Build a college tracker and practice an interview. Follow Carla's demonstration, pause to make your own attempt, and compare your check with the result.
Already in college? Apply these activities to a transfer program, scholarship, internship, or next step you are considering.
Your activity / Right here
Bring a notebook. Begin below.
The activity is included on this page. Work on paper or in your own document; keep your first attempt and the evidence you checked.
AI Lab: Mock Interviewer and Deadline Tracker
Use only an AI tool your instructor approves and that allows users your age. Check its minimum age and parent-permission rules first; an adult's permission cannot override an 18+ limit. Follow your school's rules, and do not share personal information. About 30 minutes.
In this lab, AI has two jobs: deadline tracker and mock interviewer. It never writes your essay.
Part A: Deadline tracker
1. Choose two real colleges or programs you are curious about. Naming a college is fine. Your own name, school, and grades are not.
2. Use Carla's Five Step prompt to build a tracker for those two schools. Tell the AI to leave every date blank.
3. Ask: "What questions should I ask each college's admission office?" Keep the three best.
Part B: Mock interviewer
4. Use this prompt: "Act as a friendly college interviewer. Ask me one question at a time and wait for my answer. After each answer, tell me one thing that was clear and one place I could add a specific example. Do not write answers for me. Stop after five questions."
5. Answer out loud first, then type a short version. Use stories from your memory map.
6. Write down the one piece of feedback you will use.
Verify
7. For each college, open its official admission website. Fill in each deadline yourself and write the date you checked it. If the AI and the website disagree, the website wins.
8. Look for each college's AI policy for applications. Copy one sentence of it in its exact words. If you cannot find one, write "No AI policy found on [date]" and ask your counselor what to follow.
Record your AI use: which tool you used, what you asked, what you kept, and what you changed after verifying.
Own It
No AI. About 20 minutes.
1. Copy your verified tracker into your planner or notebook, in your own words.
2. Pick one story from your memory map. Write its first paragraph by hand, with no AI and no editing tools.
3. Finish this sentence: "The part of my application that must stay mine is ______ because ______."
Your verified tracker and your story bank together are this chapter's portfolio piece: your college plan tracker and story bank.
Context File Upgrade
Add this section to my_context.md:
## My College Plan
- My goal after high school:
- Kinds of schools or programs I am exploring:
- My next three deadlines (checked on official sites):
- My AI may: help me organize, track deadlines, and ask me practice questions.
- My AI may not: write any part of my essays or applications.
- Before I use AI on any application, I read that college's AI policy.
Goals and deadlines only. Do not add your full name, school, grades, test scores, addresses, application logins, or family financial information.
Skeptic's Corner: Rules, Claims, and Stories
These statements are exercises to classify and check. Do not assume every statement is true.
Label each statement: Fact, Idea, Rob's Story, Made-Up Example, Rule, or Prediction.
1. "Brown permits applicants to use AI for spelling and grammar review."
2. "Admission offices can detect every AI written essay." (A claim you might see online.)
3. "Mike films his grandmother cooking on Sundays."
4. "Your essay should sound like you on a good day."
5. "The FAFSA for the 2027 to 2028 school year was announced as available on September 23, 2026."
6. "By 2030, every college will require essays written in person." (A claim you might see online.)
Read the video transcript
Read along, pause, or return to an idea. This transcript follows the selected lesson video.
I'm Carla, an AI avatar.
Before we open the AI, what do I want?
Two things: a college plan I can trust,
and interview practice I can use.
So today AI gets two jobs: tracker and mock interviewer.
And two jobs it never gets: picking my colleges,
or writing my essay.
Step one of Dr. Q's Five Steps, Role.
You are a college planning assistant.
You help me organize.
You do not make decisions for me.
Do not do anything yet.
Step two, Objective.
My goal is a twelve month tracker for researching colleges
and meeting deadlines.
Confirm and wait.
Step three, Context.
I'm a high school junior exploring a public university,
a small private college, and a community college transfer program.
Notice what I left out: my name,
my school, my grades.
The AI doesn't need them to build a table.
Step four, Task Instructions.
Make a table with columns for Task,
Why it matters, Where to verify,
Target date, and Status.
Leave every date blank and write "verify on official site."
Do not write any essay content.
Here's the tracker.
Research, visits, essays, recommendation letters,
the FAFSA, scholarships.
Useful.
And every date is blank, which is exactly what I asked for.
Step five, Audit the AI Output.
Walk me through where each task came from.
Which tasks might not apply to every college?
Good.
It flagged that requirements differ from college to college.
That's my cue to check each one myself.
Now the part the AI can't do.
I open each college's official admission website and type
the real deadline myself.
Then I write the date I checked it.
If the AI and the website ever disagree,
the website wins.
I also copy each college's AI policy into my notes,
in its exact words.
Brown and Caltech don't have the same rules,
so I don't guess.
And if a college's page says nothing about AI?
Silence isn't permission.
I ask the admission office or my counselor.
If one essay goes to several colleges,
I follow the strictest rule among them.
Job two: a mock interview.
Watch the limits I put in this prompt.
Act as a friendly college interviewer.
Ask me one question at a time and wait for my answer.
After each answer, tell me one thing that was clear and
one place I could add a specific example.
Do not write answers for me.
Stop after five questions.
For this demo, I'm answering as a made-up student.
I answer out loud before I type anything:
teaching my little brother to ride a bike,
and how he taught me patience.
The feedback: the story is clear,
and I could add one specific moment.
Fair.
Notice what it didn't do.
It didn't write me a better answer.
That's the rule working.
Second question: why this college?
My first answer is vague, and the feedback says so.
So I go back to the college's own website,
not the AI, and find two real details I care about.
Then I answer again, out loud.
One more tip.
Practice with a real person too.
A teacher or counselor will notice things an AI can't,
like when I rush because I'm nervous.
Last step, every time: record my AI use.
Which tool, what I asked, what I kept,
and what I changed after checking.
The AI made a plan.
Now it's my plan.
Your turn.
Open the AI Lab, build your tracker,
and practice five questions out loud.
Before you use an AI tool
Follow your course or institution's rules. Use an instructor-approved tool that permits your age, and meet any required consent conditions. Keep names, contact details, school records, and other private information out of prompts. Use fictional examples when you can.
Learning without an AI account
Follow the demonstration, pause before each answer, and do the reasoning on paper. Discuss what you would ask, how you would check it, and which decisions would remain yours.
About the characters and voices
This course uses AI-created characters and synthetic voices. Carla is an AI avatar. They help tell the story; they are not real students sharing testimonials.
Designed for high-school and community-college learners. Choose examples from your classes, work, and everyday life. Keep your completed work in your course portfolio.
