Transparent

Making the UC transfer process transparent, personalized, and stress-free.

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Inspiration

Our team was inspired by our own experiences with the transfer and college application process. One teammate is a senior at University of California, Irvine who transferred from a California community college, while the other two are first-year UCI students who recently went through the admissions process themselves. We experienced firsthand how challenging it can be for tech-major students to find reliable resources, receive guidance from experienced peers or professors, understand transfer requirements, track important deadlines, and determine which UC campuses are realistic options. These experiences motivated us to create Transparent — a platform designed to help students feel more organized, informed, and supported throughout their transfer journey.

What it does

Transparent is a personalized platform for California community college students planning to transfer to a UC campus. Students can create an account, build a profile with their current college, major, and target school, and view a dashboard with recommended UC campuses, transfer readiness progress, and important deadlines. The platform also includes networking features to connect students with peers and mentors, plus an events page for workshops and transfer-related opportunities.

How we built it

Transparent is a platform made for California community college students who want to transfer into tech-related majors at UC campuses. We noticed that a lot of students, especially people new to tech or students without much guidance, often feel lost when trying to figure out transfer requirements, class planning, deadlines, and what skills they should start learning for majors like computer science or software engineering.

With Transparent, students can create an account, build a profile with their current school, major, and target UC campuses, and get a dashboard that shows transfer progress, recommended schools, and important deadlines. We also wanted the platform to feel more community-based, so students can connect with other transfers, tech majors, and mentors to ask questions and share experiences. Besides that, the platform includes events like coding workshops, transfer prep sessions, and other opportunities for students who want to learn more about tech and prepare for the transfer process.

Challenges we ran into

Our biggest challenge was the short hackathon timeline. Since different parts of the platform were built separately, we had to merge the login flow, main dashboard, profile page, network page, and events page into one consistent experience. We also had to decide which features should be fully connected to the backend and which could be represented with demo data in order to show the product vision clearly within the time limit.

What we learned

We learned how to collaborate quickly under pressure and make product decisions based on user needs. Our transfer student teammate helped us understand the real pain points community college students face, while the rest of the team gained experience building a user-centered web application. We also strengthened our skills in frontend design, backend integration, and coordinating separate pieces of code into one working project.

What's next for Transparent

Next, we plan to connect Transparent to real transfer data sources such as ASSIST and UC admissions resources. We also want to add features such as posting and commenting, course planning tools, application checklists, stronger recommendation systems, and mentor matching so students can receive more personalized guidance and support throughout the transfer process.

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