What you'll build
Extend one of your week's projects (or pick from the menu) into a polished, GitHub-published, README-having project you can show off.
Pick one of these
Or pitch your own. Custom proposals must be approved before the week begins.
- Option 1 — Scholarship finder & trackerStores scholarships. Adds, views, searches by country or degree level, sorts by deadline, marks application status. Bonus: load from CSV.
- Option 2 — Application budget plannerEstimates the cost of applying abroad — transcript, passport, tests, application fees, courier, visa, emergency buffer. Calculates total, average per application, and monthly savings to hit the deadline.
- Option 3 — Statement of purpose organizerA planning tool (not an AI writer) that organizes your academic background, research interest, target programs, career goals, achievements, and reasons for choosing each university — outputs a clean SOP outline.
- Option 4 — Referee email generatorDrafts polished emails: asking for recommendation letters, following up, thanking referees, contacting professors. User picks the type and fills in details. Bonus: save drafts to a file.
- Option 5 — Research data summary tool (extended)An extension of Mini-Project 3. Summary stats, filtered views, grouped summaries, and a written report file. Bonus: one matplotlib chart.
- Option 6 — Application progress dashboardTracks status of scholarship applications (submitted, pending, rejected, accepted). Summary counts, response rates, and warnings about upcoming deadlines.
- Option 7 — Propose your ownGot a clear idea tied to your field or workflow? Pitch it. Must be approved by the instructor before Week 4 begins.
Requirements
The must-do parts. If any are missing, we'll ask you to take another pass.
- Pick one of the seven capstone options below or pitch your own (must be approved before Week 4 begins).
- Lives in its own GitHub repo with a clear name.
- Has a README that explains: what it does, how to run it, one limitation, one thing you would add next.
- Code is split across at least two files (no single-file 400-line monolith).
- Includes a 3–5 minute demo recorded as a screen capture, or live on Demo Day.
Bonus, if you're feeling brave
- Write tests for your most important function.
- Add a simple
requirements.txtorpyproject.toml. - Use a public API or a real dataset you care about.
How we'll grade it
Four checks, four points. Three or above is passing — we'll ask you to revise anything we can't tick.
| Check | What we look for | Pt |
|---|---|---|
| It runs | I can clone and run it in under five minutes. | 1 |
| Solves a real problem | Has a clear user, a clear job, and a small but honest scope. | 1 |
| Communicates well | README is readable. Names are meaningful. Demo tells a story. | 1 |
| Reflection | You wrote one paragraph about what was hard and what you'd do differently. | 1 |