PathWise

Inspiration

While applying to colleges, we realize how stressful the process truly is. From the very first day of high school, students are evaluated on their academics, extracurriculars, and personal growth. Yet, when it came to applying, every college has its own requirements, deadlines, and portals. Forcing students to build massive spreadsheets or documents just to keep track of everything. It was overwhelming trying to piece together everything, all while staying on top of grades and activities.

That experience inspired PathWise. We wanted to create something that could help students from day one. A single hub that keeps them on track, organizes their journey, and provides clarity about what lies ahead. So, students can focus more on growth and opportunity instead of stress.

What it does

PathWise is an all-in-one hub for the college admissions process. It:

Provides a personalized dashboard that evolves with every grade (9th-12th) from student metrics like GPA, SAT, and more.
Offers an insightful AI-powered career choice quiz with personalized feedback.
Showcases powerful insights and benchmarks to help students see where they stand compared to successful applicants.
Helps students decide what schools they might want to apply for based on their student metrics. ## How we built it We put together a web platform leveraging HTML & CSS, JavaScript, Python, Flask, SQL, Google Gemini API, College Scoreboard API, and Databricks API. We used VSCode as our preferred IDE for development. ## Challenges we ran into
API integration
API request tokens limit
Merging of backend technologies while keeping the frontend's integrity ## Accomplishments that we're proud of
Databricks API integration with our SQL database
Google Gemini API integration
Visually impressive landing page
Statistical insights integrated with current college data
Task delegation ## What we learned
Importance of proper design methodology in front-end and back-end development
Interacting with AI Chatbots in an API format
Cloud Databases ## What's next for PathWise
Common App Integration to pull application status automatically.
Mentor/alumni matching to give students access to near-peer guidance.
Mobile-first design/PWA to make PathWise accessible on the go.
Expansion to grad school and advanced programs support for not only undergrad, but also for med school, and other advanced programs.
Smart notifications personalized reminders for deadlines, essays, and progress tracking.
Essay Review AI-powered essay review system so students can submit their best work when applying.