An easy way to earn scholarship money is literally at the click of a button.
Urge, an app that allows college students to connect with others at their school, is hosting a competition for students at 50 schools in the U.S.
All students need to do to enter is go to scholarsmackdown.com, submit their school emails and start clicking their mouses to collect tallies for their chosen school. The top 10 clickers will be entered into a tweet-off to win one of the two $5,000 scholarships.
Kyle Banuelos, one of the founders of Urge, said the app, which will officially launch in the fall, is a way for people to make friends at large universities. They can be introduced to people online and hang out on campus.
“A lot of applications (like Facebook) are trying to connect students online,” he said, “but Urge is about connecting to people offline and in the moment.”
Becca Heller, a 20-year-old UF microbiology junior, said although having an app that allows people to meet offline is nice for some people, she’d rather meet her friends in person.
“You don’t always know who you are talking to online,” she said.
People can act differently online than they actually are in person, Heller said. It’s easier to fabricate a personality online.
[A version of this story ran on page 5 on 6/5/2014 under the headline "College networking app to give away $10,000"]