Collegebuddy

Inspiration

Every year, thousands of scholarships go unused not because students don't qualify, but because they never find out these opportunities exist. Nearly half of graduating seniors miss out on financial aid simply because the process feels overwhelming.Too many forms, too many websites, no clear starting point. I remember how difficult it was to find scholarships to study abroad. I tried many times, but I still couldn't get one because the process was so complex.Too many websites, unclear eligibility requirements, and no clear place to start. That frustration stuck with me, and I wanted to build something that could have helped me back then: a tool that cuts through the complexity and shows students exactly which scholarships they actually qualify for.

What it does

CollegeBuddy takes a student's basic background; grades, intended major,location,financial situation,interests and instantly generates a personalized, ranked shortlist of scholarships they're actually eligible for.Instead of scrolling through generic scholarship databases, students get a clear "why this fits you" explanation for each match. On top of that,CollegeBuddy includes an AI-powered study assistant that helps students prepare for college entrance exams, so they can strengthen their applications while they search for funding.

How we built it

I built CollegeBuddy using Glide to create the interface without writing code from scratch, letting us focus on the user experience and logic. Under the hood, i used the Claude API to power both the scholarship matching engine and the exam prep assistant.Claude analyzes a student's profile like grades, major, location, financial situation, interests and generates a ranked list of scholarships along with a plain-language explanation of why each one fits. For exam prep, Claude generates practice questions and explanations tailored to the student's target exam.I manually curated a database of real scholarships covering both domestic and study-abroad opportunities, storing them in a Google Sheet that powers Glide's interface.Claude then matches student profiles against this database to generate accurate, verifiable recommendations.

Challenges we ran into

As someone without a coding background, learning Glide from scratch was the biggest hurdle. Even though Glide is designed to be no-code, understanding how to structure data, connect it to the Claude API, and design a smooth user flow took a lot of trial and error. I spent a good chunk of the week just experimenting with Glide's logic and layout tools before I felt confident enough to build the actual matching and exam prep features on top of it.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I'm proud that I went from having no coding background to shipping a working product in a week ;something that actually solves a problem I lived through myself. Learning Glide and integrating the Claude API as a non-technical builder felt like a huge accomplishment on its own. Beyond the build, I'm proud that CollegeBuddy isn't just a tech demo — it's something that could have genuinely helped me when I was struggling to find scholarships to study abroad.

What we learned

Building CollegeBuddy taught me how much prompt design matters when working with AI for structured tasks. Getting Claude to consistently return well-organized, accurate scholarship matches (instead of vague or inconsistent responses) meant learning how to write clear, specific prompts and think through edge cases ,like what happens when a student's profile doesn't closely match any scholarship in the database. It was a good lesson in how AI is only as reliable as the instructions you give it.

What's next for Collegebuddy

Right now,CollegeBuddy runs on a curated list of 6 scholarships, but the real value comes from scale.Going forward, I want to keep expanding the database with more scholarships; especially study-abroad opportunities,since that's the gap I personally struggled with.So more students can find matches that actually fit their situation.