ApplySquare: Open data helps high school student realize dream of university

Company profile
 
ApplySquare Imagination Education Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. started in Tsinghua University developed in the United States, and established in Tsinghua Science Park after returning to China. It is a data company focusing on the field of higher education and embracing global users. The company includes ApplySquare, the world's leading student academic development platform, and Square Strategies, a data and technology-driven internet solution provider for higher education-related institutions, and a global think tank for educational research.
 
Challenge
 
College application is the key turning point of teenagers' growth, which decides their future development direction and even growth path. A large number of students study hard, but they are faced with the predicament that they are afraid to apply the best and unwilling to apply the inferior. According to the statistics, more than 90% of the college entrance examination candidates said they lack help in college applications, and more than 80% of the parents lacked the knowledge of the university and the major that their children apply for. Poverty-stricken areas, especially rural high schools, account for a higher proportion, and the information was more asymmetric, which led to the problem of college application more serious and widened the gap.
 
As an educational institution, it is ApplySquare’s unshakable responsibility to help narrow the educational gap between regions and promote the fairness, openness and effectiveness of education.
 
Solution
 
In May 2017, ApplySquare worked with School Department of Central Youth League, Internet Film and Television Center of Central League Network, "Youth Voice" Internet Cultural Service Alliance, CYM Mobile TV Station, Alipay Campus Life and other units to launch the college application charity plan, by which to recruit college volunteers and train them for college application, aiming to bring professional knowledge and skills back to their alma mater and provide personalized data tools and voluntary consultation services for candidates from all over the country. The project built a communication bridge between college students and candidates, and helped college entrance examination candidates in 2017, especially those from poor areas, master the information of college application, make the first important choice in life and help candidates realize their dream of an ideal university.
 
Volunteer recruitment and training
 
The project recruited more than 20,000 volunteers for the charity plan of college application through Wechat official account and Weibo of School Department of Central Youth League, and the self-owned and cooperative channels of ApplySquare Imagination Education Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. 2500 college students were selected as volunteers after rounds of selection. In order to ensure that the volunteers fully understand the content of the project and master enough knowledge of college application, the project arranged three off-line volunteer trainings, and realized the full coverage of 2500 college volunteers. The training content includes project details, professional knowledge and tool library about college application, etc. and also conducted online live broadcast and record relying on the Youth Voice and Tencent Class.
 
Volunteer service development
 
ApplySquare has been committed to making internet technology and data resources better serve education, providing the database of fractional lines with schools and enrollment majors in the past ten years, and the database of colleges and universities, majors, cases and application opportunities, as well as the college entrance examination community and opportunity platform, professional assessment and assessment tools for college application, so that open educational resources can be used by more people.
 
At the same time, through the modules of "Love Alma Mater", "University Lecture" and "Professional Lecture", the project provides guidance to candidates and parents about college application from multiple perspectives and all directions.
 
Love Alma Mater. Volunteers set up QQ group in their high school alma mater to guide the college application, and answer the questions of candidates on the subject of college application in the group. With the group as the bridge, the volunteers clarify the needs of candidates through questionnaires and other means and then transmit targeted latest information to the candidates, publicize the course video of experts and university professors according to the results of the survey, promoting the tools and popular science articles related to the college application.
 
University and Major Lecture. "University Lecture" is a group founded by volunteers from the same university. They help the students who are intended to apply for the university or are interested in this university to understand their university in detail and comprehensively. The content covers campus life, academic situation and employment situation. The Group provides detailed explanations for the parents of 37,704 candidates and the good feedback rate reaches 97.33%.
 
Major Lecture is a group founded by volunteers from the same major to explain their own major, which helps senior students in high school understand their major in detail and comprehensively. The content covers professional research direction, curriculum, development trend, employment situation and so on. The Group provides detailed explanations for 21,958 candidates and parents in the group and the good feedback rate reaches 98.54%.
 
Experts Q&A. ApplySquare has invited dozens of university teachers, application experts and industry practitioners to offer free live lesson on major to help high school students better understand the various majors in university, future employment and preparation for postgraduate examination. Tens of thousands of candidates and parents were involved, and the satisfaction rate of candidates reached 95%.
 
Online interaction. The project organizes more than 40 university professional teachers as experts in the Youth Voice, and organizes more than 140 volunteers to answer questions in the community of ApplySquare Imagination Education Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. Totally, 11,131 questions related to the college application were answered and they received 27,082 likes from students and parents. The related content has been browsed and exposed 40 W + times in a week.
 
Promotion and dissemination. Among the recruited volunteers, a group of volunteers who have certain influence and appeal in the WeMedia or run the WeMedia are recruited. The publicity calls for more college students, senior students in high school and parents to participate in the project. The series of short interesting videos about majors and Universities were shot in MV and other ways and then was disseminated on micro-blog and other platforms. More than 600 related videos were released. The topic of Sina Weibo, "charity plan for college application" has more than 1 million visits. The MV of college application "One person is drunk" on Sina Weibo was viewed 1.52 million times and 3.78 million times in Seconds App.
 
Achievements
 
As of July 20, 2017, the "dream of university, charity plan for college application" served candidates and parents in 31 provinces and cities throughout the country. It directly provided guidance services for more than 500,000 candidates and parents, and answered nearly one million questions, covering nearly 2,000 high schools in the whole country, including more than 1,000 high schools in counties and rural areas, and 300 poor counties in the country. 96.32% of the candidates thought that the plan for college application was very helpful to them, creating a good social influence.
 
In this project, the ApplySquare has contributed to narrowing the educational gap between regions, realizing the targeted poverty alleviation in the field of education, and promoting the fairness, openness and effectiveness of education. The project provides a practical example for the adoption of volunteer service model to help college students’ enrollment and obtain employment. It also creates a brand image of ApplySquare who focus on the field of higher education and actively fulfilling CSR.
 
Prospect
 
ApplySquare has been and will continue to work with public welfare organizations and various poverty alleviation organizations, such as donating books to schools in poor mountainous areas, volunteer teaching training, offering free open courses for college application, and free promotion of higher education data resources and product services. The charity plan for the 2018 college application will also be launched soon. The ApplySquare will continue to increase investment and make unremitting efforts to promote the fairness, openness and effectiveness of education.