Qadam — personal admissions route.

A project for LOCUS Startup Hackathon 2026, case 02 "Personal Admissions Route". Submission code: LOCUSCASE2.

Qadam (қадам — "step") turns a short admissions questionnaire into a route: where to apply, why that option fits, and what to do next.

The interface is available in Kazakh and Russian, with light and dark themes. It covers 336 programs in 23 countries, scholarship matching, a deadline calendar, feedback on motivation essays and study plans, and recommendations for extracurricular activities.

• Demo: https://locus-hackathon-psi.vercel.app/
• Languages: Kazakh and Russian. Themes: light, dark, and system default.

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1. The problem

Applying to university involves dozens of decisions: field of study, country, university, entrance exams, documents, deadlines, and activities. The information is scattered, the advice is too generic, and applicants can't answer two questions: what fits them specifically and what to do right now.

Existing services offer either a catalog of universities or a chat that replies in general terms. Neither takes a person all the way to a submitted application.

2. The solution

A single connected five-step flow rather than a set of separate screens. Users can go through it from scratch or open one of three ready-made examples — with high, medium, and low chances — to see how the profile affects the results.

Step	What the user gets
1. Profile	An 8-screen questionnaire: education stage, interests, school system and scores, languages, exams, achievements, countries, budget, and priorities. Each achievement records not only its scale and result but also its type: a research paper, a conference talk, a patent, or a lab internship each carry different weights. Hackathons are split by format (classic 24–48 hours, online, corporate, themed, CTF), and competitions by type (competitive programming, research papers, case championships, pitch sessions). The scale labels match the type of competition: not "school-level," but "local: within a school or university"
2. Diagnosis	A profile summary: educational goal, what works in the user's favor, what limits their choices, and how complete the questionnaire is
3. Recommendations	Programs with a match percentage and an explanation of "why it fits," written in plain language
4. Comparison	Up to three options side by side across 13 parameters, marking where each one wins, with a short conclusion
5. Plan	A personal roadmap in phases "Now → Preparation → Application → Final," with one highlighted next step and progress tracking

There is also a detailed breakdown for each program: the match percentage split across seven criteria, a chance estimate itemized by factor ("ENT: 112 against a benchmark of 90"), a list of gaps, costs, requirements, and application periods with a link to the official site.

Four sections strengthen the route and are available from any screen:

Section	What it does
Scholarships	Matches 15 scholarships and grants to the profile, with explanations and a list of unmet requirements
Calendar	Application periods for programs, scholarships, and exams, by month; a star marks reminders
Activities	What to add to an application, in three groups: application documents, academic work, and experience and people. The list is built from gaps in the profile, not from a generic catalog
Application texts	A review of a motivation essay and study plan against admissions committee requirements: what they look for, what is already covered, and what to do about each missing item
Account	Name, surname, birth year, and photo. Sign-in with email and password, and password change. Works without a server: the password is never stored, only a salt and the SHA-256 of the salt combined with the password
Favorites	Saved programs in one place

Audience

A 10th–11th grade student or graduate from Kazakhstan applying to a bachelor's program — domestically or abroad, including NIS and IB students. The demo database is built for this audience: 336 programs in 23 countries, roughly 15 per country:

• Kazakhstan (24 programs) and Russia (15), Georgia (12);
• Turkey (15) and UAE (12);
• Europe: Czechia, Poland, Hungary, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, France, the United Kingdom (147);
• Asia: China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia (80);
• Americas: the USA (15) and Canada (15).

Each country has a briefing on why it's worth considering for an applicant from Kazakhstan — free tuition in Germany, Diritto allo Studio in Italy, GKS in Korea, Stipendium Hungaricum in Hungary, PGWP in Canada — with a link to the official portal. It appears as a line on the program card and as a block on the program's page.

3. What makes the product personal

Nothing is hard-coded. Everything the user sees is derived from the profile. Change the budget, country, interest, or exam, and the recommendations, explanations, plan, and next step are all recalculated. The product makes this explicit: after an edit, a notification appears, such as "Matches updated: 2 new options in the top 3," with a specific list of what changed.

A quick-edit block on the recommendations screen — "Change conditions and see the difference" — lets users adjust settings without going back to the questionnaire.

Achievements change the results mechanically, not cosmetically. Each program has a holistic parameter (1–5), which measures how thoroughly the university reads an application as a whole rather than relying only on scores. Adding an olympiad, hackathon, research project, or volunteer experience:

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