For UNC sophomore Aum Kendapadi, searching for classes using ConnectCarolina was hard work. He thought the site was outdated and not user friendly.
That’s when he thought of developing an alternative, called Classmate.
Classmate is a new platform that aims to make registering for classes at UNC easier. Though students cannot officially enroll into classes via Classmate, the platform offers filters to select class difficulty—and promises a simpler user interface compared to ConnectCarolina.
“When I thought that I had the power to change even a small aspect of the UNC experience, such as course registration, for the better, I felt like it was my duty to carry on that,” Aum said.
Sophomore Seth Judge turned to Classmate. He said that using ConnectCarolina has been his biggest pet peeve.
“It felt like I was closing my eyes and throwing a dart at a dartboard trying to figure out what classes I can get,” he said.
He said he had no idea how to use ConnectCarolina. For Judge, it was most challenging during the summer before his freshman year.
However, he feels like sending a complaint would not do anything.
“If it’s been this way for years, and they haven’t changed it, what is one email from me going to do?” he said.
That’s where Daniel Le, the head of marketing, wants to be different.
“Our users feel heard,” he said. “Because when they complain about ConnectCarolina, nothing really changes year to year. But if they talk to us about the changes they want to see, we can implement it within a few days, a few weeks. And they can use that next registration period.”
For Kendapadi and Le, their plan now is to go further with other schools. They hope to expand Classmate to Duke University in the coming weeks.