College Pilot

3 min read javascript, pwa, web

A data-driven PWA for narrowing a college list to one: a full campus-visit guide per school, a financial-aid estimator with divorced-parent handling, a side-by-side comparison table, and a Decision Board that turns tour-day ratings into a ranked shortlist.

Live site: https://pfeilbr.github.io/college-pilot/

Schools covered

  • University of Delaware (Newark, DE)
  • Penn State — University Park (State College, PA)
  • University of Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh, PA)
  • Rutgers University–New Brunswick (New Brunswick, NJ)
  • Ohio State University (Columbus, OH)
  • Michigan State University (East Lansing, MI)
  • Indiana University Bloomington (Bloomington, IN)
  • University of South Carolina (Columbia, SC)
  • UMass Amherst (Amherst, MA)
  • Fordham University (New York, NY)
  • Northeastern University (Boston, MA)
  • Tufts University (Medford/Somerville, MA)
  • Boston University (Boston, MA)

The five Big Ten / SEC business flagships (Rutgers, Ohio State, Michigan State, Indiana, South Carolina) were added as “likely” peers to the two the student favors — Penn State and Pitt — and are surfaced in a Recommended matches section on the hub.

Features

  • 🏠 Hub with school cards + a 13-metric comparison table
  • ⭐ Decision Board — per-school verdicts (shortlist/undecided/pass), 8-category star ratings, and visit notes, saved in localStorage and ranked on the hub
  • 💰 Aid Estimator — income brackets × FAFSA-only vs CSS-both-parents rules, net-price planning ranges sorted cheapest-first, PA grant portability notes
  • 📊 Per-school guides with identical sections for apples-to-apples comparison
  • 💼 Business-program deep-dives with hiring rates and salaries
  • 🗣️ Real student sentiment from archived Reddit threads, clearly labeled
  • 📱 Responsive PWA: home-screen install, offline support, in-app update button

Architecture (data-driven by design)

index.html        hub (Decision Board, Aid Estimator, cards, compare)
school.html       empty shell — renders any school from its data file
app.js            renderer + shared UI (drawer, ratings, spy, tooltips)
styles.css        the whole design system (per-school color via --sc)
data/<id>.js      one authored guide per school  ← add schools here
data/generated/   machine-fetched official stats  ← refresh via script
scripts/          deterministic data fetchers (no LLM needed)

Each data/<id>.js registers window.SCHOOLS['<id>'] with: identity/colors, hero stats, hub-card fields, contact links, and a sections array of {id, nav, kicker, title, lead, html} — the renderer builds the page and navigation from whatever sections exist, so schools can differ freely.

Adding a school

  1. Add its IPEDS UnitID to scripts/fetch_school_data.py (find IDs at nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator) and run the script — official stats land in data/generated/scorecard.json deterministically, no AI tokens needed.
  2. Copy an existing data/*.js as a template; fill in the editorial sections using the generated stats + the school’s official pages.
  3. Add the id to window.SCHOOL_ORDER (in data/delaware.js), add a <script> tag in both HTML files and sw.js’s asset list, and add a row to the Aid Estimator DATA array in index.html.

Refreshing stats (deterministic, free)

python3 scripts/fetch_school_data.py            # DEMO_KEY, rate-limited
API_KEY=... python3 scripts/fetch_school_data.py  # free key from api.data.gov

Pulls acceptance rate, SAT bands, enrollment, demographics, tuition, net price by income bracket, debt, graduation/retention, and 10-year earnings from the U.S. Dept. of Education College Scorecard API for every school in the list.

Feature roadmap (researched against Niche, BigFuture, Scoir, Corsava, CollegeVine, Naviance)

  • Weighted scoring matrix with sliders (re-rank live as priorities change)
  • Corsava-style preference card sort (Must Have / Nice / Don’t Care / No Way) that seeds the matrix weights
  • Reach/target/safety badges + Naviance-style scattergram from stored GPA/SAT vs. each school’s middle-50%
  • Head-to-head elimination rounds with recorded “why” lines
  • Visit-day journal with photos; student vs. parent dual gut-scores
  • Deadline countdown board; printable decision report export

Run locally

python3 -m http.server 8000
# open http://localhost:8000

Data compiled July 2026 from public sources (Common Data Sets, official admissions/aid pages, College Scorecard, U.S. News, Niche, Pullpush Reddit archive). Verify current figures with official sources before decisions.