Web landing page

🍖 Devpost Submission: College Compass

1. Project Name

College Compass

2. Reason for Making the Project (Inspiration/Problem Statement)

Inspiration: We built “College Compass” to make college discovery feel calm, human, and more personal. Our goal was to help students move beyond spreadsheets and rankings by matching them to schools based on vibe, size, location, and affordability, then extending that experience into community by showing the kinds of people they might connect with next.
Problem: Choosing a college can feel overwhelming, isolating, and overly academic. Most tools focus on rankings, acceptance rates, or generic search filters, but they do not help students answer a more personal question: "Will I actually belong there, and will I find my people there?"
Solution: Take a quiz to discover the school that will be best fit for you!

3. Project Description

College Compass College Compass is a college and social matching prototype built as a guided student journey.

How it works: Users start on a landing page, create an account or continue in demo mode, and take a short quiz about what they want in a college experience. Based on their answers, College Compass runs a deterministic matching flow and returns personalized college recommendations. Users can browse matches, search and filter them, save favorites, and view a short "counselor pitch" for why a school fits them.

After that, users select up to three schools they are most serious about. Those selections shape the next part of the experience: a friend-network prototype that surfaces potential peers, shared interests, and lightweight social posts.

The Experience:
- The Discovery: University Campus's and direct friends list catered to similar interests.
- The Connection:
Key Features:
- Smart Shaman Talk:
- Big Finger Pick: Filter for different University prestige and State.
- No Scrolling:

4. Tech Stack

Frontend: Next.js (New big box), React (Moving meat), TypeScript (Smart talk).
Styling: Custom CSS (Make cave look rich and dark).
Auth: Clerk (Guard of the cave entrance).
Backend: Node.js (Fire under the box).
Magic Spirit: Google Gemini (Talk to stars for school pitch).
Cloud: Vercel (Put cave wall on sky).