A traditional college counselor starts by asking about the student’s educational goals. Second, using industry expertise, the counselor acts on the information provided.
UniPaith replicates this experience through a clear three-step process: Discovery, Recommendation, and Application Strategy & Support.
Discovery involves three steps: Profile Building, Goal Setting, and Identifying Needs & Challenges. Throughout these steps, a large language model engages with students to understand their values, strengths, needs, and goals.
UniPaith replicates this experience through a clear three-step process: Discovery, Recommendation, and Application Strategy & Support.
Student Experience
Profile Building comprises three layers: Basic, Personality, and Identity. The Basic layer captures the student’s demographic and educational characteristics: age, education level, location preferences, income level, first-generation status, gender, test scores, and grades. The Personality layer records interests, passions, connections, career goals, and location preferences. The Identity layer captures what the student thinks and believes and how they see themselves, creating an opportunity for personalized guidance.
Goal Setting uses the SMART framework (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound) to capture three types of goals: academic (degree and major), social (connection), and personal (financial and well-being).
Identifying Needs & Challenges applies Maslow’s hierarchy to uncover what the student needs: physiological (accommodation and food), safety (health care, financial, environmental, and policies), social (community, culture, interpersonal climate, diversity, and inclusion), esteem (scholarship, career, social bias, and peer pressure), and self-actualization (events, alumni network, career, mental health services, and overseas study).
Recommendation develops a strategic plan aligned with the student’s ideas. It includes ongoing conversations, personalized suggestions, and planning toward higher education goals. It creates a strategic plan based on the student’s needs, challenges, and goals, covering major, pathway, and financial aid.
The Application Strategy & Support component includes Connection & Outreach, which leverages the platform’s community feature modeled on Handshake to connect students with institutions and recruiters, and My Applications, which tracks all application materials through submission to help students stay organized and informed.
An illustrative customer activity would be: A student signs up and answers one open-ended question: What does she want out of this experience? She writes three sentences. She wants to study economics, be near a city, and stay within her family’s budget of about $20,000 per year. The platform asks several follow-up questions: her transcript, test scores, and what worries her about the process. After ten minutes, the student has a profile, and the platform provides an initial list of programs. The list would include eleven programs. Each includes an explanation of why the program is included, the cost after aid, remaining requirements, and deadlines. Two are at schools the student didn’t even know about. One is cheaper than her local option.
