Quad

The Planner, Redesigned: Numbers First, Less on the Screen, a Calendar for Parents

Overview of the planner redesign (not a work item itself). Written 2026-10-09 from the owner's review of the built planner (The Planner: From the First List to the Deposit, built 2026-10-08 as PR #103), feedback from students who tried it, and new research. Each part below is a separate work item on the roadmap. A clickable preview with a sample family over real college records was at /plan/preview during review; it was deleted 2026-10-11 once the owner approved the build.

Why

The planner is meant to be the site's main selling point: it takes everything Quad has collected about colleges and uses it to get a family organized. The first build did the work but showed too much of it. What the owner and the students who tried it said (2026-10-09):

  1. It's buried. The plan sits under the profile menu → Household → a person → the Plan tab. It should be a top-level link with the same weight as Explore.
  2. It's too much information. A student shown the Rounds stage said "this thing is stressing me out." That stage had a ranking list, then a table per college with every round, dates, the early-round advantage, the share of the class filled early, demonstrated interest, standing, money, a three-question checklist for binding rounds, and a conflict list. What the plan actually needs from the student is which round they're considering, and the screen before it (the Dream) already gives a starting point: a Dream that offers ED should start as ED.
  3. Force-ranking the list was universally hated, and isn't needed. The Dream says what the ranking was for.
  4. Start with the student's numbers and use them to fill in Reach / Target / Likely. Let the student change any of it, but don't make them do the sorting.
  5. SAT and ACT are crowding things out. Students take one test and work to raise it. Ask which one, say where the score stands at each college, encourage a retake only when a realistic gain would move a college up a group, and show the test dates when they're wanted.
  6. Parents want a schedule: a calendar or timeline, color-coded, that pops, with an easy switch between children.

Research (2026-10-09)

  • What the leading tools ask first. Naviance, Scoir, CollegeVine, Niche, and Cialfo all start from an academic snapshot (GPA and one test score; Scoir falls back to the PSAT), then the list, then a round per college, then deadlines. Every one classifies automatically. Scoir is the clearest about letting the student or counselor override a label, and it shows which labels are automatic. Common App's "My Colleges" asks for each college's admission plan (ED, EA, REA, RD) when the college is added, one question per college, no ranking. Nobody asks for a ranked list.
  • Counselor rules for the groups. A score below the 25th percentile of enrolled students is a reach, inside the middle 50% a target, above the 75th likely (Compass Prep, College Transitions). A low admit rate caps the group for everyone; the cutoff varies (15%, 20% at CollegeVine, 25% in some guides), and Quad's Chances and Fit: Where You Stand already uses 20%. Balance: BigFuture's minimum is 3 / 2 / 1; CollegeVine 2–3 reach, 4–5 target, 2–3 likely; counselors commonly say 8–12 colleges with at least two likely colleges the student would happily attend.
  • Stress. Princeton Review's College Hopes & Worries survey: 73% of applicants and parents reported high or very high stress in both 2025 and 2026 (56% in 2003). The top 2026 worry was cost (37%), ahead of admission (29%). No peer-reviewed study measures anxiety from chancing tools, but admissions officers warn of "false hopes and undue dismay." Nielsen Norman's progressive disclosure: put the few things most people need on the first screen and move the rest one step away. Harvard's Making Caring Common ("Turning the Tide") asks colleges and families to reduce achievement pressure. Kaplan's survey of admissions officers: parents are most helpful with deadlines, visits, and aid paperwork.
  • One test, retaken. Older data put the share taking both tests at roughly a quarter; most take one. ACT: 57% of retesters raise their composite, typically by about a point (2 among those who improve, in Tennessee's 2024 senior retest); ACT says students take it two to three times on average. SAT: secondary sources put the average retake gain at about 40–60 points (no primary College Board figure found). Most colleges superscore. The 2018 ACT/SAT concordance (about 589,000 students who took both) maps one test onto the other; no update exists yet for the digital SAT or the enhanced ACT.
  • Early rounds. Nov 1 is the most common early deadline, then Nov 15; ED II is usually due Jan 1 or Jan 15 and answers in mid-February. One ED at a time; REA rules out early rounds at other private colleges. Counselors say ED is for a clear first choice and only after the family has run the net price calculator, since the only release from ED is aid that makes attending impossible. An antitrust suit over ED (D'Amico v. COFHE) survived dismissal in August 2026, so ED rules may change in later cycles.
  • Parents and several children. Naviance has a "Switch Child" menu, PowerSchool puts each child's name as a tab in the header, and Scoir links one parent account to several students. Spreadsheet and Notion trackers families build themselves color rows by days remaining and add a calendar view. What's missing everywhere is one calendar across children.

