Unibudy: Helping students choose the right university

Studying abroad can be highly challenging, in particular when it comes to choosing the right university. To help students around the world seize the opportunity, unibudy co-founders created an online platform to connect prospective university applicants with enrolled students in universities and study programmes they want to apply for.

The idea came from unibudy co-founders’ own experience as Swiss students leaving for the UK for their bachelor degrees (now graduated from Imperial College London). They wanted to acquire enough information about their study programmes and be aware of what to expect, however, the information provided in the university brochures and online platforms did not fully address their concerns. This experience inspired them to develop an online-platform that connects enrolled students and aspiring students from other universities.

The way the platform works is simple: applicants can browse the profiles of "mentors" that are currently enrolled in their programmes of interest. Thanks to filters they can select the most relevant ones given their high-school diploma, nationality, etc. Once the applicant has found the right person, they can request two types of services; the "advice session" in which all questions can be asked through an online chat and the "application review" which focuses on their application essays and personal statement. For the latter, applicants will send their draft to their mentor and then chat with him while he reviews it.

In October 2015, unibudy co-founders started visiting UK campuses to recruit their mentors and have had over 900 signups since then. As the interest rises among high schools in Switzerland for their solution, the co-founders will be visiting again Geneva, Bern and Zurich in the next weeks to present their project directly to high-school students and guidance departments. 

(ES)