We’ve entered a new era in education, where the limitations of physical proximity and available resources have become less of an obstacle than they used to be. Granted, college tuition remains high, but the connective potential of the Internet, new approaches to learning, and new technologies are making it easier in certain ways for people to get the education they deserve.
But if we’re going to take advantage of these new systems and new opportunities, we need a new line of thinking and new approaches. One startup is seeking to introduce such new approaches, and therefore new ways to think about education.
Enter Crimson Education
Crimson Education is a startup dedicated to connecting students from all over the world to resources, mentors, and career pathways that are right for them. Currently, the company has a network of more than 2,000 expert tutors, consultants, and mentors across the globe.
Collectively, these contacts work to help students to secure the best education opportunities for them, including admissions to top-ranked universities. Step-by-step support across a spectrum of tutoring is offered, including extracurricular and leadership advising, standardized test preparation, and more. Some of these universities include: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Columbia, Brown, Oxford, and Cambridge.
Currently worth more than $200 million, Crimson just received a $30 million round of funding for further development. In the 2015/16 admissions round, offers were secured with every Ivy League university, as well as Oxford and Cambridge, for students around the world. During the 2016/17 early round, offers were secured from Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, UPenn, Amherst, Babson, Vanderbilt, and more.
Various branches of the program serve virtually every educational goal, whether undergraduate, postgraduate, medical school, or general career mentoring.
Main Areas of Development
So what makes Crimson stand apart from other tutoring and mentorship programs? The answer has to do with the firm’s main areas of focus and development.
- Equal opportunities. Crimson began when its founders realized how difficult it was for some students -- even academically gifted ones -- to get into top universities. While 40 percent of United States citizens hold a college degree, less than 7 percent of the world population can claim the same level of education. Crimson aims to change this by offering more resources to a broader pool of students.
- Globalization of education. The international nature of the organization is also worthwhile to note. Founded in New Zealand and now operating in 10 cities around the world, Crimson has a global reach, capable of getting students placed into practically any major university around the world. This international orientation makes it easier for students to get where they want to go, even if it’s halfway around the planet.
- Individualized mentorship. The program also pairs students with consultants and mentors on a one-on-one basis. This means students get more attention, and more individual recognition to help them plan, set goals, and achieve those goals in the way that works best for them. Individual focus is almost always a plus in education.
- Technology integration. Crimson also makes great use of technology: It gives students better online resources to achieve their goals, as well as lines of communication that reach to most countries around the world.
Paving a Path for the Future
What’s most important is that Crimson is setting a tone and a standard for the future of education. With the help of this company, and more organizations like it, universities and students around the world can enjoy the following benefits:
- More educated citizens. More educated citizens means greater wealth, more economic prosperity, and lower crime rates. Once we connect a greater percentage of the world population to the best schools, we will all enjoy a higher standard of living.
- More diverse populations. Connecting people across national borders increases the diversity of any university. More diverse populations means more exposure to different cultures, new and better forms of collaboration, and more informed perspectives.
- Better matchmaking. Individualized approaches, better resources, and access to universities around the world mean that students will find better matches for their career goals and needs. This means more people will get a customized educational experience of the kind they need to achieve success and career satisfaction.
- Better training and job placement. Overall, students will perform better under these circumstances and will have a higher likelihood in getting placed in a satisfactory job. That means greater economic prosperity for the nations of the world, and more suitably filled positions at great companies.
- More personalized education. Finally, the individualized attention means everyone should be able to walk away with the appropriate benefits of education. It’s easier to cater to students’ strengths and make up for their weaknesses with this kind of coaching, which should lead to a more informed and better trained population over time.
Crimson alone can’t change the world, but it’s certainly starting to make a difference. If we’re going to continue growing as an interconnected world, we need to do a better job of connecting our students to the educational resources they need.
That means reaching out internationally, providing individual attention, and making sure all students reach their full potential. It may take years, or even decades, for the rest of our educational system to catch up, but when it does, we’ll have smarter citizens, better job placement, and a better quality of life.