Roadmap
What's coming next
Every planned feature starts as a written spec: the question it answers, where the data comes from, how it will appear on the site, and what's still open. Plans change as the research does, so treat these as working documents, not promises. The Ideas section holds directions that aren't planned yet.
23
specs planned · 7 ideas
How complexity is rated
- Small6 specs
- A few fields from a source we already read, shown in one or two places.
- Medium11 specs
- A new source file or a new profile section, with filters and history.
- Large11 specs
- New shared infrastructure or a new kind of view, used by later work.
- Extra large2 specs
- A new system with its own pipeline, checks, and a pilot before launch.
Admission chances, next
Quad's estimate on a five-step scale (High reach to Safe), a selectivity tier for every college with Elite at the top, plainer words for who you're compared with, and what you did outside the numbers: courses in sequence, activities kept up for years, awards, work, legacy, and recruiting.
- Medium
Quad's Selectivity: One Number per College, Five Tiers, Elite at the Top
One word for how hard each college is to get into, from Elite to Open, read from what it publishes: its admit rate for your state, its admitted students' scores and grades, yield, how much of the class it fills early, its ten-year direction, and how much it says it reads; shown on the profile with its inputs, and used to cap the estimate.
- Small
Applicants Like You: Saying Who the Student Is Compared With
"Applicants like you — from Indiana — were admitted at 71%": the estimate says who you're compared with and what would change it, with a panel listing every rate the college publishes for your situation; the word "pool" leaves the site.
- Large
Five Levels: High Reach, Reach, Target, Likely, Safe
Five levels instead of three: High reach, Reach, Target, Likely, Safe. A top student sees an Elite college as a Reach and a C student as a High reach; the list orders itself closest first; a High-reach Dream no longer starts in early decision; the balance line asks for two Likely or Safe colleges.
After: Quad's Selectivity: One Number per College, Five Tiers, Elite at the Top, Applicants Like You: Saying Who the Student Is Compared With
- Medium
Depth: Years and Progression in a Few Things, Not a List of Many
Years and progression in a few things, not a list of many: your courses read as tracks by subject against your intended major, and an activities list read by years, role, and recognition in your top two; each with a suggestion, and counted only at colleges that say they read it.
After: Five Levels: High Reach, Reach, Target, Likely, Safe
- Medium
Inputs Beyond the Numbers: Class Standing, Awards, Work, Legacy, Recruiting, Interest
A few more facts a student can answer in a minute, each used only where the college says it counts: where you stand in your class, awards, work hours, a legacy toggle and a recruited-athlete pick per college, interest you've shown; and the rewritten commitment that goes with them.
After: Five Levels: High Reach, Reach, Target, Likely, Safe
Planning tools
Where your numbers stand, what your family would pay, and whether applying early helps; the planner builds on all three.
- Large
Chances and Fit: Where You Stand
Where your numbers stand at each college, with the reasons spelled out and never a made-up percentage.
- Large
Net Price Estimator: What This Family Would Pay
What your family would likely pay at each college, as a range with its reasoning, and over four years.
- Medium
Early Decision and Early Action: Does Applying Early Help?
Early decision and early action admit rates against regular decision, how much of the class is filled early, and a checklist before you commit.
- Medium
Common App: Deadlines, Requirements, and Application Trends (Requirements Grid, Explore pages, research reports)
Deadlines, fees, essays, recommendations, and this cycle's test policy for the thousand colleges that take the Common App, plus how the application season is going nationally months before federal data, once Common App agrees to the use.
High school context
A record for every high school, and what happened to applicants from yours, so national ranges get local context.
Platform, measurement, and business
Usage measurement that respects minors, paid tiers that keep public data free, counselor accounts, and a developer API.
- Large
Commercialization: Free, Plus, and Pro
Free, Plus, and Pro: what each includes, how billing works, and a pricing page, with the public data always free.
- Extra large
Counselor Portal: Quad for Counselors
Organization accounts for counselors and consultants: a caseload dashboard, co-branded reports, and scattergram uploads.
After: Commercialization: Free, Plus, and Pro
- Medium
Data API: The Dataset, History, and Lineage for Developers
A keyed API and bulk downloads for the dataset, its history, and the lineage of every field.
