Unweighted is the one to reach for — a 4.0 scale with no extra points for honors or AP. If your school only reports the weighted number, give us that instead and the tool will work from a sensible estimate.

All optional — enter whichever you have, or leave blank to apply test-optional and let GPA and coursework carry it. If you enter more than one, the list is built on the strongest, since that's the score colleges will use. The PSAT only counts if it's all you've got.

Count what you'll have completed by graduation. AP and IB carry the most weight; honors courses count too, just less.

Public universities admit in-state and out-of-state applicants at very different rates. This helps the tool account for that.

Choose as many as you like, or leave it open.

Optional, and many families skip it. The regions above already shape the map; tap a state only if the list should stay inside certain lines, and tap again to let one go. The states shown follow the regions you chose.

Undergraduate enrollment. Choose more than one if you're not sure.

Pick any that appeal — a school counts if it matches at least one. "Research university" means a big, serious university with graduate programs and labs; the military option covers the federal academies and the corps-of-cadets colleges.

Some students want a campus where they'll know half the dining hall by October. Others want a city around them and the freedom to disappear into it. Both are legitimate — they just point at different schools.

These are different questions, so pick either or both. Wanting to play points one direction — smaller schools are where non-recruits actually get on the field. Wanting Saturdays in a packed stadium points another.

Pick up to three areas. "Not sure yet" is a perfectly good answer — most students change their minds anyway.

Even without a major in mind, most students know which classes they'd rather be in. This just tilts the list — it doesn't lock anything.

Up to five. Maybe a parent's alma mater, maybe a name that keeps coming up, maybe a campus you've already walked. They won't change the list the tool builds — they'll get their own section at the end, held to the same honest standard as everything else. Tap a school to remove it.

Five is the limit — this section is for the shortlist in your head, not a second list.

Families sometimes tiptoe around this question, so let's not. Almost nobody pays a college's sticker price — but the gap between sticker and what you'd actually pay varies enormously from school to school. Answering honestly doesn't hurt your chances anywhere; it just helps the list point toward schools where the math tends to work.

Rough household income. It's used to build this one list and nothing else — not stored, not attached to your name, not passed to anyone. What it buys you: instead of sticker prices, the results can show what families at your income typically pay at each school, which is usually a very different number.