Edmission web app helps you plan for college admissions

Getting into the right college isn’t easy. Edmission wants to help. The San Ramon, California-based startup is launching a web app today that lets students and parents create a personalized college admission plan — without the fees of private college counseling.

Edmission allows students to create their college admission goals and receive a personalized recommendation for achieving them. The application also allows students to research colleges, build an admission profile, and receive notifications for key dates and milestones. I clicked on the University of California at Berkeley page and quickly found that tuition is $12,000 and the acceptance rate is just 16 percent.

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“We want to make it easy for students to plan their college admission,” said Angela Choy, the cofounder and CEO of Edmission, in a statement. “High school students these days are stressed with piles of homework, tests, and extracurricular activities. So instead of adding another thing to their long list and worrying about college planning activities, Edmission takes care of that with a virtual college planning assistant so students can focus on getting good grades on their coursework, studying for standardized tests, and participating in meaningful extracurricular activities.”

Even though going to college is seen as a basic step to success, an average of only 65.9 percent of high school graduates go on to post-secondary education every year. The average ratio in public high schools is one guidance counselor for every 470 students, and each student receives an average of only 38 minutes of college advising per year.

Edmission says that the lack of resources has pushed students and parents to seek options such as private college admission counseling, which can easily cost thousands of dollars. Families who cannot afford that type of expense try to do it themselves or simply put college planning onto the back burner, which is a problem.

“We want to provide a better option for students when it comes to college planning. Instead of providing them with general college planning information, which many existing college search websites are doing, we tailor and personalize our recommendation based on students’ profile and goals,” Choy said. For example, if a student is interested in a specific university or major, the system will evaluate their admission profile and recommend ways to improve their profile and help them reach the goals.

“We not only want to get them into college, we also want them to succeed in college,” Choy added. “And the key to achieve that is by helping students get ready for college and design a college plan that is the best fit for the students.”

To encourage more students to use the college planning services, the company offers a free account and plans to offer a paid account with more advanced features in the future. Rivals include Schoold, Chegg, and Admittedly.

Edmission started in January 2016 and it has three employees. The company was accepted at the The Circular Board (a startup accelerator for female entrepreneurs) and is looking for funding.