Every year, more than 3 million Americans graduate high school and are expected to make important decisions that impact their life’s trajectory. They wade into a sprawling world of college application advice and the process is nowhere near straightforward. Tasked with helping those students make decisions about their post-high school plans are high school guidance counselors. These counselors generally fall into two categories: school-based counselors who are generally responsible for hundreds of students every year and private guidance counselors whose fees usually run in the tens of thousands of dollars. These two options leave many students to fall through the cracks. They fail to receive the proper advice to make the most of their post high school careers.
Counselors at high schools are some of the most dedicated education professionals, but they simply lack the bandwidth to give every student the attention they deserve. With more college applicants graduating every year, college admissions is becoming more and more competitive. Properly matching colleges and majors is more crucial than ever to getting into the best colleges and universities.
Supplementing not Replacing Counselors
In an attempt to fill the gap in high school counseling resources, dabbL has created a pioneering AI advisor to guide students through high school by providing the data analytics and personalized guidance in a way that overworked high school counselors are unable to. While a traditional guidance counselor will have the time to meet their students just a handful of times during their junior and senior years, dabbL’s AI assistant can analyze a student’s trajectory throughout their high school career.
Tracking grades, interests, and activities, dabbL makes tailored recommendations about the steps students can take to achieve their goals. The assistant also accesses to the most up to date college admissions information. dabbL leverages relevant data to assess how many students have applied to each school and to which programs. dabbL aims to point students towards where they have the best chances of being accepted in the field of their choice.
What sets this AI use case apart from others is that it recognizes a shortcoming, an area where the current infrastructure is out of its depth, and leverages the strengths of AI to empower students and their counselors. When the time comes for the counselor to write the all important recommendation letters, dabbL gives them details on the student’s performance, areas in which they excel, extracurricular activities and more. Recommendation letters are much more personalized to each individual student.
Going Above and Beyond for Students
In addition to giving personalized high school guidance, dabbL also contains a networking platform that allows student peers to cheer on each other’s successes and share tips they discover along the way. With the App, students can speak with others that are at colleges they are interested in. All of this is tailored to expand the network of resources and advice for every students; in a realm that can often feel confusing.
The CEO of dabbL, Madhu Vohra, also stressed the importance of AI’s bias free nature. However well meaning they are, human guidance counselors often bring their own implicit biases. Be that in preference for certain colleges or selective opinions on specific students that can sway the advice they give. Vohra says that the fair and balanced guidance provided by dabbL is based solely on a student’s individual strengths, weaknesses, and goals. With impartial and data driven recommendations, students have will more confidence to follow the advice dabbL gives.
dabbL was launched in August 2024 by two moms who navigated the journey from high school to college with their kids. Even with the ability to afford the right help, the process still posed significant challenges. With lack of innovation in higher-ed, the founders saw an opportunity to provide hyper personalized college and career counseling at scale, leveraging AI solutions to empower students, parents and counselors.
