list grouped into visit trips.
  • Worst plausible spring: if every Reach says no, what the list leaves a family with, what it would cost, and what's missing, as facts with their figures rather than a grade.
  • Colleges that would compete for you: colleges where a student's numbers sit above the admitted range, merit awards to students without need are routine, and demand has softened, each with its reasons.
  • Cycle watch: what changed for the coming application cycle at every college (test policy, early rounds, deadlines, fees, aid forms), in the college's own words, plus an opt-in brief.
  • Getting into the major: whether a college admits to the major or to the university, which programs admit directly, what it takes to get in after the first year, and whether a student can change in later.

The section's overview holds the research behind them, nine smaller additions proposed for existing plans (not yet applied), and a list of things considered and not added, with the reasons.

Behind the scenes

  • The roadmap registry gains an ideas group and an idea status; the roadmap page counts planned specs and ideas separately, and any group can now link to an overview page.
  • The roadmap test treats ideas as listed specs and adds a check that an entry's status, its group, and the spec's own status line agree. It was confirmed to fail when one idea was marked planned.