The technology that could make college admissions fairer — and more transparently priced
Ashley Kern, a data scientist, thought there had to be a better way for colleges and universities to decide which students to accept and how much in aid and scholarships to offer them. It has long been a hit-and-miss process based more on gut feelings than science. And she wanted to turn that around.
So in 2018, she founded Houghton-based SightLine Inc. to offer schools market analysis and predictive analytics through the use of artificial intelligence. The end goal is to make the process fairer and more understandable.
"We empower higher education institutions to better understand the data they already have without complicated software installations and training," she said.
SightLine uses what it calls machine learning to give schools insight into what kind of aid a school should offer a particular student and how the school's financial metrics compare with those at nearby colleges — and to help parents understand what they can expect to pay for tuition based on their kids' grades and extracurricular activities instead of the sticker price posted on a schools' website.
Early investors and end-users say that she and the company are on the right track.
In February 2021, SightLine finished raising a pre-seed fund with an investment of $100,000 from the Michigan Rise Pre-Seed Fund III, a subsidiary of the MSU Foundation in East Lansing. Previously, it raised $125,000 from Invest Detroit. Two angel investors contributed a total of $50,000 to the round.
"We are preparing to start a multimillion dollar Series A this year," said COO Erin Thompson. "We would love to close by the end of the year."
She declined to disclose revenue but said as of the end of June it had already doubled last year's revenue. The company employs five.
"We were impressed with Ashley Kern and Erin Thompson," said Jeff Wesley, Michigan Rise's executive director.
"We liked the mission to help small and medium-sized higher education institutions understand their internal data to more efficiently and economically manage their budgets and support students with predictive analytics. We saw this space and their traction to date at the time of our investment as a perfect fit for Michigan Rise. We were happy to invest and support this early startup," he said.
"We originally invested in Ashley's vision of helping colleges and universities to optimize financial aid decisions and identify most at-risk students through their AI platform. The team deeply understands the significant financial challenges many schools are struggling with," said Patti Glaza, Invest Detroit's executive vice president. "Ashley and Erin are extremely complementary in terms of skills, bringing together a nice balance of technical and business skills."
Kern got her bachelor's degree in statistics from Michigan Technological University in 2015, then her master's degree in data science from Tech in 2017.
Before founding SightLine, she had been a researcher at Tech, working on predictive modeling of remote sensing to assess the risk of landslides after wildfires in the western U.S. She also worked as a consultant for Cliff Natural Resources in Marquette, helping develop models to predict crude iron ore production and usage for mine and processing plant operations.
Michelle Rhodes is associate vice president for financial aid at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids. She has been a customer of SightLine's since March 2021. She and her staff of 25 oversee scholarships and financial aid at the university and help manage on-campus employment opportunities for students.
Two years ago, she began looking for an outside contractor to help her team evaluate and improve their processes. Were scholarships and financial aid being awarded fairly? Could the internal processes involved be improved to make sure students weren't falling through the cracks or getting an unfair share?
She began reaching out to colleagues at other state universities, and contacts at Michigan Tech and Northern Michigan University told her about SightLine.
"They were exactly what we were looking for. We loved that they were a Michigan business, and we loved that they were a female-owned small business," said Rhodes. "There are big national companies that do this sort of thing, but we didn't want a canned response."
As SightLine got involved, COVID was disrupting traditional ways of determining whether to accept an applicant and if and how much aid to give him or her — ACT and SAT tests were suddenly no longer widely available, for example. Rhodes said that meant the school needed better tools for managing its acceptance and aid processes. SightLine's artificial intelligence algorithms bridged the gap.
"We've got really good results," she said. "They used a holistic process, and we improved our needs-based aid and are able to use Grand Valley's money as best as we can."
SightLine claims schools average a return of 15 times on what they spend with the company.
Given her role helping students with on-campus employment, Rhodes found it interesting that a study by SightLine found a direct link between on-campus employment and better long-term retention of those students by schools. Working students go on academic probation less often and are significantly less likely to drop out.
Would she recommend SightLine to other institutions?
"Oh, absolutely. They gave us a lot more for our cost than other companies were willing to provide. They've been very responsive, and we're absolutely going to continue our partnership."
While COVID temporarily brought a halt to SightLine onboarding new clients, a tool the company created as a result was a boon: a low-cost fast marketplace analysis tool that compared a school's metrics with its competitors in the region — what percentage of applicants get accepted and the average cost of tuition, for example.
"Schools were in crisis mode. That became our lead entry point a majority of the time," Thompson said.
One tool SightLine offers allows schools to give applicants a better idea of what they will actually pay for tuition. Thompson said schools typically list a price on their website that often is higher than what the student will end up paying, once discounts and aid are factored in. The higher listed price often scares an applicant away, she said, but now, SightLine's predictive analytics can give potential students a better idea of what the real price will be.
"The listed price is often very inflated," she said. "Institution X might list $60,000 a year, which scares parents away; they don't realize they might be able to get a discounted rate of 50 or 60 percent. It's not a transparent process."
Jennifer Kingsley Green is associate vice president for enrollment management and student success at of Longwood University in Farmville, Va., a school with about 4,800 undergraduate and graduate students. She began working with SightLine in February.
"The SightLine team is really an extension of our Longwood team, helping drive important conversations based on data analytics," she said. "The analytics they have performed, insights gleaned, and recommendations are thought-provoking and challenge us to think bigger. They are true partners that are responsive to our needs, knowledge and goals to help us make decisions for the long-term wins."
As of the end of June, SightLine had signed on 15 schools. Other customers include Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kan.; St Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa; Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio; Finlandia University in Hancock; Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, Ind.; and the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
In April 2021, SightLine was one of the awardees for the SmartZone Best Small Business award, presented in East Lansing by the Michigan Economic Development Corp. to companies that had been nurtured by the state's SmartZones.
On March 1 this year, SightLine got national certification as a Women's Business Enterprise and Woman Owned Small Business by the Great Lakes Women's Business Council, a regional certifying partner of the Women's Business Enterprise National Council.
Tom Henderson - Crain’s Detroit Business