High Schoolers Hack Class Schedules With 'WikiRoster'

Clint Flinley:

Rishi Satpathy was faced with an age-old high school problem. "I was in a class that none of my friends were in," he says, "and I didn't like the teacher."
At most high schools, that's a problem with no easy solution. Changing your schedule is like a ridiculously cruel game of Tetris where you have to go out and find the blocks yourself. You make countless calls to friends, comparing schedules one class at a time, and then there's trip after trip to the guidance counselor as you try to fit your new set of classes together. But Satpathy and other students at the prestigious Illinois Math and Science Academy have a better way. They use a website called WikiRoster.

With the site -- co-created by an IMSA alum -- Satpathy can sync up with his friends and fill holes in his schedule from the web browser on his laptop. "It's saved many, many trips to the guidance counselor," he says.

Typically, high schools don't post student schedules publicly due to privacy concerns, but there's nothing to stop students from volunteering this information on a third-party website. That's what happens on WikiRoster. Students can then instantly compare schedules and view them in a visual way that makes it all the easier to mix and match classes. Once school starts, they can also use the site to discuss homework assignments or collaborate on class projects.

Teenage founders Jason Lin, Kendrick Lau, and Jung Oh created the site while still in high school. Like many startups, it began as a way to scratch a personal itch.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at August 18, 2013 12:41 AM
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