# Waysmith

> Waysmith makes Waysmith Advisor, a personalized college search and list-building tool for students, parents and counselors. Its founder, Ringae Nuek, is an independent college counselor and product designer who also offers 1:1 college admissions counseling.

## Waysmith Advisor

Waysmith Advisor builds a balanced, fit-first college list. The student answers a guided interview about what they want from college and ranks what matters most. The list mixes reach, target and likely schools. Each school comes with the reason it made the list, its sticker price and what families at their income have paid after aid.

It covers 400+ four-year colleges, including the service academies. Its data comes from each college's Common Data Set, federal data (College Scorecard and IPEDS), colleges' own websites, and Waysmith's own research, such as door-to-door travel time from home and how walkable the town around campus is.

Waysmith Advisor is in private beta. To get on the list, sign up at waysmith.io/beta; Waysmith will be in touch when the beta opens up. It runs on the web, and the Waysmith Advisor connector brings the same college research into AI assistants: it works in Claude, Grok and Muse, and is being tested in ChatGPT.

- [Waysmith Advisor](https://waysmith.io/advisor): how it works, what's behind each school on a list, common questions
- [Where Waysmith's college data comes from](https://waysmith.io/college-data-sources): the public data, tools and school-by-school research behind each school, and how a list gets built
- [Join the private beta](https://waysmith.io/beta): get on the list for Waysmith Advisor

## 1:1 college counseling

- [1:1 College counseling](https://waysmith.io/services): the two ways to work with Ringae one-on-one
- [Comprehensive package](https://waysmith.io/comprehensive-package): freshman year through college decisions
- [10-hour package](https://waysmith.io/package-hourly): flexible hours for list review, course planning and applications
- [About Ringae Nuek](https://waysmith.io/about): background in design and user research, and how it shapes her counseling
- [Contact](https://waysmith.io/contact): book a free discovery call

## Writing and podcast

- [Blog](https://waysmith.io/blog): campus visit notes, college research methods and advice on building a list that fits
- [The Common Data Set: Your secret (research) weapon](https://waysmith.io/blog/how-to-use-the-common-data-set)
- [Yes, AI helped me build a great college list. Here's how.](https://waysmith.io/blog/yes-ai-helped-me-build-a-great-college-list)
- [Beyond rankings: Develop your own evaluation metrics](https://waysmith.io/blog/beyond-rankings-develop-your-own-metrics)
- [How available is it, really? Comparing your college finalists](https://waysmith.io/blog/how-available-is-it-really)
- [Do you need a college admissions consultant?](https://waysmith.io/blog/do-you-need-a-college-admissions-consultant)
- [Columbia, up close: The Core, the city, and a swim test](https://waysmith.io/blog/columbia-up-close)
- [Cooper Union: Engineering, small, and in the East Village](https://waysmith.io/blog/cooper-union-engineering)
- [Thinking about Penn? Notes from a Spring Break visit](https://waysmith.io/blog/thinking-about-penn-notes)
- [Northwestern University: Field notes from campus](https://waysmith.io/blog/northwestern-university)
- [Ways to College podcast](https://waysmith.io/podcast): conversations with higher-ed leaders who are doing things differently
  - [Doubles Your Odds: The Case for Work-Integrated Learning](https://waysmith.io/podcast-transcripts/brandon-busteed-work-integrated-learning): episode transcript, with Brandon Busteed (CEO, Edconic)
  - [Upside Down: Rethinking When Career Learning Starts](https://waysmith.io/podcast-transcripts/alex-hernandez-champlain-upside-down-curriculum): episode transcript, with Alex Hernandez (President, Champlain College)
  - [Co-Creating College with Students](https://waysmith.io/podcast-transcripts/tom-ellett-quinnipiac-co-creating-college): episode transcript, with Tom Ellett (Chief Experience Officer, Quinnipiac University)
  - [The Student Is the Only One Who Sees the Whole Journey](https://waysmith.io/podcast-transcripts/brian-leduc-student-experience): episode transcript, with Brian LeDuc (design strategist, Learning Designed)
  - [The Most Important Agent Is You](https://waysmith.io/podcast-transcripts/harlan-cohen-most-important-agent): episode transcript, with Harlan Cohen (author and founder, Best First Year)
  - [Designed Around the Student: Inside the Connected College](https://waysmith.io/podcast-transcripts/elliot-felix-connected-college): episode transcript, with Elliot Felix (higher education advisory lead, Buro Happold)
- [The Waysmith Dispatch](https://waysmith.io/#newsletter): Ringae's newsletter