High School Planner

HSPlanner helps students & parents manage HS + college prep: plan 4-year courses (fit/rigor + weighted GPA), track colleges/deadlines, Common App activities, and notes for scholarships & essays.

Comment

Inspiration

High school planning is scattered across paper planners, spreadsheets, school portals, and random notes. I wanted one place that makes the “big picture” visible early, so students can balance course rigor and fit, stay organized, and build a clear academic story for college. I was also inspired by how confusing GPA can be when schools use different weighting and scales, and how Common App activities often become a last-minute scramble.

What it does

High School Planner (HSPlanner) helps students and parents manage high school and college prep in one simple dashboard: • Playground Mode: plan a full 4-year course path to see rigor, balance, and weighted impact. • GPA Mode: enter actual transcript grades to compute GPA consistently. • College List: track schools, deadlines, and decisions. • Activities & Honors: store entries in Common App format (10 activities, 5 honors). • Notes: a custom space to save scholarships, summer programs, essay ideas, recommenders, emails to send, and important deadlines.

How we built it

I designed HSPlanner by breaking the problem into modules that match how families actually plan: 1. course planning and GPA logic 2. college tracking 3. Common App-ready activities and honors 4. a flexible notes system for everything else

On the GPA side, the app supports weighted calculations and credit differences (1.0 vs 0.5). A typical weighted GPA calculation is a credit-weighted average, multiplying the grade points (or weighted points) and the course credit.

Challenges we ran into

• GPA complexity: different schools weight classes differently, and families are often comparing multiple systems (100-scale vs 4.0 scale, honors vs AP weighting, half-credit courses, summer courses).
• Good defaults: if the app looks empty on first load, users assume it is confusing. I had to design templates and defaults so the structure is instantly clear.
• Keeping it simple: the app needs enough structure to guide users, but enough flexibility so it still works for many school systems and student paths.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

• Built a 4-year planning mode that encourages thoughtful decisions about balance and rigor.
• Created a Common App-aligned Activities & Honors format so students can capture details as they go.
• Added a Notes section that acts like a “college-prep brain,” so ideas and deadlines do not get lost.
• Made the tool parent-friendly so families can collaborate without juggling multiple documents.

What we learned

• Users need clarity fast. A good onboarding experience and visible templates matter as much as features.
• GPA is not just a number, it is a system. Supporting multiple scales and credit rules is critical for trust.
• The best student tools reduce decision fatigue by turning chaos into a simple weekly habit.

What's next for High School Planner

• Improve onboarding with guided examples and smarter defaults.
• Add more flexible GPA settings (to match different district rules) while keeping the UI simple.
• Expand the college workflow with reminders, scholarship tracking, and exportable checklists.
• Continue collecting feedback from parents and students to prioritize the next features that deliver real value.

Built With

Share this project:

Updates