April is here, so it’s that time of year when younguns everywhere are forced to zero in on a college that will hopefully be the right mix of exciting and enlightening. If you want to take your research any further than Googling: “Best party schools in the country,” you may want to look at Schoold; investors certainly have been, recently injecting $4.5 million into the business.
Schoold (available on Android and iOS) wants to help students make informed decision while searching for colleges, applying to them, and picking majors. Additionally, the app assists users with ways to finance their higher education, provides career advice, and aggregates tons of other information useful to those going through the often bewildering college admission process. Essentially, Schoold wants to be your counselor, college search tool, and financial adviser all in one.
The app is well-designed and easy to navigate. To make information and suggestions as personalized as possible, users are encouraged to create a profile (it’s possible to use the app without making a profile or signing in). The app factors in information in the profile such as academic history – including ACT and SAT scores – and personal information such as parental income and student debts. This information allows for tailored college recommendations for each applicant.
The app’s home page contains a feed of “trending” schools. The list can be culled down based on parameters like each school’s relevance to preferences, odds of being admitted, and distance from current location. Dedicated pages for each college include a cost estimate for a degree – broken down by tuition fee, room and board costs, etc. – and median starting salary for graduates.
Possibly the most helpful feature of Schoold is the ‘Ask an Expert’ tab, where students can ask experts questions on anything that has to do with college admissions. Questions that have already been answered can be viewed by other users. Topics such as scholarships, guidelines for international students, and improving standardized test scores have been covered so far.
Schoold launched only about a month ago – great timing considering April-May tends to be a crucial period for college applicants in the USA. The smart timing of the launch is borne out by the results: the app managed to gain 500K users in just 30 days, helping it become the top app in the ‘Top New Free Education’ category on Google Play in India. Schoold has gained the attention of investors as a result of its meteoric rise.
With help from Lorne Abony, Fast Forward Investments, and private investors, Schoold has managed to raise $4.5 million, an impressive feat for such a young service. CEO Sourabh Ahuja has stated that the funds will be used to further build Schoold into the go-to college-search resource for both students and parents.
