After Faique Moqeet, an incoming senior studying philosophy and business at Northwestern, won over $90,000 in scholarships for his undergraduate education, he found himself giving a lot of high school seniors advice on how to write essays and what to highlight in an application.
Now he's built a startup centered around that casual advice.
This summer Moqeet, along with Northwestern journalism and marketing senior Kendra Mayer, launched Admit Hero, a platform for curated content on applying for scholarships, colleges, programs, and internships. The aim is to provide more transparency to admissions and applications, by highlighting the stories of real students who have found success in these endeavors. Though still in early stages, and focused more on the transition from high school to college, they hope to expand the model out to help students at all levels achieve their goals, whether that be starting a company or making the best of their high school experience.
Since the college admissions information space is pretty crowded, Moqeet and Mayer wanted to be sure they found a niche where they could build a viable product. Previously they floated the ideas of connecting students to counselors or creating a scholarship engine, but during a five week pilot this spring they found the real pain point for students was translating admissions requirements.
"[Students] know data is out there, but it doesn't help them on a personal level," said Mayer in regards to stats such as ACT requirements or GPA cut offs.
"You want to talk to someone who has done it and get their more personalized, insightful advice," added Moqeet.
Services like Unigo and Cappex offer too broad of an experience, while sites that provide more focused information such as College Confidential (a user generated admissions forum) aren't vetted for accuracy. Admit Hero falls between these extremes. The site includes profiles on exemplary students, such as Harold Ekeh who was admitted to all eight Ivy League universities, and advice, such as application tips from a student who was accepted to the elite Telluride Association Sophomore Seminar. Current stories include "Why your major doesn't matter," "You and athletic recruitment," and "Learn about DECA, the business club with 5000 chapters."
College student interns generate the content for Admit Hero. Right now they have seven content interns writing stories for the site, and they're recruiting more interns for the fall.
This summer the team worked out of The Garage at Northwestern, and next steps will be to grow their content base, launch a web app in spring 2016, and add a personalization feature where students can filter stories based on their interests. The aim is to make money through sponsored content and, once they gain more users, helping colleges connect with students. Though they just launched this summer, Mayer said their users are in the "hundreds" and page views are in the "thousands."
Beyond this growth, they one day hope to expand the site to cover advice for students at any stage of their education.
"We're admitting you to whatever your goals are," said Moqeet. "[We're] highlighting students who have done cool things and how you can do those things through…actionable guides."
