Community College Matcher

Inspiration

Community college students often lack access to personalized college counseling, leading to poor program choices and higher dropout rates. We wanted to democratize educational guidance by creating an AI-powered platform that acts as a personal counselor for every student.

What it does

Community College Matcher provides personalized college and program recommendations for community college students. Users complete a comprehensive assessment covering academic interests, career goals, financial constraints, and geographic preferences. Currently, the platform validates basic survey inputs and provides a foundation for intelligent matching. The goal is to develop sophisticated AI that analyzes student profiles against college databases to generate tailored recommendations with detailed explanations.

The platform includes:

• Multi-step student assessment form
• Interactive map showing college locations
  
• Financial calculator for cost estimation
• Application tracker for managing deadlines
• AI chat interface powered by n8n integration

How we built it

We built a full-stack React/Next.js application using Tailwind CSS for styling. Our development process involved:

• Talking to sponsors to understand available tools and APIs
• Extensive research through Google and conversations with Claude AI
• Reading documentation for various integration options
• Setting up Apify for college data scraping (still working on the data pipeline)
• Implementing n8n for our chat functionality
• Creating mock data to build and test the user interface

The matching algorithm is currently basic but designed to scale into a sophisticated system that considers academic fit, geographic preferences, financial constraints, and personal circumstances.

Challenges we ran into

Our biggest challenge was navigating the overwhelming number of available tools and figuring out which ones to use and how to integrate them effectively. We spent significant time researching different approaches and trying to understand complex documentation.

Other major challenges included:

• Getting the Apify data scraping pipeline fully operational
• Understanding how to properly integrate various APIs and services
• Building a matching algorithm without complete real-world data
• Balancing feature ambition with development timeline constraints
• Learning new tools and technologies within the hackathon timeframe

Accomplishments that we're proud of

• Built a functional React application with multiple interactive components
• Created an intuitive multi-step assessment flow
• Successfully integrated n8n for chat functionality
• Developed the foundation for a sophisticated matching system
• Integrated mapping and financial calculation features
• Designed a user experience that guides students through complex decisions
• Successfully researched and planned integration with multiple external services

What we learned

This project taught us about the complexity of educational technology and the importance of thorough planning before diving into implementation. We learned about community college systems, student needs, and the challenges of building data-driven recommendation systems.

From a technical perspective, we gained experience with:

• React application architecture and state management
• n8n workflow automation and chat integration
• API research and integration planning
• Web scraping challenges and data pipeline design
• The importance of starting with clear tool selection criteria
• Balancing feature scope with development capacity

What's next for Community College Matcher

Our immediate goals include:

• Completing the Apify data scraping pipeline for real college data
• Implementing intelligent matching algorithms using the collected data
• Enhancing the n8n chat workflows for more sophisticated AI interactions
• Adding real financial aid calculations
• Testing with actual community college students
• Expanding the college database nationwide

We believe this platform has the potential to genuinely impact millions of students by providing them with the personalized educational guidance they deserve.

Built With

• apify
• claude
• n8n
• typescript
• vercel