Universities Look For Students Who Are ‘College Ready’: Vivek Bhandari, CEO & Founder, Scholarly

Launched in 2019, Scholarly Online Edutech helps students map out their interests, improve their skills in Math and English, conduct college level research, and get admitted to their dream university. Scholarly helps develop customised roadmaps for students based on their cognitive ability, key behaviours and academic performance to find universities, courses and key skills that will support them in their desired career. We spoke with the founder Vivek Bhandari, an IIT Delhi and IIM Kolkata Alumnus. In an exclusive interaction he spoke with BW Businessworld on building this platform and the benefits students have received since its inception.

What kind of gap have you observed between high school and higher education and what role is scholarly playing to bridge it?

There are two main gaps that we are trying to bridge. The first is that students often don’t have a clear understanding of what careers and professions suit them and what they should pursue in college. This leads to a situation where they don’t select the correct subjects in grades XI and XII. We provide cognitive and psychometric assessment that helps students (and their parents) understand the abilities and behaviours of the students and helps in mapping the right courses of study. That in turn can be used for selecting the right courses.

The second gap is that most students don’t get adequate exposure to research. So, they may be quite good at solving the problems provided at the end of the chapter but they are not able to use their knowledge to solve real world problems. We provide research papers in different subjects, where high school students work with eminent professors to solve real world problems in that subject. This helps prepare students for undergraduate research. Students acquire skills like, formulating an appropriate research question, engaging in exploration of the topic, communicating their ideas and developing a framework and an argument to solve the problem.

Can you tell us the steps students should take to effectively utilise your platform? What is the ideal age to start planning?

The ideal age to start planning for college is when the student enters grade IX. Even if you don’t know at that time what studies you want to pursue in college, it is still important to be aware of the different career choices. If you know what doesn’t excite you, that’s a good start. In grade IX and X, students should try to find out as much as possible about different courses of study so that they can firm up their plans by end of grade X.

There are a few ways that students can effectively use the Scholarly platform. They can appear for the Cognitive & Psychometric assessment to understand their ability, behaviours and interests and make informed decisions about their career and higher education. The next step is to develop their list of target universities and geographies. Our counsellors help students prepare holistically for admissions to their dream university.

Scholarly also provides quizzes in Math and English for students in grades IX to XII. We see several students participating in the quizzes daily. In general, a strong command over Math and English is crucial whether you plan to appear for SAT, CLAT or IPMAT. Our platform and live classes for these subjects help students prepare for and ace these competitive tests.

What are the most common concerns students have expressed when looking for universities? What tools does Scholarly offer to address this?

The concerns we see frequently are:

a) What should I study in college?

b) What subjects should I take in grade XI to align with my desired college course?

c) Should I study in India or explore going abroad for higher education?

d) What extracurricular activities should I pursue to improve my chances of admission? and

e) How should I maximize my chances of getting scholarships?

Our Cognitive & Psychometric tests help resolve the first two questions. Our in-depth counselling sessions help students identify geographies and top colleges offering the major in their subject of interest. Our admission support team creates a personalized roadmap for each student and helps keep them on track. This ensures that students efforts are closely aligned with their objectives, and they become the best version of themselves. Our regular workshops, book clubs and events provide students with a high-quality peer group where they make presentations and ask questions. When a student pursues a productive activity with discipline over 52 weeks (one year), it makes a big difference. Over 2 years, the difference is amazing.

Given the diversity of India, how does Scholarly cater to students from different backgrounds?

We interact with students from different backgrounds and socio-economic strata. We conduct a monthly test and provide full scholarship for SAT preparation to top 10 students solely based on merit. We have also offered partial scholarships to a number of students for the research papers offered through Scholarly. We are very pleased with the quality of students that we have worked with and with their performance.

Many students that we interact with desire to go abroad for college. Our team takes a balanced approach and helps the students and parents understand the benefits of studying abroad, the financial commitment as well as scholarship opportunities. A student does not need to go abroad to do well in life. Learning to focus on your goals, disciple and time management are a key part of personal development. If a student can learn how to do that, they will be successful.

What role has ‘Research’ played in overall student development? How can students participate in these?

At Scholarly, students work with eminent university professors during summer and fall session. Based on their interest, students can choose subjects like, Physics, Biology, Economics, Data Science, Computer Science, Marketing or Psychology etc. In the research course, the students work closely with the professor to identify a problem within that area, develop a research question and a framework to answer it.

