AwardScope

Inspiration

Many BC post-secondary students struggle to find scholarships and bursaries that they’re actually eligible for. AwardScope was inspired by the need for a centralized, easy-to-use tool that matches students with relevant financial aid to save them time and increase their chances of receiving support.

What it does

AwardScope helps students discover scholarships, bursaries, and other financial aid opportunities tailored to their profile. By collecting academic, demographic, financial, and affiliation information, it provides a ranked list of awards categorized as Perfect Match, Good Match, or Partial Match. Each award includes detailed eligibility criteria, documentation requirements, deadlines, and direct links to official sources. Additionally, the app provides personalized advice on how to achieve your goals based on your profile.

How we built it

Frontend:

React 18 with TypeScript
Vite (build tool)
Tailwind CSS (styling)
Axios (HTTP client)
Framer Motion (Animation) Backend:
Node.js
Express.js
MongoDB
Gemini API
Render
Docker
CORS enabled for frontend communication

Challenges we ran into

While we were able to resolve all the issues we faced, we spent quite a lot of time on these issues:

Migrating our initial local database into MongoDB
Resolving bugs in our backend caused by our matching algorithm

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We're really proud of:

Our incorporation of AI tools to provide personalized advice and essay ideas
Our sleek, user-friendly, mobile-friendly UI
Making a tool that we'd personally find useful!

What we learned

The ins and outs of React and Tailwind CSS
Using Docker for containerization
Virtual deployment

What's next for AwardScope

Future possibilities include:

Adding more awards from external sources (provincial, federal, private organizations)
Implementing user accounts to save profiles and track applications
Adding email notifications for application deadlines
Including ML-based recommendations based on similar successful applicants
Creating an admin panel for updating award database
Adding PDF export of eligible awards