— Michelle & Samantha, Co-Founders of GradMap
Michelle
I was the first person in my family to go to college. Nobody in my house knew how the process worked. There was no one to ask about the difference between a UC and a CSU, no one who had filled out a FAFSA, no one who knew what a common app was or why any of it mattered.
I figured it out, eventually. But I carried so much unnecessary confusion and anxiety along the way, not because I was not capable, but because I did not have a map. I did not know what I was supposed to be doing, or when, or why. I was navigating completely blind.
That experience is a big part of why I became a college counselor. I wanted to be the person I did not have. After 21 years and more than 4,000 students, I am still driven by the same thing: I want every family to feel like someone is in their corner, no matter where they are starting from.
GradMap is the most direct version of that I have ever been able to offer. It is not a replacement for human guidance; nothing replaces that. But it extends it. It puts the same level of structure and information that I give my private clients into a platform that any family can access, anytime, for a fraction of the cost.
I built GradMap for any 16-year-old who needs a map.
Samantha
I grew up in a family where nobody had gone to a four-year university. College was something we talked about in the abstract, of course you will go, of course it will be fine, but nobody in my house could tell me what “fine” actually looked like or how to get there.
I got into UC Santa Barbara to study Computer Science and Engineering, and I am proud of that. But I remember sitting in the admissions office on decision day and realizing I had barely understood what I was applying to. I had done the minimum, filled out the forms, written the essays, and sent the applications, without any real sense of strategy or self-knowledge.
Looking back, I left a lot on the table. Not because I was not qualified, but because I did not know what questions to ask.
When Michelle first told me her vision for GradMap, I understood immediately what she was describing. Not just a planning tool, a guide. Something that tells you what questions to ask and when, that keeps the information organized so nothing falls through the cracks, that helps you actually see yourself clearly enough to present yourself well.
That is what I wanted at 16. That is what we are building now.
Why it matters that we are both first-generation
We are not building GradMap as outsiders looking at a problem. We lived this. We know what it feels like to navigate the college process without a guide. We know the specific texture of that confusion: it is not just about information; it is about not knowing what you do not know.
That experience shapes every decision we make about what GradMap does and how it works. We are not optimizing for the student who already has a private counselor and two parents who went to selective colleges. We are building for the student who is figuring it out as they go.
Every student deserves a map. That is why we are here. 💙