Design principles

  1. One question per screen, and we answer the rest. The student gives three numbers and marks a Dream; the site fills in groups and rounds, marked as suggestions, each changeable with one tap.
  2. The list is the plan. One row per college: Dream, group, round, deadline. Everything else (reasons, admit rates, early-round statistics, interest) is one tap away or stays on the college's profile.
  3. Say it when it matters, then stop. A conflict, a retake suggestion, an ED II idea: each appears only when it is true and actionable, as one sentence with one button.
  4. Encourage, don't grade. "In or above the middle 50% at 6 of 8 colleges" before anything else. No probabilities, no "behind," no red for being a Reach.
  5. Parents see time. The parent's default view is a calendar across their children; the list is one tab away.
  6. Same rules everywhere. The groups, rounds, and suggestions come from pure functions (lib/planner/standing.ts, lib/planner/auto-rounds.ts) that the Plan page, the hub, the iPhone API, and the preview all call.

The parts

Part Spec What changes Complexity
1 page.md Plan in the top navigation; /plan for students and parents; three tabs (Colleges, Scores, Calendar) replace the six-stage strip; the child switcher Medium
2 standing.md Numbers first: GPA plus one test; the standing model that sorts the list automatically, with the student's own choice kept Medium
3 list.md The list as the plan: Dream, group, round, deadline per row; reasons behind ⓘ; the balance line; the ranking removed Small
4 rounds.md Starting rounds from the Dream; no ranking, no proposal table, no checklist; one-line conflicts; ED II as an offer; the cost check as a parent task Medium
5 scores.md Where the score stands, send or don't, and a retake suggestion only when a realistic gain moves a college up, with the test dates that land in time Medium
6 calendar.md The family calendar: a color-coded timeline of the school year per child or for everyone, "Coming up" as a list, calendar feed and print Medium
7 intake.md Intake guide (2026-10-11 design): grades, test, AP courses, review in four steps, saved once; replaces the first-time setup. Groups become Quad's only (no override) Medium

What stays, what goes

Built in PR #103 In the redesign
The six-stage strip (List, Rounds, Actions, Timeline, Apply, Offers) Gone. Three tabs: Colleges, Scores, Calendar (Scores dropped 2026-10-12, scores.md). The stage machine (stage.ts) stays as internal state for the hub caption, reminders, and which tab opens
Stage 1 list with suggested category beside the student's chip The suggestion is the group until the student changes it (standing.md)
PriorityList (rank the list) and list_items.priority Gone from the UI; the column is left unused, then dropped in a later migration
RoundsTable, the proposal, bindingChecklist, "Use this plan" Gone. A round chip per row, started from the Dream (rounds.md); lists.rounds_plan_accepted_at no longer read
Early-round advantage, class filled early, interest per college Off the plan; on the college's profile (Early Decision and Early Action: Does Applying Early Help?)
SAT/ACT dates as tasks for everyone with plans_tests Only for the student's own test, and only while testing or when a retake would help (scores.md)
Actions stage (follow, request information, visits) A section in each college's row drawer ("Show interest"), not a stage
Applications stage The row's status chip once the season starts, plus the drawer's requirements
Offers stage A fourth tab, Offers, that appears when the first decision is recorded
Timeline month and college views Replaced by the calendar (calendar.md); the generated tasks, cycle file, calendar feed, and reminders all stay
Parents: summary line, nudges, Your part, stuck signals, weekly email All stay; the summary line moves into the child switcher, and Your part reads from the calendar's money and parent lanes

Build order

standing ──► list ──► rounds ──► scores
    │                   │
page (nav, /plan, tabs, switcher) ──► calendar

standing first: the numbers form and the model are what every other part reads. page can go in parallel (it is mostly routing and the frame). The list and rounds are small once standing exists. Scores needs the model's "score to move up". The calendar needs rounds (its bars follow the chosen round) and the page's switcher. Build with the build-roadmap-section skill, one unit per part.

Shared rules

In addition to the planner's shared rules:

  • A suggestion is labeled as one (a ✦ on the chip) until the student changes it; once changed, it is theirs and a later change of numbers never overwrites it. "Use the suggestion" puts it back. Changed 2026-10-11: this now applies to rounds only; groups are Quad's alone, with no override (intake.md).
  • No admit rates, percentages, or statistics on the plan's first screen. The college's profile is where those live; the plan links to it.
  • Every date still names its source and edition (ⓘ on each date), and a test date links to the official page.
  • One test per student in the plan. A student who has both scores picks the one they're working on; the other stays in their numbers but isn't used.
  • Nothing here is a verdict: groups are a classification with published rules, the retake suggestion says how many points and which colleges, never "you should."

Owner decisions (2026-10-10)

The owner reviewed the spec and the preview and accepted every recommendation, including the three put to them:

  1. Phone tab bar: Explore, Search, Plan, Compare, More; Home is the logo (page.md).
  2. Signed-out Plan: /plan signed out is a short pitch plus the numbers step; a visitor can enter numbers and add colleges (kept in the browser like the signed-out profile today) and is asked to sign up to save, share with a parent, and get reminders (page.md).
  3. Retake threshold: suggest another test when 60 SAT points or 2 ACT points would move a college up a group (scores.md).

The recommendations in each part's open questions stand as decided too, unless a build finds a reason to raise one again.