Inspiration TranCCfer was inspired by the real transfer experience for SMCCCD students across College of San Mateo, Skyline College, and Cañada College. Planning classes, comparing campuses, checking transfer requirements, and balancing work or personal schedules usually means jumping between many disconnected tools. We wanted to build one place where students can actually plan their path with less confusion and more confidence.
What it does TranCCfer is a transfer-planning web app for SMCCCD students. It helps users:
build a student profile with campus, major, completed courses, and transfer goals compare course options across campuses track required and recommended courses for transfer planning generate recommended course options using planned courses and requirement data view professor ratings inside planning flows organize classes in a semester planner with conflict awareness import transcript data and group completed courses by semester save account and profile data through a shared backend instead of only local browser storage How we built it We built TranCCfer with:
Next.js App Router React TypeScript AWS Amplify for deployment DynamoDB for shared account/profile storage Google OAuth and Google Calendar integration work for planner features CSV-based SMCCCD course data and scraped academic/course information modular feature-based architecture for Profile, Compare, Planner, and supporting APIs We separated the app into clear modules so different teammates could work in parallel on different tools while still sharing types, services, and UI patterns.
Challenges we ran into Some of the biggest challenges were:
keeping data consistent between local development and production moving from local JSON/browser-only storage to a shared backend setting up AWS Amplify, environment variables, IAM roles, and DynamoDB permissions correctly handling Google OAuth redirect URI issues in production importing transcript/course data and mapping it into usable course records keeping Planner and Profile logic synced when field labels and data keys changed making hackathon-speed decisions without overengineering the project Accomplishments that we're proud of We’re proud that TranCCfer became more than just a mockup. We built:
a working multi-page transfer planning experience shared account/profile persistence with DynamoDB transcript import support for completed courses course recommendation flows tied to major planning planner features with conflict analysis and recommended sections professor rating visibility directly inside planning decisions a deployed AWS-hosted version of the project We’re also proud that the project reflects a real student problem and a realistic path toward being useful beyond the hackathon.
What we learned We learned a lot about:
designing a scalable Next.js app under hackathon time pressure separating frontend state from shared backend data deploying and debugging SSR apps on AWS Amplify using DynamoDB and IAM roles for production access how small naming/state mismatches can break whole flows how important real user workflow is when building education tools We also learned that building for students means the UX has to reduce stress, not just display information.
What's next for TranCCfer Next, we want to:
finish a fully reliable Google sign-in and calendar sync flow expand transfer requirement coverage for more majors and schools improve transcript import accuracy and support more formats strengthen course equivalency and alternate-section recommendations add stronger planner intelligence for conflict resolution and semester balancing improve shared account/profile syncing across all tools support custom domains and polish production deployment make TranCCfer ready for real student testing with SMCCCD users
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