With admission to top colleges more competitive than ever, a new platform called NextFour is aiming to make the process more strategic, affordable, and accessible for high school students and their families. Founded by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, the NextFour service combines data analytics, artificial intelligence, and human expertise to guide students through each stage of the admissions journey—from choosing intended majors, to identifying extracurricular activities and building a balanced list of prospective colleges.

“Getting into a highly ranked college doesn’t happen overnight; it requires strategic planning and thoughtful decision-making throughout the high school years to build the strongest applications,” says Samir Kothari, co-founder and co-CEO at NextFour. “We recognize that the process can be intensely challenging, which is why we specifically designed our service to help students (and their parents) throughout that journey and into their dream schools.”

The platform’s approach centers on tailoring the admissions process to each user’s personal interests, academic profile, and long-term career goals. Students can use NextFour to:

• Select one to three intended majors aligned with both personal passions and market competitiveness.
• Explore extracurricular activities that strengthen application “themes” and resonate with admissions officers.
• Develop a college list based on proprietary rankings, admissions trends, and the student’s likelihood of being accepted.
• Receive personalized guidance on standardized testing strategy.

The company also offers the NextFour Advisors Network where users can connect one-on-one with current college students to learn firsthand about specific majors, schools, and activities. A messaging-based Q&A service allows families to ask experts questions in real time, at a cost that the company says is “a fraction” of traditional counseling services.

Kothari says the initial response has been promising. “The feedback from our early users has been great, and we are excited to now extend the platform to more families. We will continue to innovate and execute on our mission to provide users with a trustworthy solution that reduces anxiety, saves money, and enhances college admissions outcomes.”

Filling a Guidance Gap

The company cites survey data from The Princeton Review showing that 73% of students and 69% of parents describe the stress level of the college application process as “high” or “very high.” NextFour’s founders argue that many families struggle to find support that is effective, up-to-date, and affordable. The platform is geared toward students aiming for acceptance into the top 100 U.S. colleges, which often requires stronger applications and more nuanced preparation.

While much of the service is free to use, the company’s goal is to “democratize access” to high-quality admissions advice that historically has been available primarily through costly private consultants. NextFour also emphasizes that college planning should begin early—ideally in the first years of high school—so students can align academic choices, extracurriculars, and testing plans with their overall admissions strategy.

A Data-First Approach

Unlike guidance that relies heavily on anecdotal advice, NextFour uses data and AI to inform recommendations. Its proprietary analytics include specialized rankings based on tangible success metrics, research spending by academic field, and campus safety statistics. The dashboard-driven platform walks students through what it calls the “cornerstone admissions criteria” for selective schools: GPA and course rigor, standardized test scores, extracurriculars, essays, recommendation letters, interviews, and intended fields of study.

Each module includes curated resources, data visualizations, and tools to track progress. For example, the extracurriculars section allows users to log activities and compare them to impact metrics, while the college list builder incorporates scattergrams to visualize how a student’s profile compares with admitted applicants.

Bridging the Knowledge Gap

NextFour positions itself as both a planning tool and a learning resource. Each section of the platform includes “Insights”—brief articles and guides on topics such as crafting a strong personal statement, developing a thematic application, and understanding how admissions officers weigh different components of an application.

According to the company, this structure gives students and parents a clearer sense of the “holistic evaluation” process that most colleges use. While schools rarely disclose the exact weighting of each criterion, NextFour’s framework helps users allocate their time and energy more effectively.

Looking Ahead

With admissions rates at many elite universities hovering in the single digits, the founders say their mission is to level the playing field for students without access to costly private advising. “Our experience indicates that this data-driven approach is far more effective than only relying on anecdotal advice,” Kothari says.

As NextFour rolls out to a wider audience, its creators are betting that combining hard data along with expert input will help students make better-informed decisions—and perhaps take some of the pressure off of one of the most stressful times in a young person’s life.