Grades 9 to 12
Students choosing
What to do with the years before applying, how to build a shortlist, and how to read the price a college really charges.
The student publication · from Snow AI
College is a choice. Make it on purpose.
For high schoolers and the college-bound: choosing a college, the pitfalls once you’re there, and being ready for the real world after it. Free to read, with nothing collected about you.
Where are you now?
Before · Stop 1 of 6Know why
Find out what you like doing before anyone asks what you want to study.
Do this now
Ticks stay on this page only.
FoundryBefore
Before · Know why
Why are you going? One sentence before any college list
A college list made before the reason is a list of places, not a plan.
The Foundry deskExample
- 1Write why you’re going, and what you want at the end
- 2If you can’t yet, that’s information, not failure
- 3Use your summers to find out what you like doing
Next stop: ChooseBuild a shortlist on fit and on what graduates do next, not on the tour.
What Foundry covers
Choosing a collegeNet pricenot sticker pricePitfallsand the way roundChoosing a majorA first budgetInternships and first jobsA first leaseEvery routecollege, trade, work
Who it’s for
Most people go to college not knowing what they want. Foundry is for before that happens.
Years 1 to 4
Students already there
Choosing a major without guessing, a budget that lasts the term, and leaving with something you can show.
Reading alongside
Parents and counselors
The same pieces, written plainly enough to read together at the kitchen table, with nothing to sign up for.
3sections: before college, during it and after it
6stops on the route, each with what to read and what to do
0accounts needed to read
0things collected about readers
The sections
Before, during and after. One publication for the whole road.
The first pieces planned for each section. The headlines are examples while they are written.
01 · BeforeIn build
Choosing a college
Why you’re going, the shortlist, the visit and the price a family really pays.
- Why are you going? One sentence before any college listExample · the place to start in grade 9 or 10
- Net price: the only cost that mattersExample · with the offer-letter tool below
- What to ask on a campus visitExample · the questions the tour won’t answer
02 · DuringIn build
The pitfalls
The problems students run into once they’re there, and the way round each one.
- Choosing a major without guessingExample · undecided is fine; drifting isn’t
- A first budget that survives OctoberExample · rent, food and the things nobody lists
- The first credit card: how to make it helpExample · one card, paid in full
03 · AfterIn build
Ready for the real world
The first job, the first paycheck, the first lease and the first repayment date.
- Your first paycheck: where the money wentExample · gross pay, net pay and why they differ
- Reading your first job offerExample · salary, benefits and the start date
- Loan repayment: the date and the planExample · know it before it arrives
More sections will follow as Foundry grows. Each piece is general education, not advice for one student’s situation.
In build · a working example
Read an offer letter
The pitfall nobody explains: a loan isn’t a discount.
An aid offer can add grants, loans and work-study into one “total aid” figure. Only grants and scholarships lower the price. The rest you pay back or work for.
Two invented offers are filled in. Switch between how the letter reads and how Foundry reads it, then change any number.
Grants and scholarships: gifts, never repaidLoans, yours or a parent’s: repaid with interestWork-study: pay for a job you still have to doThe rest of the cost: paid by the family
Read it…
College AExample
The letter’s “total aid”$20,000
Net price, one year$20,000Cost minus grants and scholarships onlyBorrowed over four years if every year is the same: $22,000, before interest
College BExample
The letter’s “total aid”$53,500
Net price, one year$30,000Cost minus grants and scholarships onlyBorrowed over four years if every year is the same: $78,000, before interest
Counting only gifts, College A costs $10,000 a year less. College A would mean borrowing $22,000 over four years; College B, $78,000.
Example offers with invented numbers. Every college’s offer looks different; read your own line by line.
Pitfalls
Six ways students get lost, and the way round each.
Turn a card over for the way round. The full pieces are being written for the During section.
Pitfall 1
Going because everyone else is.
The plan is the crowd’s, so it ends where theirs does.
Pitfall 2
Choosing by the campus tour.
A good day on a lawn says little about the next four years.
Pitfall 3
Reading “total aid” as the price.
Loans in the total make an expensive offer look cheap.
Pitfall 4
Leaving the major for later.
Year three arrives with credits that don’t add up.
Pitfall 5
The first credit card.
A limit is easy to mistake for money you have.
Pitfall 6
A summer with nothing in it.
The first interview asks what you’ve done.
