20-year-old resident of Stony Brook, New York, launched an exciting new college-exclusive app called Colltures, on Wednesday March 5th.
Omid Esmaili took this spring semester off to pursue his dream in creating this online and mobile app that is used to rep students’ schools and share their “college cultures.” Features on this app include the “University feed” where students can post content, a “Who’s in my Classes” page where students can contact their fellow colleagues, and a “People” page where students can search for others by gender, major and minor, interests or hobbies, and by hometown and high school. This app also features a “Clubs and Organizations” page, where students can rep and find different Greek Life along with sports and other groups on campus.
Like what your friend posted? You’re not just limited to that now! You can “cheer,” “smile,” “nudge,” and “frown” at every status, photo, or video.
So what makes this app exclusive? Only students enrolled in a college or University have access to this. That’s right; no more little middle schoolers trolling on your social media newsfeeds. To sign up and create a profile on Colltures, you need an actual (.edu) email.
Esmaili said that he started this app because he was disappointed to learn that the University he had enrolled in was not all that he thought it would be. “I basically got reeled into enrolling at a school that I had no clue about because they had really good tours. But the tour doesn’t always show you what actually goes on at the school. They don’t even talk about off campus really- just a brief description of the pizza places and bars nearby at best. I want other students to be able to skip the whole process of transferring to a different school just because they didn’t know what the real campus life was going to be like,” said Esmaili. Colltures allows students to upload statuses, photos, and videos to show the circle of people they connect with what their college experience is actually like.
Plans for the future of this app include public access to Colltures, where prospective students can view previews of the University Feed that they are interested in, while still keeping the ability to post content exclusive to those with an (.edu) email.
The founder also let us in on a little secret: there’s going to be a National Rankings feature for all clubs and organizations that are listed on Colltures in the near future. For example, if a sorority was to make a group under the “Clubs and Organizations” tab, and it got the highest amount of supporters, they will have a better chance of getting the top national rank.
The young entrepreneur said that he came up with the idea of this app one day when he was listening to Asher Roth’s song “I Love College” and wondered why nobody had created something to record actual college life and what really goes on. “And then I started learning coding and perfected my web design skills so that I could create Colltures. It took me a very long time to perfect the skills but it was very much worth it.”
Esmaili wants future students to know what they are getting themselves into before they spend up to four or more years at a specific school whether they attend Harvard, Yale, or The University of Tampa.
Esmaili said his goal is for people to get a real look into the eyes of a college student, and for Colltures to eventually be the #1 college website and mobile app.
“I’ve never put so much effort in one place before, but I love it. If you’re persistent at something, I think that’s what makes you successful.” Colltures has attracted 846 users in just three days from when it first launched, and the numbers are increasing each day.
If you haven’t already signed up for this new college hub app, you are missing out. Just visit www.Colltures.com or download the Colltures iPhone app and see for yourself!