Student Advising

Hobsons Acquires High School Counselor-College Admissions App

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 02/14/17

Ed tech company Hobsons recently acquired RepVisits, an application for connecting high school advisors with college admissions offices to arrange high school visits. Hobsons, which produces software for enrollment management and other student services, said it expected to integrate the new functionality into its flagship platform, Naviance, later this year.

Naviance is a college- and career-readiness program intended to help students explore careers, do academic planning and prepare for college. RepVisits was launched in 2016 by Erica White, a high school counselor for Middletown High School in Connecticut. Following the acquisition, White joined Hobsons as the product manager for "matching solutions."

The service works by allowing high schools to set up college rep appointment calendars that simplify the process used by admissions reps to identify schools that are close to each other, with open times and running college fairs. Those appointments can be synced with Microsoft Outlook or the Google calendar.

Hobsons said Naviance is in use at 10,000 schools and districts globally and that RepVisits is used by 11,000 users at 1,600 high schools and 2,000 colleges and universities.

"The acquisition of RepVisits reflects our mission to help students find the right-fit postsecondary options," said Amy Reitz, principal product manager for Matching Solutions, in a prepared statement. "We believe this is an important way to bridge the communications gap between college admissions and high schools, ensuring that all students have access to the best information possible in their college search."