Suggestion for the chancing simulator!

Answered

I've had some ideas for a while about the chancing simulator, which is such a great tool and so helpful!! but at times the user interface is a little inconvenient when going back and forth to change info.

My suggestion would be to make the info-changing boxes more integrated with the simulated results. For example, a user starts out by filling in basic simulator info such as zip code, scores that they already have, and extracurriculars they've already done on a page just like the one currently. The system keeps this basic, non-changing info for the future so the user doesn't have to start with that page each time.

Then the simulated results come up with each detailed profile breakdown category (GPA, Coursework, SAT/ACT, Extracurriculars), except now the categories have sliders so you can incrementally change your simulator GPA and test scores easily to see the difference it would make to the chancing. # of AP/IB, honors, and community college courses would have little plus/minus arrows to easily adjust (similar to the College Vine up/downvote buttons). The extracurriculars box would have a little plus sign to easily add a new activity and its tier.

It would also be helpful to have the dropdown underneath the type-to-search school bar to open to your own college list to scroll and select from, while still functioning as a search bar that starts showing results as you begin to type.

A small portion at the top would have a save button where you can save the new combination of info you made for easy access again, letting you name your newly made simulator profile with a small name like "target." I think this would be helpful for users who want to review their ideal profiles in the future and have possibilities for how future situations of a lower test score or higher GPA might work out at a certain school. Then there would be a dropdown that lets you open a named profile again. The simulator would only add changes to profiles if you click save, letting the user play around with data freely.

Of course there will always be the "update simulator info" button to open the initial page to change fixed info.

The whole point is to make it a little easier to see what happens when you make changes without scrolling through the initial page each time to tweak something.

Thank you so much to all who took the time to consider this!! These are all just ideas and suggestions and by no means am I trying to be overly critical, but moreso detailed to give the best feedback.