Word: gradefund
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Dates: during 2008-2008
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...many recent college grads do—packed up his stuff and moved into an even smaller living space in New York. However, instead of choosing (selling his soul to) Goldman Sachs, he decided to gather some of his friends from high school and start his own company: GradeFund.com. GradeFund connects college students to sponsors who pay them for their good grades. Potential sponsors range from parents to prospective employers. People who pay you to get good grades? Sounds like parents...awesome parents. And this isn’t Kopko’s first go at entrepreneurship...
...When a student reaches $100 in donations, GradeFund mails them a check. (Students can withdraw the money before they reach the $100 mark, for a $5 fee.) Kopko will be adding features to bring in revenue - including a job-search engine that will let employers search for a computer-science major who aced Spanish or any other equally specific set of skills. (See pictures of a diverse group of American teens...
...weeks since the site launched, Antonietti has busily sent out GradeFund invites. "I've asked relatives, friends of the family, teachers I've had in previous years," she says. So far, she has 15 donors who've pledged $10 per A. The money could add up: if she gets straight A's in her five classes, she'll earn $750 a semester...
...Like DormAid, GradeFund has arrived amid raised eyebrows. Isn't it supporting the wealthiest students rather than the neediest? (Kopko says a range of students are signing up.) Couldn't students use the money to just buy pizza? (Donors can have checks sent to the tuition office rather than directly to the student.) And won't it encourage students to obsess even more about grades? Kopko isn't worried. "So far, the closest thing I've gotten to a critique was an administrator at Adelphi University who posed the question, "Might this increase the incentives for cheating?'" he says...
...hopes GradeFund will change students' motivation level. "We're setting up small, little carrots," he says. "Let's say there's a seventh-grader who is contemplating cutting class with his friends. If he has $100 on the line, maybe he'll go to class." And if he's really on the ball, maybe one day he'll realize that GradeFund's 5% transaction fees amount to a pretty hefty commission...