The Spark

Every year, millions of students leave their home countries to pursue higher education abroad. This isn’t just a personal milestone, it’s a global movement that shapes economies, cultures, and academic communities. Understanding the true scale and impact of international education highlights why simplifying the application journey is so important.

For many students, applying to universities isn’t just difficult, it’s overwhelming. Each school has its own set of requirements, timelines, and platforms, all wrapped in different formats and language. What was supposed to be a hopeful journey becomes a web of confusion and stress.

Despite high interest, 35% of students dropped off before completing applications. Decision fatigue and unclear steps were major blockers.

We heard things like:

"I spent hours just figuring out what each university needed from me."

"The tuition fees and program info are all over the place."

"I don’t even know which program fits me best."

"Creating applications was a nightmare, every school asked for different documents, formats, and sometimes even essays on similar topics. It felt like I was starting from scratch each time."

We knew there had to be a better way.

The Problem We Set Out to Solve

Applying to universities shouldn’t feel like running a marathon through a maze,  but for many students, that’s exactly what it felt like.

Through user interviews, surveys, and real application journeys, we uncovered three major pain points that consistently created friction:

1. Process Overload

Every university has its own application platform, its own set of requirements, and its own deadlines. The process is long, inconsistent, and often confusing. Students were left to navigate it all on their own, overwhelmed and stressed.

UBC:

Ontario Tech:

Concordia:

TMU:

2. Scattered Information

There was no centralized place to find reliable, up-to-date data. Students had to dig through dozens of university websites, each with a different layout, just to answer basic questions about tuition fees, program length, location, deadline and admission requirements.

UBC:

Ontario Tech:

Concordia:

TMU:

3. Decision Paralysis

Even when students gathered the information, they were still left wondering: Which program is right for me? With so many options and so little clarity, most were stuck guessing, or gave up entirely.

“I didn’t even know where to start.”
“I kept switching between tabs trying to compare, but it was exhausting.”
“I was scared I’d miss something important.”

These weren’t isolated frustrations. They were common, deeply felt pain points, especially for students applying on their own, without institutional support or guidance.

UX-focused research notes that 45% of students abandon applications due to complexity, suggesting the importance of streamlined processes.
Source: moldstud.com

From the 2025 Niche Spring Junior Survey, 44% of high school juniors said that filling out college applications is now a top source of anxiety.
Source: niche.com

From Frustration to Empowerment: Introducing CanApply

Together, these features form the heart of CanApply, a centralized, AI-powered platform built to guide students through the university application maze.

Students can now:

• Search and compare programs across Canada.

• Get real-time help from our AI assistant, Dana.

• Book expert consultations.

• Upload and manage all application documents.

• Apply directly to multiple universities, right from one dashboard.

• Apply directly to multiple universities from one clean dashboard.

No more chasing scattered info.No more guesswork.Just one platform to guide, support, and submit.

Features That Solve Real Needs

We didn’t just build features, we built them for someone, with a purpose. Each feature in CanApply is grounded in a real need:

🔍 Smart Search & Filters

Why: Students were overwhelmed by scattered, inconsistent program data.
Who: First-time and international applicants starting from scratch.
How it helps: A streamlined interface helps them explore programs using clear, relevant filters, no more tab-hopping or spreadsheet chaos.

📊 Personalized Program Recommendations

Why: Many students didn’t know what programs fit their background.
Who: Students unsure of their academic or career direction.
How it helps: Based on each profile, CanApply suggests programs aligned with academic history, goals, and preferences, making the first step less overwhelming.

🤖 AI Assistant – Dana

Why: Applicants needed immediate answers when support wasn't available.
Who: Self-guided applicants without advisors or agents.
How it helps: Dana is a personalized assistant for each student, acting as a special agent who understands their unique needs and answers questions instantly. From tuition fees and deadlines to application requirements and next steps, Dana ensures students receive tailored, real-time support throughout their journey.

