Student created site eases transfer pains
(Photo courtesy of Zorrane Abdeali )
Transferring to four-year universities can be difficult, and websites like CollegeShuffle.com attempt to make the process easier for students to tackle.
The site currently supports an estimated 500 transfer students for the University of California, Los Angeles, said Founder of CollegeShuffle, Zorrane Abdeali. The service hopes to expand to other UC schools by next spring.
Inspired by his younger brother, Komail Abdeali, co-founder of CollegeShuffle, Zorrane started the site after witnessing Komail’s challenges when trying to transfer from Saddleback College to UCLA.
“He would tell me how he would constantly meet with his counselor and browse the Internet for answers to his questions about ways to transfer to his dream college, UCLA, but was never satisfied with the results,” Zorrane said. “The more transfers he spoke to from UCLA, the more confident he became. I had learned from a number of my friends that had transferred colleges that my brother was not alone.”
Komail transferred from Saddleback in 2009, and completed his education at UCLA this year.
“CollegeShuffle is something I’m very passionate about because not only did I transfer, I feel what we are doing is already helping students accomplish goals they previously believed impossible,” Komail said. “The more past transfer students I tell about the CollegeShuffle project, the more I hear the comment ‘I wish this was around when I was transferring.’ We’re on the right track, and it’s only going to get better.”
CollegeShuffle serves as an easy-to-use platform for transferring students to have the ability to learn from each other, Zorrane said.
Its features include specific information about colleges, such as admission stats, college rating and reviews, and tips on how to improve a student’s chances of acceptance. The site’s social networking allows transfer students to build a community with similar goals.
“Students [can] contact and interact with other students facing similar challenges, and thereby benefit from the experiences of others,” Zorrane said. “The site provides these solutions via multiple modes: student interviews and reviews, discussion forums, and student-authored articles.”
Along with UCLA, Zorrane expects to have four more colleges built on the site by next year for students to check out. Visit the site at http://www.collegeshuffle.com/.