PITTSBURGH, May 2, 2023 — Fast Company today announced the honorees of its seventh-annual World Changing Ideas Awards, which recognized Niche Direct Admissions™ as an Honorable Mention in the Education category. The 2023 World Changing Ideas Awards honors sustainable designs, innovative products, bold social initiatives, and other creative projects that are changing the way we work, live, and interact with the world.
Niche Direct Admissions enables Niche’s partner colleges to offer acceptance and scholarships to students based on their Niche profile, eliminating the need for an application. More than a million college-seeking students use Niche annually to research potential colleges. Those students complete Niche profiles, including biographical details, their programs of interest and their self-provided GPA. Provided they meet the criteria predetermined with Niche’s Direct Admissions partner institutions, Niche is now able to notify those students that they’ve been accepted to the respective college with an accompanying scholarship offer, without ever having had to go through the traditional application process. This program reduces friction and creates new pathways for more students to realize their dream of attending college.
Luke Skurman, Founder and CEO of Niche, said, “Niche’s mission is to make enrolling in schools easy, transparent and free. So much of the traditional college admissions process is anything but that – it is unnecessarily complicated, applications are expensive and time-consuming, and students often feel overwhelmed in the face of this life-defining decision. Niche Direct Admissions opens the doors to colleges that students might not have otherwise known, but are a good match for what they’re looking for. It enables the colleges to be proactive and the students to have more opportunities. It’s a win-win.”
Skurman continued: “One out of every two college-bound students creates a Niche profile to help them find their best-fit school. With Niche Direct Admissions, we see a world where all students hold the keys to their college experience and, ultimately, their future. At the same time, amid the unprecedented challenges facing higher education institutions today, we’re able to help colleges fulfill their missions and deliver quality education to the world. It’s an honor to be recognized by Fast Company for the power and potential this program offers.”
This year’s World Changing Ideas Awards honored 14 innovative programs in the Education category – one winner, six finalists and seven honorable mentions. A panel of Fast Company editors and reporters selected winners and finalists from a pool of more than 2,200 entries across urban design, education, nature, politics, technology and corporate social responsibility. Several new categories were added this year, including rapid response, crypto and blockchain, agriculture and workplace. The 2023 awards feature entries from across the globe, from Italy to Singapore to New Zealand.
“It’s thrilling to see the creativity and innovation that are so abundant among this year’s honorees,” said Fast Company editor-in-chief Brendan Vaughan. “While it’s easy to feel discouraged by the state of the world, the entrepreneurs, companies and nonprofits featured in this package show the limitless potential to address society’s most urgent problems. Our journalists have highlighted some of the most exciting and impactful work being done today – from housing to equity to sustainability – and we look forward to seeing not only how these projects evolve but how they inspire others to develop solutions of their own.”
Students interested in learning more about Niche Direct Admissions can visit https://www.niche.com/about/direct-admissions/. Higher education institutions looking for more information about how to offer Niche Direct Admissions to prospective students can visit https://www.niche.com/about/partners/direct-admissions/.
About the World Changing Ideas Awards: World Changing Ideas is one of Fast Company’s major annual awards programs and is focused on social good, seeking to elevate finished products and brave concepts that make the world better. A panel of judges from across sectors choose winners, finalists, and honorable mentions based on feasibility and the potential for impact. With the goals of awarding ingenuity and fostering innovation, Fast Company draws attention to ideas with great potential and helps them expand their reach to inspire more people to start working on solving the problems that affect us all.
About Niche: Niche is the leading platform connecting students and families with colleges and schools. We believe finding the right school shouldn’t be hard, so we’re committed to making it easy for our users to discover and connect with the best ones for them. With Niche, users have access to comprehensive profiles on every school in America – from the ones they know to the ones they have yet to discover. With unique ratings, honest reviews, personalized recommendations, and tools to guide users through every step, Niche is changing the way millions of people find and connect with their school.
Press contacts:
Alicia Stetzer
Director of Communications
Alicia.Stetzer@niche.com
Natalie Tsay
Senior PR Specialist
Natalie.Tsay@niche.com