unEARTH

One small step for college, one giant leap for the future.

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Inspiration

The inspiration behind unEARTH came from the frustration students face when searching for scholarships. The process is often overwhelming and time-consuming, with numerous irrelevant options making it hard to find the right opportunities. By creating this platform, our goal was to simplify the experience and provide personalized scholarship recommendations based on individual profiles, which helps students quickly and easily discover opportunities they are eligible for.

What it does

unEARTH is a user-friendly platform designed to help students find scholarships quickly and efficiently. By tailoring scholarship recommendations based on a student’s GPA, grade level, and field of interest, it simplifies the search process, eliminating irrelevant results and reducing the time spent looking for financial aid opportunities. The user takes a quiz based on their career interests and will be given a suggestion. The user inputs their GPA, Grade level, and field of interest. Based on this, eligible scholarships will be shown. The user can input a goal (in minutes) of amount of time they want to spend applying for scholarships, and the progress bar will show once they’ve met their goal. There are planets in a separate tab, each one representing a different field of study. When clicked on, information about that career path is given. Once you input your stats, you will be asked to rate your essay and extracurriculars on a scale of 1-5 and will be given a percentage estimate of your chance on getting the scholarship. Lastly, once you upload your resume, you will be given recommendations on what to write your college essay on.

How we built it

The platform was built using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. The user interface was designed to be intuitive, with responsive features to ensure accessibility across devices. We integrated a form to collect user input, and based on the selected criteria, dynamic scholarship suggestions are displayed. We also used a back-end logic system to filter and personalize scholarship data based on user selections. We created an analyzer to form recommendations for college essays based on the user's resume.

Challenges we ran into

One of the main obstacles was making sure that the scholarship filtering system was accurate and dynamic, especially while taking into account various user inputs like GPA, grade level, and field of interest. Another challenge was ensuring the platform was fully responsive across different screen sizes, as some elements did not initially scale well on mobile devices. Additionally, handling large amounts of data and making sure of quick and relevant results required a solid back-end logic to manage and display the right information efficiently. Finally, user testing and feedback helped us identify areas where we needed to fix the design and functionality to provide a better user experience.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of creating a user-friendly platform that streamlines the often overwhelming process of finding scholarships. The dynamic filtering system works seamlessly, offering personalized recommendations based on a student's GPA, grade level, and field of interest. We successfully implemented an intuitive and visually engaging design, ensuring the website is both functional and aesthetically appealing. Additionally, we are pleased with how unEARTH is fully responsive, providing an excellent user experience across devices, from desktops to smartphones. Most importantly, we have created a tool that can genuinely help students discover opportunities they might have otherwise missed, simplifying their scholarship search and making it more efficient. We are very proud of the progress we made today.

What we learned

Throughout the development of unEARTH, we learned the importance of building a user-centric platform that is both easy to navigate and efficient in delivering results. We gained hands-on experience with front-end technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, as well as how to integrate dynamic data and personalization into a web application. We also learned how to overcome technical challenges, such as ensuring the platform is fully responsive and optimizing performance. The most important thing we discovered through working together was how important it is to work collaboratively, effectively communicating within the team to achieve a unified vision for the project. Ultimately, unEARTH has taught us valuable lessons in problem-solving, teamwork, and creating digital solutions that can have a meaningful impact.

What's next for unEARTH

The next steps for unEARTH involve expanding its capabilities to include more personalized features, such as advanced filtering options based on additional factors like location, financial need, and eligibility criteria. We plan to integrate a recommendation engine that uses machine learning to improve the accuracy of scholarship matches. Additionally, we want to enhance the platform's database by adding more scholarship opportunities and resources for students. Future updates will also focus on improving user experience through further optimization of the interface, including the addition of interactive features such as application tracking and reminders. Our goal is to make unEARTH a go-to platform for students seeking scholarship opportunities.

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