- Large
Admin Console: People, Hidden Values, Data Health, and Operations
A console for the site's owner: find and fix any account or household, see the values the site computes but never shows, see which colleges have fresh data and which the pipeline keeps failing on, and start reruns or approve data changes without opening GitHub.
- Medium
Manual Collection: Documents a Person Has to Fetch
An inventory of public documents our crawlers can't read (sites that block automated reading), prioritized and paced, worked through in a supervised browser session that feeds the same extractors.
Native apps
Quad as an iPhone app with everything the site does: a screen API computed by the same code as the pages, a native SwiftUI app that never computes a number itself, and a page-by-page parity map.
- Large
App API: Screen Documents for the iPhone App
Every screen of the site as JSON for the iPhone app, computed by the same code as the pages, with a citation on every value.
- Extra large
The iPhone App
A native iPhone app with everything the site does: the same charts, words, and citations, plus Face ID sign-in, offline reading, and share links that open the site.
After: App API: Screen Documents for the iPhone App
- Large
iPhone App: Screen-by-Screen Parity Map
The page-by-page map of what each part of the site becomes in the app, so nothing the site does is left out.
After: App API: Screen Documents for the iPhone App, The iPhone App
Ideas
Not yet planned: fresh directions from research into competing sites and guide-and-advisor sites in other fields, each written up far enough to judge. An idea becomes a plan when its data is verified and it gets a place in the build order.
Read the ideas overview: the research and the smaller additions proposed for existing specs- Medium
Guides: Common Questions Answered as Living ListsIdea
Common questions answered as living lists ("where merit aid is the norm", "four years means four"): each a published query with its criteria shown, recomputed with every data release.
- Small
Cost to a DegreeIdea
What a degree costs here, not one year of it: the four-year plan beside the typical time to finish, and the debt of those who leave without one.
Source: IPEDS OM + prices
- Large
Near and Far: The Map, Distance From Home, and the Cost of Getting ThereIdea
A map view with drive-time rings, nearest airports, what getting home costs, and the colleges on your list grouped into visit trips. The home address, Explore's distance filter, and distance on lists are already built (specs/product/home-and-distance.md).
Source: IPEDS HD + Census
- Small
Worst Plausible Spring: A Stress Test for the List, Not a GradeIdea
If every Reach says no: what your list leaves you with, what it would cost, and what's missing, as facts rather than a grade.
- Medium
Colleges That Would Compete for YouIdea
Colleges where your numbers sit above the admitted range, merit awards without need are routine, and demand has softened, with the reasons.
After: Chances and Fit: Where You Stand
- Medium
Cycle Watch: What Changed for the Coming Application CycleIdea
What changed for the coming application cycle at every college: test policy, early rounds, deadlines, fees, and aid forms, each in the college's own words.
- Large
Getting Into the Major: Direct Admission, Secondary Admission, and Changing InIdea
Whether a college admits to the major or to the university, which programs admit directly, what it takes to get in after year one, and whether you can change in later.
Later
Worked out, then set aside: each is parked until another feature needs it, and gets built alongside that feature.
- Small
Metro AreaDeferred
Each college's metro area and county, for a "nearby colleges" list, a metro filter, and metro-level trends.
Source: IPEDS HD
- Medium
Campus Life: Sources We Couldn't ReadDeferred
More campus-life sources once we can read them: national chapter directories now rendered only by JavaScript, pages sitting behind a login or bot challenge, and facts only the organization itself can give us.
- Large
Campus Life: Reading Colleges' Own Pages Accurately Enough to Run EverywhereDeferred
Reading every college's own fraternity, faith, and LGBTQ+ pages accurately enough to show the results everywhere, not just at the 75 colleges we tested.
- Small
"Known for: Big Greek life"
Colleges where fraternity and sorority life is a big part of campus get a "Known for: Big Greek life" tag, now that 102 colleges report it.
- Small
Identity Follow-ups: A Monthly Refresh, Older Icon Formats, and the Visit-Page Picker RunDeferred
Find the campus visit page for the 492 colleges whose admissions page doesn't name one plainly, with one small paid run of a picker that's already built.