Templates for College Students.

A curated set of 11 spreadsheets — and the guides that go with them — for the four-year arc most families muddle through twice. Score the schools you applied to, weight the offers honestly, pack the dorm without ten Target trips, sign the first lease, and land the internship before senior year ends.

From application essays to first lease, in one toolset

College planning is a five-year project that families treat like a series of one-off panics. The acceptance calculator and search tool cover junior and senior year of high school; the decision helper comes off the shelf the week the acceptance letters land; the dorm checklist saves the August scramble; the first-apartment checklist and apartment search tool come out junior year; the job search and applicant tracker arrive senior fall. Same family, same workbook format, five years of decisions in one place.

The reading list below covers the parts most college guides skip — the real cost of a year at school in 2026, how the acceptance-week choice actually plays out, and what to do if graduation arrives without a job offer in hand.