Students lack the right tool to make this life-defining decision.
In the next few months, we’ll be publishing a series of blog posts about Path Technologies. We’ll explain how we designed the algorithms that power our software. We’ll dive into how the Path app can be useful in a variety of ways, showing you all the different features our team is developing. We’ll explain why traditional college rankings don’t make any sense.
There’s a lot of interesting stuff in the works, so make sure to sign up and stay in touch!
First, I wanted to share a brief story about what inspired me to build Path Technologies.
When I was 16, I had no idea where I wanted to go to college or what I would study. Not because I wasn’t interested in going to college, but because there were too many choices.
Different schools, different majors; there were so many options to choose from - and so many good options. There was the local university where my entire family went (and where my dad was a professor) and the cross-town school of international reputation. Where should I apply? Where would I fit in? And then, what subject should I study? In high school, I liked learning about molecules and particles but also government structures and philosophy. I LOVED sports and English literature, but what kind of degrees or jobs existed that were aligned with both (or either) of those interests? I had no clue where to even start.
I remember feeling like I had to make this incredibly important decision with essentially no information. The tools that existed didn’t help. I didn’t need a 50-question test asking me what shape I preferred and telling me I’d enjoy being a gardener. School rankings were alright, but they accounted for weird things like faculty salary or “expert opinions” (more on that another time). Was I just supposed to base this life-defining decision off a combination of limited data I could find and not-so-trustworthy websites?
I remember feeling like I had to make this incredibly important decision with essentially no information.
What I needed was pretty simple (in my mind at least). I needed a list of all the programs near me. By program, we mean a combination of school and major - you’ll see that’s a term that we use quite a bit. On that list, I would’ve liked to have seen two things:
What are the outcomes for the students of these programs? How many of them graduate? Do they get employed? How much money do they make? Do they like their job? Not opinions about outcomes, but facts.
What are the best programs for me? I have interests that differ from my high school classmates, so the best program for me isn’t necessarily the best program for others. Which majors are aligned with my interests?
That tool didn’t exist. So, like most high school students (and I’m sure many of you reading this!), I turned to the people that I trusted most to help me make my decision: my family.
My dad is a professor of finance who studied economics in college and my mother is an economist at a public policy think tank (can you already guess what I studied?).
So when I started to think about college, my dad connected me with an old friend of his who was a director at this big bank. To be honest, I didn’t really understand what a bank did, but I was happy to meet anyone who could help me choose a college program. I remember meeting this man in a lavish office downtown. He sounded very smart and made the “financial derivatives” work he did seem so interesting. In his opinion, there was one program that stood above all else: the joint honors program in Economics and Finance at McGill University.
How is it that we decide on a career path based on ad-hoc conversations with random people we meet as teenagers, or based on our parents’ professions, or based on a few articles we read?
That’s what I ended up studying. I met someone once who seemed successful and simply trusted their opinion. But what if I hadn't met this person?
I remember thinking: how is it that we decide on a career path based on ad-hoc conversations with random people we meet as teenagers, or based on our parents’ professions, or based on a few articles we read?
For such a meaningful decision, you need a powerful tool.
That’s what we’re building at Path Technologies. We’re here to help high school students applying to US colleges make one of the most important decisions of their life. We believe that education matters and that it can truly change lives. That's why we’re building powerful software that helps students find their path.
Sebastien Boyer is the Founder and CEO of Path Technologies. Images are generated with the help of our robot friend DALLE-2.