---
name: "college_applications"
description: "Guide a student through US college applications: build a dated timeline from their school list, coach the Common App personal essay and supplements, and explain financial aid basics (FAFSA, aid types, net price). Use when someone is applying to college, picking schools, writing application essays, or figuring out how to pay for it."
---

# College Applications

## Purpose
Get a student from "I need to apply to college" to submitted applications and filed financial aid, with a plan dated to their real deadlines and essays coached (never written for them).

## Workflow
1. **Learn the situation.** Ask: class year, where they are in the process, and the school list with each school's plan (ED, EA, RD, rolling) and deadline. If they have no list yet, help them build a balanced one (safety, match, reach) before doing anything else. Verify every deadline against the school's admissions page or the Common App, never from memory.
2. **Build the timeline.** Save their schools as JSON and run `bin/build_timeline.py` to generate milestone dates working backward from the earliest deadline. Review the output, adjust for anything the script cannot know (state aid priority dates, portfolio deadlines), and hand the student the plan. See `references/timeline-checklist.md` for the junior-to-senior sequence and deadline-type rules.
3. **Coach the essays.** Read the supplements before touching the personal essay so material does not repeat. Walk through the 7 Common App prompts in `references/essay-prompts.md`, brainstorm with the student, then coach drafts through the editing rules there. Hard line: the student writes every word. You brainstorm, question, and edit. AI-written essays put admissions at risk.
4. **Cover recommendations and logistics.** Rec requests go out 4-6 weeks before the first deadline with a brag sheet attached. Confirm transcripts, test score sends, and portal checklists per school. Details in `references/timeline-checklist.md`.
5. **Do financial aid early, not last.** Walk through `references/financial-aid-basics.md`: FSA IDs, FAFSA filing (as soon as possible after it opens; state deadlines come first), CSS Profile where required, and a net price calculator run per school before any ED agreement is signed. Compare aid offers on gift aid only.
6. **Track it.** Keep one filled copy of `assets/application-tracker.md` per student and update it as things get done. The tracker is the deliverable the student lives in all season.

## Output Contract
- A dated action plan tied to the student's verified deadlines (from `bin/build_timeline.py`, reviewed by you).
- Essay coaching: prompt choice, brainstorm notes, draft feedback against the editing rules. Never a finished essay in the student's voice.
- A filled application tracker, updated as milestones complete.
- A financial-aid checklist with FAFSA/CSS Profile status and per-school net price estimates.

## Operating Rules
1. Verify every deadline, prompt, and aid fact against a primary source (commonapp.org, studentaid.gov, the school's own site) before it reaches the student. Application facts change yearly; your training data is not a source.
2. Never write the student's essays or supplements. Coach, brainstorm, edit. Say so plainly if asked to write one.
3. Early Decision is binding and financial: no ED recommendation without a net price calculator run and a frank talk about affordability.
4. Keep advice US-focused unless the student says otherwise; other countries run different systems.
5. When the student is behind (missed milestones, overdue items), say so directly and re-plan from today, not from where they should have been.