GradX

From confused to funded in one journey. GradX uses AI to help students find the right university, plan finances, and secure education loans — all in one platform.

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Inspiration

Every year, 500,000 Indian students dream of studying abroad but face the same overwhelming questions: Which country? Which university? Can I afford it? How do I get a loan? They spend months lost in conflicting advice, expensive consultants, and confusing bank processes. We built GradX to change that — one AI-powered journey from confused to funded.

What it does

GradX is an end-to-end AI study-abroad platform. It helps students:

  • Find the right university via AI Career Navigator (powered by Claude)
  • Plan finances with an ROI Calculator and EMI Scenario Planner
  • Write their SOP using our AI SOP Co-Pilot
  • Track their application with a personalized week-by-week timeline
  • Apply for education loans seamlessly with AI-guided application flow, OCR auto-fill, and DigiLocker integration
  • Stay motivated via gamification, streaks, and peer cohort communities

At the center is Shikha — a named, empathetic AI mentor available 24/7 who knows each student's profile and guides them through every step.

How we built it

  • Next.js for the frontend and API routes
  • Supabase for authentication and database
  • Groq API for ultra-fast AI inference
  • Claude (Anthropic) for reasoning, SOP generation, and mentor conversations
  • Vercel for deployment
  • n8n for autonomous workflow automation
  • DigiLocker API for verified document fetching
  • OCR for automatic document data extraction

Challenges we ran into

  • Balancing the loan nudge timing so it feels helpful, not salesy — solved via the internal Loan Readiness Score that only triggers CTAs above a threshold of 70
  • Making Shikha feel genuinely empathetic rather than robotic — solved through careful Claude prompt engineering with student context injection
  • Environment configuration and secure API key management across local and Vercel deployments

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  • Built a complete 19-feature platform in a hackathon timeframe
  • Shikha remembers student profiles across conversations and responds with real context
  • The Dynamic Loan Offer Engine — profile completion directly improves the loan rate shown, turning UX into a financial incentive
  • DigiLocker integration aligned with Poonawalla Fincorp's real March 2026 MoU

What we learned

  • Prompt engineering for empathetic AI personas requires as much care as the UI itself
  • Financial anxiety is the #1 drop-off point — transparency (ROI calculator, EMI planner) converts better than reassurance
  • Gamification works best when rewards are directly useful to the user, not generic points

What's next for GradX

  • Full n8n autonomous agent deployment for zero-human-intervention student lifecycle management
  • Expand to 50+ universities with real-time admission data
  • Partner with Poonawalla Fincorp for live loan disbursals
  • Launch peer cohort WhatsApp communities for Fall 2026 intake students
  • Mobile app (iOS + Android)

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