Description as a Tweet:

This app aims to help high school seniors/future transfer students connect with current college students so that they can have a better understanding of prospective colleges as they undergo the application and decision process.

Inspiration:

When I was in my senior year of high school, I wanted to reach out to college students at my prospective colleges so I could get a really honest idea of what college life at each university was like. But it always felt awkward to do it on Instagram and walking up to random students during campus visits was also pretty intimidating. So I thought a platform that specifically bridges high school seniors and college students could be helpful!

What it does:

It begins by asking the student what colleges they're looking at, what major they are interested in, if there are any clubs they hope to join, and what topics they want to discuss. If one is signing up as a mentor or buddy, the app asks them where they go to school, what major they are, what hobbies they have, and what they're comfortable discussing. The app then gives the student a list of buddies they could be compatible with and the student can reach out to whichever one(s) they want. Buddies also have ratings that are visible to the student and depend on how good they are at answering the students' questions. There is an incentive for the buddies - the higher of a 5-star rating you maintain, the more rewards you can get. Rewards consist of coupons to local college-town stores and restaurants that have paired with Campus Buddy.

How we built it:

So far I've only really used Figma to put together a functioning prototype of what it would look like but in the future I would use Swift to turn it into a true app.

Technologies we used:

• HTML/CSS
• Misc

Challenges we ran into:

Creating the searching and filtering algorithms, as well as the messaging part of the app.

Accomplishments we're proud of:

I'm proud that I was able to come up with an idea that is unlike existing apps and addresses a problem I, and people I know, have faced.

What we've learned:

I learned a lot about UX and UI and how to position and design facets of an app best.

What's next:

Integrating the Figma prototype with backend code.

Built with:

Figma

Prizes we're going for:

• Best User Experience / Product Design Hack

Uma Purani

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