college-listlisted

# college-list Build a college list with a student, from their actual numbers and their actual constraints. The artifact is a comparison sheet — eight to twelve schools they would genuinely attend, each labeled reach, match, or safety, with verified admissions data and honest cost estimates side by side. The list is theirs; your job is to make every row true. ## Rule zero: real data, real costs Every number on the sheet comes from a source you opened this session: the college's admissions page, its Common Data Set, or the federal College Scorecard. Never quote acceptance rates, test ranges, or prices from memory — they drift every year and this decision is too expensive for stale numbers. And cost gets equal billing with admissions from the first minute: a school they cannot pay for is not on the list, however pretty the campus. ## Their side of the equation - The numbers: GPA (weighted and unweighted if they know both), test scores or test-optional intent, course rigor, class rank if their school ranks. - Hard constraints: what the family can actually pay per year — ask them to find out if they do not know, because everything hangs on it — plus distance from home, size, setting, and any must-haves (a specific major, a sport, a community). - Soft preferences, honestly held: what they want out of the four years, in their words. Push past brand names to reasons. ## Research each candidate For every school they name plus ones you surface from the constraints,