For many of the people working in tech fields, the experience of selecting and applying to their college may be a memory they don’t care to revisit. But for the tech force of tomorrow, understanding how best to approach that situation can have an enormous impact on the rest of their lives.

Stephanie Shyu, founder of Admitsee, sat down with John Furrier (@furrier), co-host of theCUBE*, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, during the Girls in Tech Amplify Women’s Pitch Night 2016 event. They talked about the services offered by Shyu’s company, the advantages to be found in networking students and what future goals are in sight.

Learner’s aid

Shyu offered a basic outline of Admitsee to begin the conversation, describing it as the first and largest searchable database of successful school application files, with grades, test scores, extracurriculars, essays and even the student’s advice accessible through the database.

With the means to help college applicants connect with students who are a year or two ahead of them in the college process, the platform is intended to help participants on both sides learn and improve their experience.

One of the main values of the service to college applicants, Shyu said, is that it enables them to “essentially [see] what a successful example of an application file looks like” and use that information to refine their own approach.

Up and coming

With the company having raised its seed round last year, it has already accumulated 200,000 registered users, along with a number of paying customers. And as Shyu said, “[We’re] really just trying to grow at this point.” She also noted that because the site doesn’t require registration for access to some of its useful features, the number of registrants is somewhat below the actual number of users.

By default, profiles and their associated data are locked, but unlocking a profile to get access to that info is one of the site’s core actions. As Shyu described it, the next step is to ask a question of that student “because, ultimately, we’re trying to build this community of students who are helping other students and really giving college students actually a chance to get paid for paying it forward.”

Looking forward, Shyu felt that the next stage for the company would be to “sort of be on the application process to really help students mentor each other through post-acceptance, making that decision about where to attend school after you’ve been accepted.”

She added that the biggest draw to what Admitsee is doing — that’s different from other organizations — is the company is very focused on the peer-to-peer aspect and on building that community. “And that can be applied not just to college applications, but in regards to post-acceptance, choosing a major, choosing internships, grad school, and even, if you really extrapolate it, to finding your first job, Shyu stated.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of Girls in Tech – Amplify Women’s Pitch Night 2016.

*Disclosure: Girls in Tech and other companies sponsor some Girls in Tech – Amplify segments on SiliconANGLE Media’s theCUBE. Neither Girls in Tech nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.

Photo by SiliconANGLE