More than two-thirds of high school students are enrolling in some form of higher education, but for many of them, finding the right school to attend is more chance than science.
Austin-based Homiee approaches finding the right college more like a dating app, giving potential students a personality test to pair them up with the best possible schools across the country. The service looks not only at areas of study, but also at the kind of people who go there and what they do outside the classroom.
“Arguably, college is about getting a really good education,” said co-founder Adrian Carballo. “But it’s also about connecting with many people who are going to be in your network after you graduate. After you go into your industry and once you start looking at jobs and potential employers, those connections and that network you created are actually very valuable.”
That’s why Homiee is about more than just matching students up with the right major at the right school — it also uses cultural fit in determining the best schools. With data on more than 7,000 schools across the country, it also looks at things like how many freshmen return to campus for sophomore year and even calculates a net price based on how much financial aid and scholarship money the school gives out.
The service is free to students, but Adrian Carballo said it’s about making sure they’re not wasting time at the wrong school.
“There are many students who go to college and they don't really feel like they have a lot in common with the students that surround them,” he said. “They end up transferring, they end up dropping out some times. That’s the real waste of time.”
Homiee generates revenue by offering information on students to colleges and universities. That information is used to help target the best students who will add to the college’s community. While that may seem intrusive to some, Carballo hopes it will allow universities to better reach out to the right students.
The service is currently in a beta stage as Homiee looks to add more schools to its dataset. Carballo said he’s looked into accelerator programs, but doesn’t feel Homiee is quite ready for that yet.
“We really want to have a solid product and monetization structure,” he said. “Right now, the cost of running this kind of startup at this point is still doable for us and we would really hate it if we would … look for funding and then have to meet some metrics that are more geared toward making money and being profitable than actually helping the vision that we have come to life.”
Currently, co-founders Carballo and Michael Gayed work out of a co-working space in Austin while a third employee works remotely.
Images via Shutterstock, Homiee
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