📆 Expert Consultation Booking

Why: Some students needed more than automation.Who: Career changers, international students, and anyone with a complex case.How it helps: Students can book one-on-one sessions with real advisors who not only provide guidance but also have in-depth knowledge of country-specific and university-specific regulations. This ensures that students receive the most accurate, tailored advice when navigating the complexities of application requirements, visa processes, and other critical regulations.

🗂 Upload Once, Apply to Many

Why: Re-uploading documents across multiple platforms was tedious and error-prone.Who: Graduate and multi-university applicants.How it helps: Students upload their documents once, CanApply handles the rest, from organizing to submitting.

🧭 Unified Application Listing

Why: Managing multiple applications was confusing and scattered.Who: Anyone juggling several applications across universities.How it helps: Track progress, deadlines, documents, and communication all in one place.

Impact and Outcomes

CanApply has transformed how students navigate the complex university application process. By combining clarity, structure, and AI-powered guidance, the platform creates both personal success stories and measurable results.

Success Story: A Smoother Path to a PhD

One of our most inspiring stories came from a Master’s student at the University of Waterloo. She had applied on his own before and successfully got in. But when it came time to apply for his PhD, he chose CanApply instead.

“This was so much easier. I didn’t want to go through the chaos again.”
— PhD applicant, CanApply user

That’s when we knew we were onto something powerful.

By the Numbers

Beyond individual stories, CanApply’s broader impact speaks for itself:

Design Principles

User-Centered Design
We placed users at the heart of every design decision. Every feature, every interaction was created with students' needs, pain points, and goals in mind, ensuring the platform serves their best interests and simplifies their journey.

Clarity First
We Simplified navigation that mirrors the natural application journey: search → prepare → submit.

Personalized at Every Step
CanApply adapts to each student’s interests, background, and ambitions, no two journeys are identical.

Trust Through Transparency
From tuition fees to deadlines, we show students everything upfront. No buried info. No surprises.

Lessons Learned

User research is everything.

Without talking to students, we wouldn’t have uncovered the core problems that mattered most.

Centralization = Empowerment

By removing the noise and friction, we gave students back their energy to focus on what really matters: choosing the right future.

AI is powerful, but humans still matter

Combining Dana’s instant help with real advisors made all the difference.

Iteration leads to innovation

The best version of CanApply only emerged after multiple design revisions and user tests.

A Better System Helps Everyone

Students aren’t the only winners. Our internal team became more efficient, responsive, and impactful.

Research & Discovery

Over the course of two years working on CanApply, we invested heavily in understanding the student journey. This wasn’t a one-time activity — it was a continuous process that allowed us to refine our insights as the platform evolved and students’ needs became clearer.

We combined quantitative and qualitative research methods to uncover pain points and opportunities:

• Surveys – to gather broad insights on student challenges.

• Interviews – to hear first-hand experiences from applicants.

• Personas & Empathy Maps – to humanize our data and keep student goals and frustrations at the center of design.

• User Stories & Journey Maps – to visualize the process from “searching programs” to “submitting applications.”

• Problem, Hypothesis, and Goal Statements – to align the team on what we were solving and why.

• Value Proposition & Competitive Audit – to clarify where CanApply stands apart.

User Flows – to translate complex processes into simple, guided paths.

📖 All research materials, notes, and frameworks were documented in Notion, making the design process transparent, collaborative, and easy to revisit throughout development.

From Research to Wireframes

Insights from this continuous research shaped our first iterations. We sketched and prototyped wireframes early to test flows, focusing on:

• A dashboard hub for centralizing actions.

• A clear flow to reduce process overload.

• Smart filters and recommendations to ease decision paralysis.

• An application tracker to unify multiple submissions.

This two-year research foundation ensured our final design decisions were deeply evidence-based. It also gave us a rich set of artifacts to return to whenever we questioned direction, keeping us grounded in real student needs.

Final Thoughts

CanApply isn’t just an application tool. It’s a support system, a smarter, calmer way to navigate one of life’s biggest decisions. By turning stress into structure, we helped students stop guessing and start applying with confidence.

In a messy, fragmented process, CanApply is the map.

🚀 Our vision moving forward? Support 10,000+ more students in finding the right program, and make the global application journey smarter, calmer, and kinder.