SchooLinks

Many college students are starting to think about internships and their futures right about now. But did you know that most college students end up changing their major at least once? On average, college students change their major at least three times over the course of their college career. That’s a huge amount of time and monetary investment.

I recently spoke to Katie Fang, CEO and founder of SchooLinks – a college and career readiness platform for K-12 schools. According to Fang, SchooLinks is used by about 30 school districts in Illinois – about 183,000 students in the state, including many in the greater Chicago area such as Maine Township High School District 207 and Naperville 203 Community Unit School District and recently received award letter from CPS for a 6-12 district wide deployment by Chicago Public Schools (CPS).

First, tell us a little bit about SchooLinks and why you founded the company?

I founded SchooLinks because I was disappointed with my experience in high school. Not my school itself but how we went about planning for our futures. The process really started in junior year and the conversations with our counselor never went beyond the college application process.

SchooLinks is a college and career readiness platform that’s used by middle and high schools to ensure that every student has a plan for post-graduation that is based on their desires and experiences. Our entire K-12 platform is designed to help school counselors identify their students’ career goals and also help them find pathways to achieve their goals, whether it’s through college, the military, trade school or other means. It also ensures that counselors can easily keep track of where every student is in their college and career planning while also unifying communication for students, staff, and parents. It also simplifies the reporting requirements for districts and turns lagging indicators into leading predictors.

We hear a lot about the rising cost of college and that overall applications are starting to trend downward. As someone innately experienced in that space between colleges and districts, what do you think?

Oftentimes, we draw a divide between college and career, but I think it’s more fluid than that. College is not the end all be all anymore, and not everyone has the opportunity to attend college right away or at all due to their personal circumstances, and we as a society need to provide other alternative ways to succeed. Smart companies are figuring this out because they can no longer recruit enough from their college talent pipeline. We are seeing more and more company/K-12 collaboration to prepare students for their futures. This is one of the trends that I saw when starting SchooLinks and realize that we as a platform, need to create that space and bridge to facilitate that type of connection to truly be pathway agnostic. Connecting those innovative businesses with school districts in their areas is one of the links that SchooLinks is creating.

How do you balance supporting college management and career exploration at your company?

80% of students in college end up changing their major at least once, including myself! That’s a huge amount of time and monetary investment. And we think that the solution really is to have better career, interest and self-discovery conversations in middle and high school.

SchooLinks is the fastest growing college and career planning platform in the space because we are pathway agnostic – we offer more than 80 features to help students explore and think through their careers and interests from K thru 12.

I think it’s more than just balancing college and career, it’s about financial literacy as well, and it’s about providing students with that sense of the real world. Students need to understand the financial consequences of their college and career decisions. We have a feature on the platform called “Game of Life,” and students play the game by choosing their careers, college, and then the dashboard on the right updates with cost and income as they make each move. We are also helping students to think through the lifestyle they want post-graduation to make sure that they are aware of the cost required to maintain that lifestyle.

The last thing I would add here is the fact that education is very accountability driven. We’ve not only created a robust platform for students, but also created robust yet customizable reporting features for districts to streamline their reporting needs. Providing real time and actionable insights for districts to take actions.

There are many parents that push a certain university because the entire family went there, and the student does not want it. Do you think sometimes parents can be too involved in career planning?

I think parents are a vital part of the student decision making process. Family support - financially but also in decision making - helps students understand all their choices and their ramifications. So we need to include parents in making sure they understand all their child’s options - every college possibility and every career available.

That is why SchooLinks has invested in solutions to help include parents in that process - from commenting on college options to signing up for school events such as college prep and career fairs. Parents have their own login to SchooLinks so they have their own experience while also seeing what their children are up to. It’s the best way to stay involved in their children’s post-secondary planning, keep up with school district events, and help ensure they go to the college that is right for them.

How does SchooLinks help families understand the financial commitment involved for college?