A research paper shows that the student has the energy and the initiative to go beyond what is taught in the class and solve real life problems. It also let the students learn the discipline of not rushing intuitively to the likely answer, instead using a deliberate process in which they are guided by the data. High quality research papers endorsed by professors are published by Scholarly.

What areas are often neglected that can play a huge role in the acceptance rate of a college application?

It depends on your objective and which university and geography you want to study in. Specifically, if you plan on going to USA and studying at an Ivy League or an equivalent university, you need good grades and strong extracurricular activities. In contrast to a one-dimensional admission process followed by Indian Universities which is majorly based on grades or an entrance exam, the admissions procedure for the Ivy Leagues and other top colleges in the USA is holistic and considers a number of elements. These universities look for students who are ‘college ready’ and are capable of succeeding in college and beyond.

While academics are important, leadership experience, intensive participation in extracurricular activities and community outreach programmes is also crucial. Extracurricular activities such as debates, cultural events, sports, technical events, workshops, conferences, and volunteer work sharpen your interpersonal skills while also preparing you for higher study overseas, physically and mentally. Please be mindful that performing three or four activities for a significant amount of time will be more beneficial than performing ten different activities for short periods of time.

What kind of growth have you witnessed since the launch of Scholarly in 2019?

Our solutions help high school students with their subject selection, our quizzes help hone their Math and English knowledge and our classes help with their SAT, IELTS and TOEFL preparation. Scholarly research papers are quite unique and train high-school students on undergraduate / college level research. We are proud of the strong results demonstrated by our students and the positive impact Scholarly has made in their lives.

Starting with a close-knit cohort of thirty motivated students in 2019, we have so far assisted more than a thousand students in their higher education journey. In our mind, sustainable growth is a by-product of high-quality service and customer satisfaction. As such we listen carefully to our students and parents and focus on customer delight. We plan to expand our services for high-school students and to other geographies in the near future.

What are students saying...

Khushi Tekriwal – Computer Science

It was a very enriching experience to conduct research on the topic - ‘Use of Chatbot in Mental Health’ under the eminent guidance of Prof. Doug Luman. I would also like to thank Scholarly for its continued support and for providing this opportunity to me.

Arnav Sharma - Physics

Scholarly’s Summer Research Program 2022 in Physics under the mentorship of Prof. Doros Petasis was quite a learning experience as it helped me visualise the difference between doing an experiment and presenting an experiment as research. This entire experience helped me polish my skills not only in writing a research paper but also presenting a concept in Physics in a way to make the audience understand these concepts, which I believe is an essential quality for a good physicist or engineer. It was quite fun and enriching and I'm thankful to Scholarly for giving me this fantastic opportunity.

Kaushal Patil – Data Science

I strongly believe that Machine Learning can come as an aid in assisting, predicting, and preventing sports injuries. This has been the inspiration for my research topic in Data Science. My overall experience has been tremendous; it has been an eye opener for the amount of research which has been occurring day to day in this domain. I truly believe that Scholarly’s Research Paper program has prepared me well for my college career ahead.

Vidit Goel - Economics

As my school did not offer any research course as a high school subject, Scholarly seemed to be the perfect fit to explore new avenues under expert guidance while making the optimal use of my free time during the Summer of 2022. My overall experience in this course has been a rather pleasant one; I've been able to have first-hand experience studying the field of economics and discovered its sheer diversity and importance in today's world. Thank You Scholarly, Allegheny College, and Prof. Michael Michaelides for this wonderful research experience.

Saanvi Singla – Environmental Science and Sustainability

Since I am passionate about Sustainable Development, especially in the field of Architecture, a perfect blend for two of my keenest interests – Design and Science, I pursued the Introduction to College Level Research Course in Environmental Science and Sustainability under Prof. Eric Pallant. All in all, this class was a fantastic experience for me to witness what actually goes into drafting a research paper. I’d like to thank Allegheny college, Professor Pallant, and Scholarly for providing me with this opportunity.

Tia Mohanani – Biology

Pursuing Scholarly’s Research Paper course in Biology in Summer 2022, under the eminent guidance of Prof. Caryl Waggett was a fabulous experience as I was able to expand my knowledge and understanding of topics like eco health, vaccines, and disease resistance as well as conduct college level research while in high school.