# DegreeDraft

> DegreeDraft is a free class-schedule builder for University of Colorado Boulder students. It uses real Faculty Course Questionnaire (FCQ) data, RateMyProfessor ratings, live seat availability, and automatic time-conflict detection to generate every valid schedule from the courses a student picks.

## What DegreeDraft Is

DegreeDraft is a browser-based scheduling tool that lets a CU Boulder student pick the classes they want and automatically generate every valid, conflict-free schedule combination. It pulls live section data from the CU Boulder registrar, merges in instructor ratings from two independent sources (the CU Boulder Faculty Course Questionnaire and RateMyProfessor), and surfaces per-course difficulty scores so students can balance workload.

The product is free to use, does not require an account for guest browsing, and covers the current CU Boulder course catalog across all ~54 academic departments. It is built by an independent developer and is not affiliated with the University of Colorado.

## Key Features

- Real-time course catalog with live seat availability for every section.
- Automatic time-conflict detection across all sections of all selected courses.
- Every valid schedule combination is generated — not just one suggestion.
- Instructor ratings merged from CU Boulder FCQ data and RateMyProfessor.
- Per-course difficulty scores derived from FCQ responses with Bayesian smoothing.
- Seat-open alerts (notification when a closed section reopens).
- Schedule sharing: students can share schedule links with peers; opt-in public sharing.
- Guest mode: full schedule-builder access without creating an account.

## How DegreeDraft Works

1. The student opens the schedule builder at /cu-boulder and searches for courses by code, name, or department.
2. For each course the student picks, DegreeDraft shows all currently offered sections, their instructors, meeting times, locations, and seat availability.
3. DegreeDraft enumerates every combination of one section per course and filters out any combination with a time conflict — showing only valid schedules.
4. The student can view conflict-free options side-by-side on a weekly calendar grid, sort by total credits or earliest start time, and save or share any schedule.

## FCQ Methodology

DegreeDraft ingests the CU Boulder Faculty Course Questionnaire (FCQ) data and computes per-instructor and per-course rollups. Raw FCQ subscores (teaching effectiveness, feedback quality, availability, course difficulty) are Bayesian-smoothed against the global mean to avoid noise from small sample sizes. Only instructors and courses with at least 10 FCQ responses are shown with a confidence-marked rating; lower-sample data is hidden. Difficulty percentiles are computed within the full CU Boulder course population.

RateMyProfessor (RMP) data is matched to CU Boulder instructors by name-normalized lookup, with a low-confidence flag for instructors who have fewer than 5 RMP ratings. The composite rating shown on DegreeDraft is a weighted blend of FCQ teaching score and RMP overall quality, favoring FCQ when sample sizes are comparable because it is source-gated to CU Boulder enrollees.

## Data Sources

- CU Boulder course catalog (registrar) — live section inventory, refreshed daily.
- CU Boulder Faculty Course Questionnaire (FCQ) — student-completed evaluations.
- RateMyProfessor — optional third-party rating signal.
- Opt-in publicly shared schedules — only shown in sitemap if the user has enabled public sharing.

## Privacy & Data Handling

DegreeDraft stores only the minimum data required to build and save schedules. Phone numbers (used for seat-open alerts) are encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM. Shared schedule links are opaque and do not expose user identity. Full details are at /privacy.

## Site Index

### About
- [Homepage](https://degreedraft.com/)
- [Privacy Policy](https://degreedraft.com/privacy)
- [Terms of Service](https://degreedraft.com/terms)

### CU Boulder
- [Courses](https://degreedraft.com/cu-boulder/courses)
- [Departments](https://degreedraft.com/cu-boulder/departments)
- [Professors](https://degreedraft.com/cu-boulder/professors)
- [Easiest Courses](https://degreedraft.com/cu-boulder/guides/easiest-courses)
- [Open Sections](https://degreedraft.com/cu-boulder/guides/open-sections)
- [How to Register](https://degreedraft.com/cu-boulder/guides/how-to-register)
- [Understanding FCQ Scores](https://degreedraft.com/cu-boulder/guides/understanding-fcq-scores)
- [Schedule Building Tips](https://degreedraft.com/cu-boulder/guides/schedule-building-tips)

### Data Feeds
- [Courses JSON](https://degreedraft.com/api/public/courses)
- [Professors JSON](https://degreedraft.com/api/public/professors)

### Optional
- [Sitemap Index](https://degreedraft.com/sitemap-index.xml)
- [robots.txt](https://degreedraft.com/robots.txt)
- [Concise llms.txt](https://degreedraft.com/llms.txt)