Atlanta-based Gradschoolmatch is the first company to directly match and engage prospective students and graduate programs. The market they are in isn’t small. Unlike undergraduate admissions where decisions are made in one office, graduate programs (100 programs per university on average) make admissions decisions independently. There are also over two million graduate school applications each year and 50,000 graduate programs in the US alone. The Gradschoolmatch system matches niche interests to over 2,000 academic fields and they recently made some big user experience improvements to their product. We caught up with President & Co-Founder, Brian Clark, to get the scoop.
What UX changes were made and what impact has it had on usability?
We spent a lot of time simplifying the UX. We slimmed down the profiles by about half, designed a modern mobile-responsive interface, simplified how users connect, improved the match algorithm, and added new criteria to search. Another great example of change is in a user’s Message Center. We changed it from an email-like Inbox to more of a text message style Inbox. It’s quicker , more intuitive, and we’ve seen many more messages exchanged between prospective students and graduate program directors.
There are other enhancements specifically for graduate programs such as group messaging and the ability to add faculty and staff Collaborators. Adding Collaborators is a big feature that helps more program representatives use Gradschoolmatch to connect with prospective students.
Our Lead Developer, Jared Welch, an Alpharetta native and recent Emory Computer Science graduate, did an outstanding job building the new Gradschoolmatch website from scratch. He’s very talented and a great problem solver.
How were you fostering feedback loops and translating that into updates?
To foster feedback loops, we focused on Customer Discovery and website metrics. Customer Discovery is something I learned at ATDC and am a firm believer in. I credit a lot of our growth to what I learned at ATDC.
We focused on Customer Discovery by interviewing potential and current Gradschoolmatch users – both graduate programs and prospective students. We tested a few hypotheses and asked a lot of questions. We learned a lot just by listening. What are full time MBA programs looking for in prospective students? What do students need to know to decide which Genetics PhD program fits them best? What do master’s degree programs in Ethics look for in their applicants? How are programs recruiting now? Why do students choose to attend one program over another?
We also looked at metrics from our previous Gradschoolmatch website – conversion rates, where were we lacking engagement and how were users navigating/using the site. That helped us to understand which areas needed to be simplified or made more intuitive.
What’s next for Gradschoolmatch going forward?
We’ve recently changed to a more scalable business model that is also more appealing to graduate school Deans. We’re open to speaking with individuals working in higher education and at universities.
Check out more nuts & bolts on the company here
If you’re in higher education and would like to learn more about Gradschoolmatch, contact Brian Clark at brian.clark@gradschoolmatch.com
Follow Gradschoolmatch on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gradschoolmatch
Twitter: https://twitter.com/gradschoolmatch
