School admissions functions have surged 9% within the 2025-2026 cycle whereas acceptance charges at high colleges have plummeted under 10%, making a panorama the place households navigate selections with incomplete info and counselors face mounting strain to supply assured steering regardless of restricted dependable knowledge. With college students now making use of to a mean of 5.38 colleges and counselors managing outcomes throughout tons of of establishments yearly, the hole between anecdotal data and systematic insights has by no means been extra pronounced. Nerd Apply addresses this problem by aggregating over 100,000 totally de-identified admissions outcomes shared by counselors throughout 500+ organizations, creating the world’s largest qualitative dataset that captures not simply check scores and GPAs, however the essays, actions, and context that truly form school selections. The platform allows counselors to benchmark college students towards actual candidates, floor household conversations in patterns fairly than guesswork, and widen school record choices past the identical 80 ultra-selective colleges dominating software methods.
AlleyWatch sat down with Nerd Apply Cofounders Braden Weissman and Cooper Weissman to study extra in regards to the enterprise, the longer term plans, current funding spherical, and far, far more…
Who have been your buyers and the way a lot did you elevate?
Nerd Apply raised a $3.2M Seed spherical. The spherical included Riverpark Ventures, Alumni Ventures, and a bunch of angel buyers together with Gokul Rajaram; David Krane, CEO and Managing Associate of Google Ventures; Jeff Crowe, Managing Associate of Norwest Ventures; Matt McIlwain, Managing Director of Madrona Ventures; and Chris Moore, Associate at Redpoint Ventures.
Inform us in regards to the services or products that Nerd Apply affords.
Nerd Apply is a privacy-first knowledge platform that helps school counselors information college students utilizing actual admissions outcomes fairly than anecdotes or averages. With over 100,000 actual functions in its dataset, the platform makes it straightforward to arrange pupil info, perceive admissions patterns, and share insights with out exposing identities.
The workforce sees a long-term alternative to construct the foundational knowledge platform for school admissions, much like the function EPIC Methods performs in healthcare.
Nerd Apply brings collectively accomplished, de-identified admissions outcomes so counselors can see how comparable college students really fared. The product is designed to help actual counseling conversations by making reasoning and proof seen, with out exposing particular person pupil identities.
What impressed the beginning of Nerd Apply?
We noticed how usually school counseling relied on intuition and personal anecdotes fairly than shared outcomes households might really see. Coming from public schooling and dealing intently with counselors, we understood how troublesome it was to offer assured steering with out concrete examples. Nerd Apply was constructed to responsibly carry de-identified admissions outcomes collectively, so counselors can floor high-stakes conversations in readability, belief, and actuality.
How is Nerd Apply completely different?
Nerd Apply is the one place counselors can see what really occurred in school admissions, with the student-level context that issues. Not simply grades and scores, however extracurriculars, actions, and essays, all dealt with in a privacy-safe means. As an alternative of predictions or averages, counselors can have a look at actual outcomes from comparable college students and use these examples in conversations with households. Nerd Apply doesn’t substitute current counseling instruments. It provides counselors a transparent, organized option to monitor outcomes after college students apply and convey sincere, real-world context into future steering.
What’s your corporation mannequin?
Nerd Apply is a subscription-based platform for school counseling organizations. Counselors and counseling corporations pay to make use of the product to arrange admissions outcomes, perceive outcomes, and help advising conversations. As well as, Nerd Apply works with districts, governments, and nonprofit foundations to supply de-identified, combination insights that assist inform coverage selections and useful resource allocation. Scholar-level knowledge is rarely offered, and identifiable info is just not shared with faculties or business third events.
What was the funding course of like?
It was refreshing to see so many buyers enthusiastic about edtech, given the challenges which have confronted edtech firms up to now.
What components about your corporation led your buyers to put in writing the verify?
Buyers have been drawn to the size and uniqueness of the info Nerd Apply is constructing. At present, most schooling knowledge utilized by governments and establishments is only quantitative, centered on metrics like attendance and commencement charges. That leaves out the context that truly shapes pupil outcomes. Nerd Apply is accumulating a brand new form of dataset that mixes outcomes with qualitative context equivalent to actions, essays, and experiences, all in a privacy-safe means. This creates a a lot clearer image of how college students navigate the admissions course of and opens the door to higher decision-making throughout counseling, schooling coverage, and useful resource allocation.
What are the milestones you propose to realize within the subsequent six months?
Close to-term milestones embody increasing the dimensions and variety of the de-identified dataset, growing counselor adoption and engagement, strengthening distribution past conference-based channels, and persevering with to spend money on product enhancements that make outcomes knowledge simpler to make use of in actual counseling workflows.
The place do you see the corporate going now over the close to time period?
Over the close to time period, Nerd Apply is concentrated on turning into the trusted commonplace for privacy-safe admissions outcomes knowledge. Meaning increasing adoption throughout counseling contexts, persevering with to strengthen knowledge governance and infrastructure, and constructing a sustainable development engine in preparation for the following stage of the corporate.
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