Who
Davisville Labs is responsible for the final editorial decisions on Compass public guides. We write for high school students and families who need plain-language help before committing time, money, or identity to a path.
Editorial standards
Useful enough to trust. Clear enough to verify.
Compass is built to help students make better decisions, not to manufacture certainty. Here is how Davisville Labs researches majors, develops project guides, uses sources, handles AI-assisted drafting, and corrects public content.
Who, how, and why
How public Compass content is made.
How
Guides combine structured editorial research, authoritative reference systems, practical comparisons, original project design, and review for clarity. AI tools may assist research organization or drafting, but they do not replace editorial responsibility.
Why
The goal is to help a student leave with a better question, a clearer tradeoff, or a real next step. We do not publish pages simply to cover a keyword variation.
Major guides
What we treat as authoritative.
Major names and field classifications are anchored to recognized US education and labor reference systems. Career directions are examples, not promises. College-specific rules can change, so students should verify requirements with the institution itself.
- 1Official college sources
Current catalogs, department pages, admissions rules, prerequisite lists, accreditation information, and licensing requirements when a decision depends on them.
- 2Federal reference systems
NCES Classification of Instructional Programs, US Bureau of Labor Statistics resources, and O*NET for consistent field and career context.
- 3Professional authorities
Accrediting bodies, licensing boards, and professional associations when a field has specialized requirements.
- 4Compass editorial analysis
Plain-language explanations, tradeoffs, related paths, study patterns, and project connections designed to make the official information useful to a teenager.
Project guides
Projects are original starting points, not admissions theater.
Compass projects are designed around real work, visible outcomes, feedback, iteration, and reflection. A project is valuable because the student learns and makes something real, not because the title sounds impressive.
Real questionStarts with a problem or curiosity worth investigating.
Visible evidenceCreates an artifact, result, test, story, model, performance, or other proof of work.
Feedback loopEncourages testing with people, data, sources, or a real audience.
ReflectionPreserves what changed, failed, surprised, or mattered so the experience can be understood later.
AI policy
AI can help make content. It cannot be the reason content exists.
We may use AI for
- organizing research and drafts
- testing clarity and alternative wording
- structured quality checks
- coding and content-production assistance
We still require
- editorial responsibility for published claims
- source checking for facts that can change
- useful original analysis or structure
- clear separation between general guidance and official requirements
Updates
Fresh when freshness matters.
We update guides when the underlying information, product experience, or editorial analysis materially changes. A new date is not added simply to make a page appear fresh.
Corrections
See something wrong?
Program requirements, career rules, and terminology can change. If you find an error or a source that should be reconsidered, send it to Davisville Labs and include the page URL.
Send a correction →Decision support, not decision replacement.
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