Academic advising, indexed
Every answer traced back to the catalog.
ArcIndex reads a school's published catalog — degree requirements, course descriptions, prerequisites, the term timetable — and answers students in plain language. Each claim carries a citation that points at the school's own page.
- Catalogs indexed
- 4
- Claims carrying a citation
- 100%
- Answers from outside the catalog
- 0
- Catalog year
- 2026–2027
01 — The problem
The catalog already has the answer.
A degree audit, a prerequisite chain, a substitution rule — it is all written down, and it is all published. It is just spread over a few hundred pages that were laid out to be printed, not to be asked a question.
So students ask a person instead, and an advisor spends the meeting reading a PDF aloud. The hour that should have gone to the actual decision goes to lookup.
02 — Method
How it works
-
Step one
The catalog is indexed
Programs, requirements, courses, prerequisites and the term timetable are pulled from what the school publishes and built into one index per school. One folder, one build.
-
Step two
A student asks in plain language
“Can I take Organic Chem in the fall?” — not a course code, not a filter. The assistant reads the index the way an advisor reads the book, then answers.
-
Step three
The claim carries its source
Every requirement, every prerequisite, every credit count links back to the catalog page it came from, so the answer can be checked rather than trusted.
03 — Limits
What it will not tell you.
The index is the published catalog and nothing else. A tool that is honest about its edges is the only kind worth putting in front of a student.
-
Limit 01
It does not hold a student's transcript, holds, or registration status.
-
Limit 02
It does not know an exception an advisor granted in a meeting.
-
Limit 03
It does not register anyone, and cannot see seat counts in real time.
-
Limit 04
It does not replace the advisor of record, and says so when one is needed.
04 — Coverage
Catalogs indexed
Bring us one catalog. We will index it.
A school becomes a folder: its catalog, its colour, its year. Nothing about the interface changes, and nothing outside that folder is ever consulted for an answer.