Portland startup helps colleges reduce student 'melt' rates by using technology to combat isolation

Nearpeer connects incoming college students based on shared interests and life situations with the goal of making those students more committed to the college track. (Image courtesy Nearpeer)

Colleges and universities lose out on millions of dollars in tuition revenue each year as a certain percentage of incoming students never actually show up on campus in the fall—whether because of financial worries, fear, loneliness, or just plain apathy, they simply melt away.

A Portland-based startup believes it can help schools reduce this “summer melt,” as it’s called, by using technology to foster more connections between incoming students over the summer and, in doing so, help encourage more of them to show up to campus in the fall.

Nearpeer, which was founded in 2017, claims its summer 2018 rollout at the University of Maine in Orono helped reduce melt by 16% and increase first-year tuition revenue by $500,000.

Melt is more common than most would guess. Up to one third of all students who leave high school with plans to attend college never arrive at any college campus that fall, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

Nearpeer reduces college student dropout by attempting to solve the large, fast-growing problem of student isolation, according to Dustin Manocha, the company’s founder.

According to Nearpeer’s own market research, today only 14% of students know their peers well, yet 82% of students wish they knew their peers better. To address this, the edtech startup has developed a social networking mobile app and recommendation engine that connects incoming students based on what they have in common, such as location, interests, proposed major, life experience (are they a veteran, parent, transfer student?), and provides a platform for interaction. This simple act of creating connections among students that traditional social networking apps aren’t optimized for (in fact, studies show that popular social networking apps like Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook actually lead to increased isolation and loneliness, Manocha says) helps more students get to campus.

“Simply put, students who are more engaged with their peers are more committed to college,” Manocha says. “Nearpeer fosters this peer engagement, which is so important because student isolation is a rapidly growing problem. With Nearpeer, students benefit because they feel more supported and fewer dropout.”

Successful rollout at umaine

Dustin Manocha founded Nearpeer in 2017 to address student isolation and loneliness that contributes to dropout rate.

After beta tests before the fall 2017 and spring 2018 semesters, Nearpeer operated one of its first full programs this past summer ahead of the University of Maine’s fall semester.

Nearly 50% of incoming UMaine students voluntarily signed up for Nearpeer. That equalled more than 1,000 students who, on average, each used Nearpeer 20 times, totaling over 40,000 peer connections and over 300,000 interactions.

The program was a success, driving a 16% reduction in melt, which equated to a nearly $500,000 increase in first-year tuition revenue for the university and potentially more than $1 million over four years, according to Manocha. (MSI reached out to Jeff Hecker, provost and EVP of academic affairs at UMaine, but did not receive a response before publication time.)

“So by helping students on their path to college, we’re also strengthening the university,” says Manocha, who previously led strategic initiatives at Austin, Texas-based Civitas Learning, a predictive analytics firm in the higher ed space. “Every student saved has huge ROI, plus it’s the right thing to do. And the ROI numbers are even higher at private colleges and universities.”

Because of that demonstrated ROI, the company has already found early traction and is already generating revenue via a model where colleges and universities pay an annual subscription fee based on the number of incoming students. In addition to its work at the University of Maine, Nearpeer has run programs with students at Southern New Hampshire University, Eastern Maine Community College, and Appalachian State University in North Carolina, among others.

The company is majority self-funded, though the Maine Technology Institute has provided $50,000 in grants, which were matched with private funds, to support the app’s development and the carrying out of beta tests. Manocha, who moved with his family from Austin to Portland in 2016, says MTI’s reputation for support encouraged him to base the company in Portland rather than the Boston area.

The company recently was named one of two finalists at the Across Boundaries Higher Ed Pitch Competition Quarterfinals, a contest held on Nov. 14 and hosted by LearnLaunch, a Boston-based edtech accelerator. Manocha will now have the opportunity to pitch Nearpeer at the 2019 LearnLaunch Across Boundaries Conference in February.

“This was Nearpeer’s first ever participation in a pitch competition, so it was an even greater honor to be selected as a finalist,” said Manocha.