Online college services company raises $5.5 million in venture backing — from statesman.com by Lori Hawkins
Austin-based MyEdu , an online service for college students, has raised $5.5 million from Bain Capital Ventures to expand its marketing efforts and product development.
Founded in 2008 by software veteran Michael Crosno , MyEdu operates a Web-based service that helps students make decisions about their courses, schedules, professors and majors. The company said more than 2 million students have used MyEdu, which offers academic data from 750 universities.
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He started MyEdu by acquiring Austin-based Pick-A-Prof (emphasis DSC), which was co-founded in 2000 by Chris Chilek and John Cunningham , William Cunningham’s son.
Pick-A-Prof had built a base of 1.5 million users at 200 universities by providing online information about professors, including grading patterns, average drop rates and student reviews, as well as schedule planners.
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MyEdu estimates that the average cost of a dropped class is $3,000 and that 70 percent of students transfer schools or change majors, resulting in five to six classes that don’t count toward their degree.
From DSC:
Why do I post this? Because it points out the continuing shift in power that is starting to be enjoyed by the students of our universities and colleges. They are now able to obtain information from other students who have taken course XYZ at U of ABC and can get information about that experience.
I’m not saying that all of this is a good thing, as many students might try to find out who’s giving all A’s and just go with those folks. This may not serve our students — and our society — very well in the long run. As frequently the case with tech-enabled directions like this, there seems to be advantages on one hand, and disadvantages on the other. For example, when the myEdu site says, “Choose the best professors” — the “best professors” for one student might be very different for what constitutes the “best professors” for another.
