(From left) Sophie Smith, CEO, and Leah Guesman, COO, of College Contact (Photo courtesy College Contact)
Students Helping Students
A tech platform gives high schoolers a hand with the college admissions process
Sophie Smith and Leah Guesman, 2023 University of Virginia McIntire School of Commerce graduates, have created an affordable and accessible solution for a hole in the college admissions counseling market. The tech platform matches high school students to current college undergraduates who help the high schoolers navigate the college admissions process.
The idea for College Contact originated when founder and CEO Smith posted a video on TikTok about the stress of applying to colleges. The video sparked thousands of responses voicing frustrations with the application process. “The video was going viral, and high school students started reaching out to me regarding their looming college applications,” Smith says. “I attached a Google help form to my TikTok account. Within a period of a few months, I had over 800 responses of students on a ‘waitlist’ for my help.”
In fact, 75% of college applicants face the daunting college application process alone. With high school guidance counselors either overworked or nonexistent due to school budget cuts, students are often on their own to fill out applications, write college essays and find the financial and informational resources they need.
The flood of responses to her TikTok led Smith to decide to help underprivileged students apply to colleges and universities. What set her idea apart from similar businesses was that Smith planned to hire college students, rather than counselors, because of their up-to-date knowledge on the admissions process.
Beyond this, Smith was focused on making the support system affordable. “Two hundred and fifty dollars an hour for a private college counselor is unreasonable for the average American household, [and] 20% of schools in the U.S. don’t have college counselors,” Smith says. “Even if they do, the average amount of time a counselor spends with one student is 38 minutes over four years.”
College Contact offers its services for $75 per hour, $50 per half hour and $35 for 15 minutes.
The demand is high: At one point, about 3,000 students were on a counseling waitlist. Smith began hiring friends to help. She reached out to fellow classmate Leah Guesman, who joined Smith’s venture in June 2021 as a college counselor and was named COO in April 2023. “As a child of two first-generation college students, I’ve grown up hearing about how much college changed the trajectory of my family,” Guesman says. “Once I recognized just how many students needed reliable, affordable college counseling, it was obvious that Sophie had stumbled upon a big opportunity.”
Smith currently has 50 counselors and plans to increase the workforce to 70 by 2024.
She describes the College Contact counselor application process as rigorous. Applicants submit their own college essays, edit a standardized essay and complete a series of interviews. After acceptances, they watch training tutorials, she says.
“It’s actually a really good gig for college students. Thirty-five dollars an hour, being fully remote, working any hours and they get to give back to students, which they care a lot about,” Smith says.
College Contact has helped students apply to schools such as Harvard University, The Wharton School of Business at The University of Pennsylvania, Tulane University and their alma mater, University of Virginia. Smith and Guesman are now working for the business full time and are moving their office to Austin, Texas, which is an ed tech hot spot.
The experience has been fulfilling for Smith. “I always wanted to be an entrepreneur and work with close friends,” she says. “It makes the late nights and early mornings so much easier.” —Will Thalhimer
Photo courtesy VCU School of Engineering
Top of the Class
10 VCU graduate programs among top 50 in new U.S. News rankings
Virginia Commonwealth University was ranked among the 30 most innovative public universities in the country in the latest U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges rankings released in September. Rankings were determined by presidents, provosts and admissions officers who were asked to name the most innovative colleges and universities in the country.
In addition, the VCU School of Nursing’s undergraduate program ranked No. 22 in the country in its category, up one spot from No. 23 in 2021-22. The university also had 10 graduate school programs ranked in the Top 50 in the country by the 2023-24 U.S. News and World Report Best Graduate Schools rankings published in April 2023. The health care management program of the VCU College of Health Professions was ranked No. 3 in the U.S. and No. 1 in Virginia. The rehabilitation counseling program of the College of Health Professions was ranked No. 6 in the U.S. and No. 1 in Virginia.
- Best Nursing-Anesthesia (No.1)
- Best Health Care Management (No.3)
- Best Rehabilitation Counseling (No.6)
- Best Fine Arts Programs (No.4)
- Best Social Public Policy (No.16)
- Best Urban Policy (No.17)
- Best Public Management and Leadership (No.19)
- Best Nuclear Engineering Program (No.21)
- Best Education School (No.27)
- Best Public Affairs Program (No.39)
—Joan Tupponce
Supporting Scholars
VSU joins network to help first-generation students
Virginia State University has been recognized for its support of first-generation college students — 69% of the school’s students are designated as first-generation or low-income. VSU is one of 76 colleges chosen by the Center for First-Generation Student Success to participate in the First Scholars Network. The network supports the schools by establishing communities of practice, gaining knowledge of resources and establishing peer networks. “The First Scholars Network will help us to radically transform their student experience,” says Danny Giles, VSU associate director of Trio Student Support Service. “This additional resource will provide even greater directed support to ensure their continued success.”
VSU also has earned designation as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense. The National Security Agency awards this honor to schools that have demonstrated exceptional education and research capabilities in cyber defense. —JT
Photo courtesy Hampton University
Prayer in School
Hampton combining programs in new school
In June, Hampton University announced the establishment of a School of Religion, offering degrees at the associate, bachelor and master levels, alongside doctoral level degrees in Public Theology and Community Engagement and in Pastoral Leadership and Congregational Development. According to the Rev. Dr. Debra L. Haggins, the idea for the school is not revolutionary, but evolutionary — an idea whose “time had come,” Haggins says.
“Hampton has been investing in the lives of clergy since 1914 with our Ministers’ Conference,” Haggins says. Hampton University’s Ministers’ Conference is an annual conference offering sermons, lectures, workshops and seminars to pastors and other religious officials. “The evolution of this was to take all of the things we’ve invested in clergy … and roll them into one comprehensive whole, and that would be the School of Religion at Hampton University."
The school wants to provide a comprehensive approach to pastoral professional development, with consideration for how church-going habits have changed since COVID-19 and the role of faith in activism. “We’re hoping that the research, the study, the projects and activities that come out of the School of Religion will be a great benefit and help to cities, churches [and] states, all over the country,” Haggins says.
Hampton's religious studies programs will be folded into the new school, which will launch in January 2024. —Emily Richardson
University of Richmond student and Fulbright scholar Chloe Goode (Photo courtesy Chloe Goode)
Fulbright Recipients
A UR student and professor earn prestigious grants
University of Richmond sophomore Chloe Goode will spend three weeks studying the historical, cultural, political, environmental and socioeconomic factors of Northern Ireland at Queen’s University Belfast after being selected to attend a Fulbright Summer Institute in the United Kingdom. Goode is one of 36 students to participate, and she is the first University of Richmond student to receive this award.
“This will be extremely enriching culturally, academically and personally,” Goode says. “I am the first person in my immediate family to travel to the U.K., and I could not be more grateful.”
The program, which targets U.S. undergraduates who have little to no international travel experience and are unlikely to travel outside the U.S. without financial support, is one of the most prestigious and selective summer scholarship programs in the world.
Additionally, Andy McGraw, associate professor of music and chair of the music department, has received a 2024 Fulbright Teacher Grant. McGraw will teach two courses at the Indonesian Institute of the Arts, Surakarta — one focused on analyzing music recording using digital techniques and another on analyzing local Indonesian music using digital humanities tools. —JT
