About
Curricula are graphs. We drew the map.
CourseTrees turns a university's course catalog into one interactive graph. Every course is a node and every prerequisite is an edge, so students can see what unlocks what, trace the shortest path to any course, and plan their way through college as a living map instead of a list of boxes to check off. It covers 152 universities today.
Our team
Two Brown students who think curricula should be explorable.
Noah Finkelstein (he/him)
Co-founder & CEO
I'm a full-stack developer and a junior at Brown, Class of 2028, studying Math–CS and Physics. I'm a bit of a math geek and I love modeling information visually, so this website was super fun to build! I enjoy reading, chess, hiking, astronomy, old movies, and creating cool programming projects!
- Hometown
- Newton, MA
- I couldn’t live without...
- Thayer Street (shoutout East Side Pockets!)
- Favorite college course so far
- Foundations of AI and Machine Learning
Rohan Vittal (he/him)
Co-founder & CFO
I'm a junior at Brown, Class of 2028, from New Jersey (the greatest state!!) studying APMA–CS. I have experience in both front-end and back-end web development for academic, professional, and personal projects. I enjoy quiz bowl, chess, speedcubing, playing badminton, and wandering around campus.
- Hometown
- East Windsor, NJ
- I couldn't live without...
- The Ratty
- Favorite college course so far
- Computer Systems :)
How it works
For the full walkthrough with animated explainers, see How it works.
Every course is a dot, and every prerequisite is a line connecting one course to another. Put all of them together and a catalog stops being a long list. It becomes a map you can actually see and move through.
What unlocks what. Some courses open the door to many others. We follow the lines forward from each course to count everything it eventually leads to, then rank courses by that number. The result is the Gateways list: the courses that give you the most options later on.
Finding your way. Pick any course and we trace a short chain of prerequisites that leads to it. Ask for a full plan and we sort those prerequisites into terms, so each term only contains courses whose prerequisites come earlier. It's an exploratory guide through the prerequisite graph, not official advice, so always confirm with the catalog and your advisor.
Reading the map. The graph arranges itself: related courses drift together and the busiest parts of the catalog stay in view. Colors group courses by area (science, life sciences, social sciences, and humanities) so the map reads like a set of neighborhoods you can recognize at a glance.
Accessibility
We want CourseTrees to be usable by everyone, on any device. We aim to follow the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1 AA): the interface is keyboard navigable, works with screen readers, uses high-contrast text chosen for long, low-fatigue reading, respects your system's reduced-motion setting, and scales cleanly from phones to large displays. The dense graph is paired with an accessible, text-based course list so the same information is available without relying on the visual map.
Languages. CourseTrees is available in 9 languages, switchable from the language picker on the Explore map. We're adding more. If you want your language supported (or spot a translation we can improve), just email us and we'll prioritize it.
Accessibility is never “done.” If you hit a barrier using CourseTrees (with a screen reader, keyboard, magnifier, or anything else), please tell us at coursetrees@gmail.com and we'll work to fix it.
Ethics & sourcing
CourseTrees is independent and student-built, not affiliated with or endorsed by any university. It is free to explore, and optional paid plans may be offered in the future; CourseTrees will never sell data or paywall public catalog data. Public course catalogs are the foundation of CourseTrees. Where available, we also show published grade distributions, student-reported grade distributions from course-feedback surveys labeled “Student-reported,” and public ratings and community feedback. Browsing requires no account. Students can create an optional account to post; the account data we store is described in our privacy notice. Catalogs are read by automated tools, and every course page has a way to report a mistake. The site is built and reviewed by the founders, with AI-assisted engineering under direct human supervision. It is a study aid, not an advising tool, so always confirm requirements with your registrar before you register.
Get in touch
Questions, ideas, partnerships, or want CourseTrees at your university? We'd love to hear from you. The ingestion pipeline can plug into any school with a public catalog.
Spot a mistake? Catalogs are messy and parsers are imperfect. If a course title, prerequisite, or offering looks wrong, email coursetrees@gmail.com or use the Report an issue button inside any course detail panel. Both reach the same inbox.
152 universities, one map
CourseTrees includes 152 schools, all gathered from public sources. Coverage varies by school: some have a full prerequisite graph and years of offering history, while others currently have only the course catalog. Each school shows what data is available as you explore it. If you'd like us to add your university or notice any incorrect information about your school, please don't hesitate to reach out!