First2College Development

Overview

First2College is a mobile college preparation application designed specifically for first-generation and/or low-income students by first-generation low-income students to navigate the college application process.

Problem

First-generation and/or low-income (FGLI) students are students who are the first in their family to attend college in the United States, and come from a household making less than 65,000 dollars annually for four people (adjust for household size). Compared to their continuing-generation peers, FGLI students often find difficulty navigating the college application process due to boundaries such as lack of mentorship, generational poverty, inaccessibility of college resources, and more.

Target Market
As of now, First2College is in its beta-testing stage, with the application being released in limited amounts. As we are currently establishing a consistent user base, we have begun to partner and collaborate with community-based organizations to strengthen our outreach, as we already have with TeenSHARP, an organization with over 300 students in Wilmington, Delaware, who has agreed to market our application to their students. 

Solution

Overview: We have developed a mobile application that, through a number of different components, allows FGLI students numerous ways to navigate the college application process. 

Resources: The app features a curated database of information, such as an in-depth overview of the college application process, a timeline of the college application process starting from freshman year, financial aid information (including for undocumented students), and scholarships and summer opportunities. Oftentimes, first-generation, low-income students may not know these resources exist - which is why they are so important within our app. We also offer networking opportunities with professionals and current college students.

CBO Locator: An intuitive map that identifies your location, and subsequently, shows your local community-based organizations. With over 50 community-based organizations listed within the Northeast region of the United States, and plans to expand, this is a critical feature of our app as it allows students to access professional college preparation within their community.

Forum: An interactive, moderated forum that allows students to talk, ask questions, and receive help with different aspects of the college application process. 

Campaign

The money we are currently raising will go towards improving the app as we look into concluding our beta-testing period and publishing the app on various app stores. Improvements towards the app will be made based on user’s feedback, some of which we’ve already received - such as implementing interactive quizzes within the app to make it more engaging, maintaining our app’s safety and security, developing custom graphics for our app, paying for the continuation of our newsletter, and purchasing a Canva subscription for our social media accounts. These features will maximize the experience for our community of users, and allow them to engage more with our resources and towards their success.

Other Funding

Our partnerships with community-based organizations are mutually beneficial, as we charge a small fee (~$15) per month. This fee allows us to maintain our premium membership on our application building platform, maintaining the quality of the app, while being a much cheaper price than competitors who may charge users directly or charge hundreds of dollars per month for an organization to engage with their app. Our application building platform is flexible, meaning that we are looking to create private, custom templates for organizations - however, these are more costly at 45 dollars a month, due to the work it takes to customize and maintain these. 

Thank you for choosing to fund us. As first-generation, low-income students, we want to make the education system increasingly more accessible, and your support means a lot.