TransferMap

Sign Up
Choose Major & Current college of attendance
Choose your target UC school
Upload Transcript and it parses information
Transcript information
Results Part 1
Results Part 2
Results Part 3
Dashboard

Inspiration

As California community college and UC students who are actively navigating the transfer path into UCs, we’ve experienced firsthand how confusing and stressful the UC transfer process can be. Different counselors often provide conflicting guidance, university websites are labyrinthine and sometimes misleading, and critical information is scattered across dozens of disconnected sources. Even widely used tools like Assist.org only solve part of the problem by showing course equivalencies, without presenting the full picture. Students are left to piece together GPA requirements, unit minimums and caps, major preparation pathways by campus, and timing constraints on their own. We’ve watched classmates miss transfer opportunities simply because they didn’t realize they were missing a single required course or took the wrong articulated class. The problem is real: recent data show that only about 30% of California community college students who intend to transfer actually do so within six years. Additionally, UC-to-UC transfer is even harder as there's limited information out there. From what a UC Admissions officer mentioned UC to UC lower div course generally transfers, but this tool makes it easier to articulate and track courses completed and required.

What it does

We believe better information accessibility is part of the solution. We wanted to build something that gives students a single source of truth - an AI-powered tool that automatically cross-references official requirements and provides clear, actionable guidance with direct source links.

How we built it

Frontend (React.js + Tailwind CSS) Built a clean, intuitive UI with a multi-step workflow: profile setup → UC selection → transcript entry → eligibility results Implemented a glassmorphic design system inspired by UCSC's branding Created an interactive dashboard showing transfer readiness, GPA, units, and course completion status Used Firebase Authentication for Google OAuth sign-in
Backend (Node.js + Firebase) Set up Firebase Firestore for real-time user data storage (profile, transcript, verification results) Designed API endpoints to handle course additions, deletions, and verification requests Integrated with Python AI service for intelligent requirement matching
AI Service (Python + Claude API) Developed a Python microservice that processes user transcripts and queries ASSIST.org Used Claude Anthropic 4.5 model to parse complex articulation agreements and match courses intelligently Implemented NLP to understand course equivalencies (e.g., "MATH 1A" at De Anza = "MATH 19A" at UCSC) Built risk detection algorithms to flag unit caps, GPA requirements, and missing prerequisites
Data Integration Scraped and structured data from ASSIST.org and official UC transfer pages Created a comprehensive database of major requirements for all UC campuses Implemented caching to reduce API calls and improve response times
Collaboration (GitHub) Used feature branches for parallel development by all 4 team members Implemented CI/CD pipelines for automated testing and deployment

Challenges we ran into

1) ASSIST.org data structure: The articulation data is complex and inconsistent between colleges. We had to write custom parsers for different college formats

2) AI accuracy vs. speed tradeoff: Making the verification fast enough for a good UX while still being thorough required optimization

3) Course equivalency logic: Determining if "CIS 22A" is truly equivalent to "CMPS 5J" across different schools was harder than expected

4) Firebase real-time syncing: Managing race conditions when multiple users update their transcripts simultaneously Time constraints: Building a full-stack app with AI integration in 36 hours meant prioritizing features and accepting "good enough" over perfect

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Building TransferMap in 36 hours, we're proud of: our AI transcript reader that automatically parses course data from PDFs, a sleek glassmorphism interface that makes transfer planning intuitive, seamless Firebase integration for data persistence, and most importantly, our AI-powered verification engine that analyzes official UC requirements to give students accurate, personalized transfer eligibility assessments. Most of all, we’re glad we could create a tool that empowers community college students with clarity and confidence in their transfer journey.

What we learned

1) Data is messy: Articulation agreements aren't standardized - we had to build robust parsing logic to handle variations in how different colleges name courses

2) AI prompt engineering: Getting Claude to accurately match courses required careful prompt design and validation Real-time collaboration: Working asynchronously with Firebase required thoughtful data structure design to avoid conflicts

3)User experience matters: We iterated heavily on the UI after realizing our initial design was too technical—students need clarity, not complexity

4)Scope management: We learned to prioritize features ruthlessly—starting with UCSC-only for the demo, then planning expansion