After ClassComp, I started work on upgrading the system. I wanted logins and more functionality for the user. I also wanted to be able to use it myself, so why not adapt it to college? The basic idea was you put in where you went to high school and where you are going to college, and it shows you where other kids from your high school are going and where other kids going to your college are from.
It took a lot of work to build this entire application. Once I found a zip code class, I had to track down all the CEEB codes for all the colleges and high schools. This was a huge table. I had never had to walk away from my computer while Excel ran calculations before. Luckily, the data I found proved to be mostly complete and accurate, so I had the foundation of my site. It could tell you who was going where, and how far away it was.
But that wasn’t all I wanted to do. Google Maps released a wonderful API that lets you incorporate maps into your web apps. It took a few tries, but I finally got it all working. Now not only did you know how far away someone was, you could see where it was, right on a map. This turned out to be a lot cooler than I realized, and the site would have been extremely lame without it. Thanks Google!
I also added links to Facebook pages, on the suggestion of a few of my friends. I was reluctant to add links, but by filtering for only Facebook, it all worked out pretty well. This way if you find out someone from the next town over will be at your school next year, you can find out a bit about them. I know at least one of my friends has met someone going to their school next year this way, and that is very cool.
If you’re a college-aged type kid, why not toss yourself into CollegeComp and check it out for yourself? If you aren’t, you can click the image below to see what it looks like once you sign up. CollegeComp is pretty much the coolest thing I’ve ever made, and I am really pleased with the way it turned out.
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