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For many, the whole idea of grad school is just "I'm interested in AI / economics" — but an interest is not a direction. Leave it too vague, pick one with no advisor and beyond your reach, and you only learn you took the wrong path at outreach or interview, when it's too late. We match your background and that one line of interest to the professors who really work on it, narrow it to a few concrete directions, and add each one's representative work — so where to head, whose door to knock on, and what to pursue all sit in one place.
"Interested in AI" is a field, not a direction. A direction can be compressed to one sentence: which phenomenon, from what angle, answering what. The field is your starting point; the direction is the spot your professor search and plan can stand on.
A direction is "which kind of question you tackle"; a topic is "which single paper you write." Fixating on one topic at the outset narrows your view and makes a matching advisor hard to find. Pin the direction first; the topic you can refine with your professor once you're in the lab.
However good a direction, if no professor at your target schools works on it, you have fewer places to investigate. Faculty supply — how many people appear in which graduate schools — is one planning signal, not a prediction of admission.
Whether you can see it through also depends on having mature research methods (DID / PSM / OLS and the like) and data you can obtain. A direction with passion but no method or data is just a slogan. Every direction in the report names its common methods, so it stays grounded.
Directions come as reach, match, and safety. Can your undergrad major and groundwork support this direction's entry bar — is the gap "a few courses" or "nearly a different path"? See it clearly before you charge in on enthusiasm alone.
Out of reach doesn't mean out of bounds — knowing where the gap is, is the key. Crossing majors is the same: map out whether the new direction credits your old background and how much you must add. The report names the prerequisite courses and groundwork common to that direction, so you can fill them on a plan.
Consult while keeping the main form in viewNothing writes to profile, applications, CRM, or timeline before confirmation
Consultation state and proposals belong to your account. You will return to this same tool after signing in.
Set your target degree and undergraduate major first. If you already have a specific idea, add a line about it.
Auto-filled from your profile if available (editable). Type to search; if nothing matches, just enter your major directly.
Undergrad major is empty: the diagnosis still runs, but direction candidates and professor matching get noticeably less accurate.
If you already have a topic in mind, a place you'd like to work, or a regional preference, add it here. Leave blank if unsure.