What impact does getting my running app featured on a popular running website have on my college applications?Answered
I am a senior in high school doing college apps. I plan to major in Computer Science.
I developed a free app called Fast and Fit for runners and released to the App Store. It has a 100 downloads in the first month. It has unique features like a shoe analysis feature which uses AI to check running shoe quality and help runners identify form problems. I wrote the app as an extracurricular activity on the Common App. I reached out to LetsRun.com, a popular running website with over 7 million page views a month, about writing an article about my app. They were interested and did a Q and A with me through email about the app and said they will write an article about it. The article will be published next week. I was wondering what impact does getting my app featured on a popular running website have on my college applications? Thanks.
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3 answers
Your app will be seen as an impressive accomplishment. Based on your description, I would rank it as a Tier 2 extracurricular. It demonstrates a spike in Computer Science, your major of interest, while also being an impressive achievement because of your technical accomplishments and publicity. It also shows that you are intellectually curious and entrepreneurial.
To turn your app into a Tier 1 activity, you will want to show its tangible impact once it is publicized more. Profit earned from the app store and a large total number of users would make the activity more impressive. Hope this helps!
Hi @jj9430
I downloaded the app and played with it. Of the 3 functions, the converter is fast and accurate. The shoe survey and shoe quality test are very gimmicky and don't add much value to a serious runner. Serious runners know whether their shoes are working or not, and are not going to wait 100 miles or 4 months for a warning sign. At the first sign of blister or shin splints or something biomechanically not working, they are going to dump their shoes on eBay and get something else. With regard to the shoe quality test, I don't think this functionality is of much use. I tried 10 different pairs of shoes and got the same default answer which was not helpful.
There are so many other running apps out there that are very sophisticated and add value so just having a Run Converter so you know what your 1k or 1mile splits are is really not that amazing to me. I used to do it in my head or use a phone calculator to do it. And if I wanted to keep a log of workouts I'd put it in a spreadsheet and save it.
If I had time to create an app, I'd try to match music from my Apple Music or Spotify to the cadence of my running. So if I'm running 150 steps per minute, I think it would be cool to have the app sync up a playlist of songs that is 150 bpm and have the playlist change according to how fast or slow I'm running. Something like that.
I don't think this particular app is very interesting. Nevertheless, you should mention it on your college application because it's evidence that you are doing something creative and entrepreneurial in your free time.
If your app supports a community of users (1XXX-10XXX) with the functionality you can actually charge people, I think that's more compelling to a CS program at a top school.
Wow! Your app sounds great!! Getting it featured on a popular website like that definitely boosts your chances, especially if you mention your app-making and marketing journey in your essays.
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