Horizon

Inspiration

The college application process has become an overwhelming "arms race." We noticed that students often feel lost without expensive private counselors—uncertain if their course loads are rigorous enough or if their extracurriculars tell a cohesive story. We built Horizon to democratize elite college prep, giving every student a personal roadmap to their dreams.

What it does

Horizon functions as a platform: Timeline and goals: An interactive multi-year scheduler where students track GPA, course rigor, and milestones. The AI Counselor: A specialized assistant that analyzes a student's profile to suggest summer programs, volunteer opportunities, and tailored college lists based on their unique interests. College match: Unlocked senior year for students applying to colleges. Given past data in their account, the algorithm presents suggestions for colleges and things they can discuss in their personal essay to get ideas going.

How we built it

We first started by thinking about what we would want in our lives. As a first-generation college student, I resonated with the difficulty in applying to schools like Princeton, not having the resources that some high schools provide. With that as a foundation, we wanted to use AI to make lives both easier and more accessible to students without the access given by their school. Then we went through details and made the UI clearer, established features, and changed the system to be like an unlock college apps game.

Challenges we ran into

Our biggest hurdle was data normalization. Every high school uses different grading scales (4.0, 5.0, or 100-point systems), and each college has different but also similar expectations, making it hard to create an algorithm for a perfect match. Additionally, there were two individuals who didn’t have GitHub, so the setup took way longer than expected because we had mainly beginners.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are incredibly proud of our algorithm. It doesn't just tell you what you’re doing wrong; it suggests specific pivots. We thought back to what we needed during the college application process, especially for first-generation low-income students who don’t have access to college counselors. We wanted something that encouraged students but was also realistic in helping them navigate both high school and college applications.

What we learned

We learned that building for education requires a high degree of empathy. An AI can't just be a calculator; at times, it talked like a robot with no emotion. However, students who use this website might be confused, stressed, and concerned, and we realized it's much harder to make AI talk encouragingly without human input to do so.

What's next for Horizon

We plan to integrate a "Financial Aid Forecaster" to help students understand the real cost of attendance alongside their admission chances. We also want to build a portal for actual school counselors to monitor their students' progress in real-time.

Built With

• claude