Colleges use AI to filter applicants. I just gave students AI to choose colleges. Open-source AI college & career planning pipeline.
Student-Ops turns any AI coding CLI into a full college & career planning command center. Instead of juggling spreadsheets, essay drafts, and deadline calendars, you get an AI-powered pipeline that:
- Evaluates universities with structured 10-dimension scoring (academic fit, financial fit, admissions odds, career outcomes, culture, location, and more)
- Calibrates reach/match/safety using real stats from Common Data Sets — not hype
- Drafts essays in YOUR voice — Common App personal statement, supplementals, scholarship essays, activity descriptions
- Analyzes financial aid packages — net price, debt projection, appeal potential
- Hunts scholarships — effort-to-odds scoring, eligibility matching
- Tracks everything — unified tracker for universities, scholarships, internships, and jobs
- Manages deadlines — FAFSA, Common App, scholarship deadlines all in one dashboard
- Researches career paths — "if I study X, what opens up?"
- Evaluates internships — for undergrads optimizing summer plans
It's the sister project to career-ops — adapted from landing the right job to choosing the right path.
This is NOT an admissions consultant selling you on schools. Student-ops is a filter — it helps you find the few fits worth your time. The system discourages low-fit applications and flags financially untenable aid packages. Your time is valuable, and so is the admissions officer's.
- High schoolers applying to college — score schools, draft essays, find scholarships, compare aid packages
- Undergrads planning internships, transfers, or grad school
- Recent grads navigating the first job hunt or grad school decision
- Parents helping their student stay organized (though the student should drive)
- Counselors overwhelmed by caseloads — student-ops can't replace you, but it can handle the grunt work
git clone https://github.com/santifer/student-ops.git
cd student-ops
npm installclaude .On first run, Claude will walk you through:
- Stage — high school, undergrad, or recent grad?
- Academics — GPA, test scores, coursework
- Goals — target fields, dream schools, what excites you
- Constraints — financial budget, geography, deal-breakers
This populates config/profile.yml — your single source of truth.
Paste a school URL or name:
"Evaluate MIT for me"
Or use slash commands:
/student-ops university— score a school/student-ops essay— draft or refine essays/student-ops scholarship— evaluate a scholarship/student-ops financial— analyze an aid letter/student-ops deadline— see what's due/student-ops tracker— status of all applications/student-ops compare— side-by-side comparison/student-ops— menu
10-block evaluation (A–J):
| Block | Dimension |
|---|---|
| A | School profile summary |
| B | Academic fit |
| C | Admissions fit (reach/match/safety) |
| D | Financial fit |
| E | Career outcomes |
| F | Campus culture |
| G | Location |
| H | Program depth (internships, research, study abroad) |
| I | Growth opportunities |
| J | Gut fit |
Produces a weighted score, reach/match/safety classification, and a report in reports/.
Handles every kind of college essay:
- Common App personal statement (brainstorm → outline → draft → voice pass → cut)
- "Why [School]?" supplementals
- "Why this major?"
- Activity descriptions (150 chars)
- Community / diversity essays
- Scholarship essays
Rules:
- Never fabricates claims
- Preserves student voice (not Claude's)
- Flags clichés ruthlessly
- Multiple drafts — no one-shot finals
- Parses aid letters (grants, loans, work-study, scholarships)
- Calculates true net price and 4-year cost
- Projects debt + monthly payments vs. realistic starting salary
- Drafts appeal letters when there's leverage
- Compares multiple packages side-by-side
- Eligibility match against profile
- Fit score
- Effort-to-odds ratio (so you don't waste hours on low-probability awards)
- Priority recommendation (High / Medium / Low / Skip)
internship · career-path · compare · deadline · tracker · apply · scan · batch · pipeline
User Layer (NEVER auto-updated — your stuff):
config/profile.ymlmodes/_profile.mdessays/,reports/,aid-letters/,data/,portals.yml
System Layer (auto-updatable — student-ops stuff):
CLAUDE.md,modes/_shared.md, other mode files- Scripts, templates
When you customize scoring weights, archetypes, narrative, or preferences, Claude writes to modes/_profile.md — so system updates never overwrite your work.
This system is designed for self-discovery and fit. It will:
✅ Help you find schools that genuinely match your goals and budget ✅ Draft essays in your voice, from your real experiences ✅ Tell you when a school is financially untenable ✅ Calibrate admissions odds honestly (no "safety school" inflation) ✅ Discourage the shotgun approach (20+ reaches)
It will NOT:
❌ Submit applications for you (you review and submit) ❌ Fabricate achievements or experiences ❌ Pretend your 1200 SAT is competitive for a 5% admit rate school ❌ Encourage debt you can't service ❌ Write essays that misrepresent who you are
student-ops/
├── CLAUDE.md # System brain
├── config/
│ ├── profile.example.yml
│ └── profile.yml # Your data
├── modes/
│ ├── _shared.md # Shared system context
│ ├── _profile.md # Your customizations
│ ├── university.md # Core eval mode
│ ├── essay.md # Essay assistant
│ ├── scholarship.md
│ ├── financial.md
│ ├── internship.md
│ ├── career-path.md
│ ├── compare.md
│ ├── deadline.md
│ ├── tracker.md
│ ├── apply.md
│ ├── scan.md
│ ├── pipeline.md
│ └── batch.md
├── templates/
│ ├── states.yml
│ └── portals.example.yml
├── data/
│ ├── applications.md # Master tracker
│ ├── pipeline.md # Inbox
│ └── scan-history.tsv
├── reports/ # Evaluation reports
├── essays/ # Essay drafts
├── aid-letters/ # Financial aid docs
├── output/ # Generated PDFs
├── scan.mjs # Portal scanner
├── merge-tracker.mjs # Tracker merge
├── verify-pipeline.mjs # Data integrity
└── update-system.mjs # Version check
- Node.js 18+
- Claude Code (or any compatible AI coding CLI)
- Playwright (installed via
npm install) — for verifying school pages - Optional: College Scorecard API key (free from data.gov) for university scanning
PRs welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md and CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md.
Common contributions:
- New mode templates (e.g., gap year evaluation, grad school mode)
- Translations (
modes/es/,modes/fr/, etc.) - Portal scanners for specific regions
- Scoring calibration data
MIT. See LICENSE.
Built on the architectural patterns of career-ops by @santifer.
If student-ops helps you get into your dream school or land your first internship — tell us. Issues and stories welcome.