Plan Northwestern x salad.nu

Plan Northwestern Logo
salad.nu Logo

salad.nu joins Plan Northwestern

RELEASING NOVEMBER 1 2022

Together, Plan Northwestern, a 4 year course planning tool, and salad.nu, a quarter course scheduling tool, help thousands of Northwestern students every week plan out their Northwestern journey. To make the user experience for these tools even better, salad.nu will be merged with Plan Northwestern.

You can expect the new version to have everything you love about both tools, including the easiness of just navigating to the site and being able to see your plan or schedule and search for courses instantly. The experience will only get better. Below, you can find some of the new features.

This project is developed in partnership with Northwestern Computer Science, Northwestern's Office of the Registrar, and Northwestern IT.


Multiple schedules and devices

Thanks to Plan Northwestern's secure account system, you'll be able to save multiple schedules to your account, easily switch between them, and view them across different devices. Also, just like Plan Northwestern, the schedule data is saved in the URL, which you can save or share with others.

You can still use the site and access all of the course data without making an account.

Powerful search

Plan Northwestern will bring its powerful search functionality to scheduling. Here are some advanced search features you can choose to use as needed:

  • Filter by subject
  • Filter by meeting days and time frames
  • Filter by course components (lecture, discussion, etc.)
  • Filter by instructor
  • Filter by location
  • Search shortcuts ('cs' brings up 'COMP_SCI' courses, 'ea' brings up both 'GEN_ENG 205' and 'GEN_ENG 206', etc.)
You can mix and match filters and search with text while filters are active.

A crazy amount of course data

Thanks to our partnership with Northwestern's Office of the Registrar and Northwestern IT, Plan Northwestern has all of the class data right from CAESAR. For each class, you'll be able to view information like course descriptions, prerequisites, units, enrollment capacity, meeting dates and times, meeting locations, enrollment requirements, instructor information (name, campus address, office hours, etc.), and more. Course data will be automatically updated often to ensure that you always have the most up-to-date information.

Present and past schedules

New course information for the upcoming quarter will be available on the site right when it's released. Right when CAESAR gets it, you'll get it on Plan Northwestern, too. When this happens, your past schedules will still be available.

Better export options

You'll be able to export your schedule as an image at full resolution, regardless of the device you're on. No more need for manual screenshots! You'll also be able to export your schedule to your calendar app of choice, including Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.

Intuitive user interface

Easily return to your schedule instantly when you visit the site, and switch between your plan and your schedule as needed. Quickly find exactly what you need, drag and drop things, and more!

Seamless integration

Move courses between your plan and your schedule.

Built-in feedback submission

Share your feedback without even leaving the site. That includes bug reports, feature requests, and other general feedback.


If you'd like to talk about this more, share your ideas with me, or contribute to the project, feel free to get in touch by messaging me on Instagram. You can also message me on Discord at Dilan#1000 (you'll need to join the Northwestern Discord Server first). If you're interested, you can sign up to help beta test the software! You'll get access to early versions and will be tasked with using it and finding any bugs and glitches. Also, thanks to our automatic data refreshing system, this project can live on for years beyond my graduation.

I hope you're as excited for this as I am. It'll be an amazing update with a ton of cool things that make planning and scheduling at this school a lot more enjoyable and productive.

- Dilan Nair, McCormick class of 2024