The Independent Voice of Southern Methodist University Since 1915

The Daily Campus

The Daily Campus

The Independent Voice of Southern Methodist University Since 1915

The Daily Campus

The Independent Voice of Southern Methodist University Since 1915

The Daily Campus

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New website compares college breaks

As SMU junior Lance Barnard began to plan his spring break with his friends at other schools, he was discouraged by the hassle and time it took to locate other colleges’ academic calendars and coordinate schedules.

That’s when the idea struck him: why not build a one-stop website where students could compare their college’s breaks with other schools’?

Barnard approached his tech-savvy friend, Adam Fanslau, computer science major at Drew University and developer of the iPhone app NoteStack, about a week before second semester started and proposed the idea. Less than two weeks later, with the help of their friend Kris Sullivan, also studying computer science at Drew University, Syncademic.com was born.

Syncademic allows users to enter in the names of the colleges whose breaks they wish to compare, and quickly generates a table displaying the selected schools’ spring, winter, and summer break dates.

“With everyone planning their spring breaks right now, it’s really the perfect time to launch the site,” Barnard explained. In fact, with roughly 150 colleges represented and growing, the site has already experienced what Barnard sees as very positive feedback.

“I was a little shocked we got so many visitors so quickly,” Barnard said in response to the 1500 plus likes Syncademic’s facebook page got within the first 24 hours of the site’s debut.

“I think what sets us apart is really that there’s nothing else like this out there, and it’s something that can be really useful for students. It caught on quickly, so hopefully it will continue to catch on more and more,” Fanslau said.

Simon Mak, professor of practice in entrepreneurship at SMU Cox, served as the entrepreneurial guide for the startup. Mak joked that what Barnard really should do is start another business teaching people how to get over 1,000 likes on their facebook page within one day of launching something.

“I think he’s done a really good job putting something online and getting feedback, which is what we call a ‘lean startup’ in entrepreneur-land,” Mak said.

Barnard and Fanslau chose to start the site off with 150 of the “top” universities in the country, based on ratings, rankings and size.

Once Syncademic has expanded to more colleges and gains an even larger following, Barnard also intends to extend the site to include high school schedules and possibly elementary and middle school schedules as well. Barnard and Fanslau’s next concern will be finding ways to monetize the site. Right now, Syncademic is “neither cost positive, nor is it cost negative,” Barnard said. In the future, he plans to partner with travel agencies and airline companies to develop and advertise vacation promotions geared towards students on the site.

“I am personally trying to encourage students to be more entrepreneurial,” Mak said. “You don’t have to be a Cox student to take advantage of the entrepreneurial opportunities at the business school.”

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