If you’re a pre-collegiette soaking up the sun before stepping on campus for the first time in the fall, you’re probably experiencing a bit of anxiety about making new friends at school, and you’re totally not alone! While freshmen Facebook groups and accepted student days can be good ways to meet the masses, it can be hard to find people you really click with, especially if you go to a bigger school. Pre-collegiettes, meet JoinU, a brand new app by Cloud Castle for eCampus Ventures. It’s officially your new best friend as an incoming freshman, and the best part is that it’ll help make other best friends–of the fellow freshmen variety. Plus, it’s completely free.
JoinU is an app for your iPhone that uses your Facebook login info to connect you with students and users from your university. All you do is log in, select your school, anticipated graduation year, dorm building and major (if you know it!) and any extracurriculars you’re interested in. The app will then match you up with users who have listed similar items as you have and give you the option to join communities based on dorm buildings, classes, or activities. In the future, JoinU hopes to add space for a more detailed bio and a roommate survey feature to allow users to connect and find potential roomies (like the girl who shares your obsession with Orange is the New Black and late-night fro-yo).
Similar to Tinder, JoinU allows users to “like” other users if they have things in common, but a user is only notified if both users have independently “liked” one another. So no need to worry about what that cutie down the hall will think if you like his profile; he’ll never know! Unless he likes your profile back, in which case… you go, girl.
Dan Thibodeau and Justin Gaither, the innovative minds behind JoinU, are no strangers to the college marketplace, having already achieved amazing success with their roommate-finding service RoomSurf and textbook-trading service TextSurf. It’s safe to say that these guys know what’s up when it comes to giving college students what they want and need, and JoinU is certainly filling a specific niche.
According to technology website BetaBeat, “20,000 high school seniors from 50 countries have downloaded JoinU.” These numbers are especially impressive when you consider that the app was only launched for iOS on April 15 of this year and already has student users on over 200 campuses.
This app really captures what it means to be a connected collegiette and an involved underclassman; in the words of co-creator Dan Thibodeau: “That’s really what college is about: what’s going on around me, who’s doing it, and can I get involved?” Couldn’t have said it better ourselves.
Hoping to be a well-connected and confident collegiette come move-in day? Be sure to check out JoinU on Facebook and Twitter and download the free app for yourself. Who knows? You might even meet your future roomie!