Courses & Admissions

How it works

The mechanics of this kit, plainly — what runs and when, where the data lands, and what you look at.

• Admissions sweep runs mondays & thursdays · 7am and keeps the Your next step dashboard fresh. Mondays and Thursdays — reads what institutions and funding bodies emailed; moves each option on the evidence; warns a fortnight out.
• Decision brief runs daily · 8am. Daily, and silent until an answer is due — one card that lays the shortlist side by side and never chooses.
• What is captured lands in the Study options record, which lives at Data/Study Options in your vault — yours to open, search, and edit like any other file.
• What is captured lands in the Admissions log record, which lives at Data/Admissions Log in your vault — yours to open, search, and edit like any other file.
• What is captured lands in the Funding record, which lives at Data/Study Funding in your vault — yours to open, search, and edit like any other file.
• What is captured lands in the Where we got to record, which lives at Data/Admissions Intake in your vault — yours to open, search, and edit like any other file.
• The Your next step dashboard reads from the record and shows, at a glance: where you are · what's coming · the pipeline, by stage · options on the list · offers in hand · still to do · cost of the route in focus · funding awarded · the shortlist, side by side · funding in play · your options · how this board works.

The wiring, in one breath: Admissions consultation writes to Study options · Admissions consultation keeps its place in Where we got to · Option capture writes to Study options · Option capture logs into Admissions log · Option capture files into Funding · Application prep logs into Admissions log · Study options shown by Your next step · Admissions log shown by Your next step · Funding shown by Your next step · Your next step kept fresh by Admissions sweep · Your next step kept fresh by Decision brief · Admissions sweep run by Alder · Decision brief run by Alder · Alder holds Admissions consultation · Alder holds Option capture · Alder holds Application prep · Alder holds Options compared.

Getting the most from it

A kit earns its place when it changes what you look at and what you say, not when it is installed. This is the rhythm that makes it pay.

• Do the consultation before you do anything else — two or three areas a sitting is normal. It is where the routes adults are not told about come up (part-time, distance, apprenticeships, access courses, professional-body routes), and every fact lands with a source and a date.
• Say a move the way you'd say it to a friend — "applied to Northwind", "Aurora want an interview", "Bristol said no" — and Option capture moves the status. An open day, a deadline or a reference request is a sentence too, and it lands on the calendar.
• Read Your next step on Monday and Thursday mornings, after the Admissions sweep has run: Where you are is one sentence, Offers in hand carries the conditions and the reply date, and Still to do is the honest list.
• Before a deadline, ask Alder to "brief me on Northwind": what they actually ask for this cycle, sourced; what is outstanding; the interview's shape. Then ask for feedback on your own draft with the question beside it — and expect to be told where it is thin, never to have it written.
• When an offer needs an answer, the Decision brief arrives with the shortlist side by side against your own criteria. Ask Alder to "compare" earlier if you want the document sooner. Read The shortlist, side by side with its dates: a fee checked in March is a fee as of March.
• Keep it honest by correcting a status the moment it moves in your head rather than in your inbox — "I'm taking Northwind" — and by telling Alder the criteria that actually matter to you; they are what every comparison is drawn against.

Make it yours

Nothing here is fixed. The pieces are ordinary agents, routines, records and dashboards, so anything you know about shaping those applies. Retire whatever earns nothing.

Things people usually change first

Say any of these in chat, or edit them on the kit’s page in the app.

• What the study is for, and the constraints — money, time, place, people — which every route is weighed against.
• The criteria the comparison is drawn against, and which option is in focus for the cost figure.
• Whether the sweep reads your email and calendar at all, or the record is kept only from what you say.
• The Decision brief's lead time, or turning it off and keeping the twice-weekly sweep alone.

Your first run

Installing starts a short setup conversation — not a form. Answer roughly, correct later.

1. Installing ends with "Meet Alder" — a consultation, not a form. The whole territory is offered as tap-to-answer panels — where you are now, what the study is for, what you already hold, money, time, place, people, the routes, the shortlist — and you go deep only where you open an area. It keeps its place, so two or three areas a sitting is normal and you can come back weeks later.
2. Every fact about a course, a fee, a deadline or a funding scheme is looked up and written with its source and the date it was checked; nothing is recalled. What you already hold lands on the Qualifications register, the options worth keeping on the Study options register in your own words, and a scheme worth keeping on the Funding register.
3. Skip the consultation and the door quietly stays open: until every area is covered, the kit page, the board and Alder's chat keep the offer ready, with what is covered and what is still open.
4. On Mondays and Thursdays at seven the Admissions sweep reads what institutions, admissions services and funding bodies have emailed — and your calendar for open days and interviews — and asks for email and calendar access the first time it runs, never in the conversation. Its first run looks back a year, so applications you have already made are on the record that morning. Every day at eight the Decision brief checks whether an answer is due within a fortnight and does nothing unless one is. If the register is still empty when the sweep runs, it does nothing and invites you to the consultation instead.

Watch the first pass, then tell it what you would have done differently — that correction teaches it more than any setup could.

The essentials

Learning, preferences and run costs work the same in every kit — so they are covered once, in the Kits guide.

Living with a Kit — the Kits guide →

← All kits