TerpPath

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  Profile Page

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  Dashboard Page

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  Unique Features Page

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  Calendar Page

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  Faculty Connection Page

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  Essay Vault Page 2

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  Landing Page

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  Scholarship Matches Page

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  Essay Vault Page

Inspiration

Many students at the University of Maryland miss out on scholarships they qualify for because the process is confusing, scattered, and time-consuming. As students ourselves, we saw how hard it is to find opportunities, manage deadlines, and write strong essays while balancing school. We wanted to build something that makes accessing funding simple and personal.

What it does

Scholarshellp is an AI-powered scholarship assistant designed for UMD students. It helps users find scholarships they qualify for, generates personalized essay drafts, and organizes deadlines in one place. The platform simplifies the entire process from discovery to submission.

How we built it

We built Scholarshellp using a full stack setup. The frontend uses React with Tailwind for a clean and responsive interface. The backend uses Node and Express to handle requests. We integrated the Claude API to generate scholarship essays based on user input. We also created a matching system using a structured dataset of scholarships to recommend opportunities based on GPA and major.## Challenges we ran into One challenge was integrating the AI in a way that produced useful and natural sounding essays instead of generic responses. Another challenge was scoping the project to fit within the hackathon time while still building something meaningful. We also had to structure our data carefully to make scholarship matching feel accurate and relevant.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud that we built a working AI-powered system that students can actually use. The essay generator produces strong drafts, and the matching system gives clear recommendations. We also created a clean interface that makes the experience simple and easy to navigate.

What we learned

We learned how to integrate external APIs into a full stack application and how to design around a real user problem. We also learned the importance of scoping, prioritizing features, and focusing on a strong demo rather than trying to build everything.

What's next for Scholarshellp

We plan to expand our scholarship database and improve personalization by learning from user essays to better match opportunities and writing style. We also want to build a stronger network feature that connects students with past scholarship winners for guidance and real examples.

Built With

• claude
• javascript
• node.js
• tailwind