In build · through Snow AI Ask
Ask Foundry
Ask it the question you didn’t want to ask out loud.
Answers come only from Foundry’s own pieces, with the piece named, so you can read the rest. Here it answers from the six example articles on this page.
Please leave out your name and anything personal.
Try
For parents and counselors
Safe to hand to a fourteen-year-old.
Some readers may be younger than thirteen, so Foundry is built to collect nothing about anyone who reads it until parental consent is in place.
No account to read
Every piece opens without signing up. Sign-in is only for people who already use Snow AI.
Nothing collected
No analytics and no profile of a reader. That holds until parental consent is settled, as children’s privacy law requires.
Education, not advice
Pieces explain how things work in general. A student’s own decision belongs with their family and counselor.
Every route counts
Community college, a trade or a year of work, chosen on purpose, is a good outcome too. Foundry says so.
What’s included
Free to read. Nothing to buy.
Foundry is a publication, not a product to subscribe to. The tools inside it come from the Snow AI family, and an account that already has them uses the same ones.
Reading Foundry
For any student, parent or counselor. No account, no sign-up.
FreeProposalNot final until it’s set
- Every piece in all three sections
- The route and the offer-letter tool
- Ask Foundry, from Foundry’s pieces
Foundry beside your other apps
For a family or a counselor’s office that already uses Snow AI. Nothing extra is charged for Foundry.
IncludedProposalNot final until it’s set
- Everything in Reading Foundry
- The Ask your account already has, counted once
- Model, if your account has it, for your own numbers
Where the saving isFoundry’s Ask is Snow AI Ask, the same one in every Snow AI app. Bought one by one, a capability is its own subscription. Inside a Snow AI account it is held once, whichever product brought it, and its use is pooled across the account.
What’s included where
| Capability | Reading Foundry | With a Snow AI account |
|---|---|---|
| Every piece, all three sectionsIn build · the first pieces are being written | Free | Included |
| The route: where to startIn build | Free | Included |
| The offer-letter toolIn build | Free | Included |
| Ask FoundryIn build · through Snow AI Ask | Free, from Foundry’s pieces | The Ask your account already has, usage pooled |
| Your own numbers in ModelSnow AI Model, its own product | Not included | If your account has Model |
| Snow AI sign-inReady today | Not needed to read | One login for every app on the account |
| Later, in both | Video lessons with a transcriptRead aloudMore sectionsA reader poll | |
A Snow AI customer never pays for the same thing twice. If your account already has Ask or Model through another Snow AI product, Foundry uses it and nothing is charged again.
Part of Snow AI
One of Snow AI’s publications. Each for a different stage.
The same sign-in, the same look and the same care with facts.
Playbook
Business and health, explained for people who run their own. For later, if you start something.
Open Playbook →Metis
Dedicated to women and open to everyone: career, academics and health.
About Metis →Byline
Where the family’s articles are written and published, under the writer’s own name.
About Byline →Model
Income, expenses and the levers that change the outcome, side by side. Try your own numbers.
Open Model →Questions
Asked before the first day.
Something else? Write to support and a person will answer.
Can I read Foundry today?
Not yet. The first pieces are being written for the three sections. This page shows how Foundry will read, with example articles and invented numbers.
Do I need an account?
No. Every piece is meant to open without signing up. Sign-in is there for people who already use Snow AI’s other apps.
What does Foundry collect about me?
Nothing. Some readers are under thirteen, and US children’s privacy law (COPPA) asks for a parent’s consent before anything is collected about them, analytics included. Until that is in place, Foundry collects nothing about any reader.
Is it only about going to college?
It’s about choosing on purpose. Most pieces are about choosing a college, getting through it well and what comes after. A different route chosen on purpose, such as community college, a trade or a year of work, is treated as a good outcome too.
Is this advice for my situation?
No. Foundry explains how things work in general. For a decision about your own offer, money or plans, talk it through with your family, your school counselor and the college’s financial aid office.
Where does Foundry’s information come from?
From the Foundry desk. Where a piece draws on something published elsewhere, it is summarised in our own words with a link to the original, never copied.
How much does it cost?
The proposal is that reading is free. No figure is final until it’s set. A Snow AI customer never pays for the same thing twice: what an account already has through another Snow AI product is not charged again.
Know the road before you’re on it.
Foundry’s first pieces are being written. Until they’re out, the route and the offer-letter tool above show how it will work.