Curious Cardinals, the K-12 personalized learning platform, launched The FlightPlan today, an AI-powered college counseling and admissions strategy platform designed for students in 8th-11th grade. Built by a team of educators and technologists, The FlightPlan is the first college strategy platform based on the experience of working with 15,000+ real students and insights from the track records of what has worked for 10,000+ mentor applicants from top universities — combined with public admissions data from every U.S. college and even insights from Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard. The result: personalized college admissions guidance that until now has only been available to families who could afford private counselors charging upward of six figures.
The $3 billion private college counseling industry has run for decades on information asymmetry: the families who can afford expert guidance get it, and everyone else navigates one of the most consequential decisions of their child’s life without it. And too often, the counseling that families do pay for falls into the trap of manufacturing kids — packaging students to fit a narrow definition of success rather than cultivating the authentic experiences that distinguish them for college and give them clarity for the life beyond it. AI has the potential to close that gap, but the tools students are currently using were not built for the developmental stage of high schoolers or the complexity of college admissions. The FlightPlan was.
The FlightPlan begins with a student profile review and a 15-minute conversation with Sky, the platform’s AI college strategy guide, to understand the student’s courseload, activities, interests, and goals. It delivers a calibrated admissions scorecard showing exactly where the student stands relative to target schools, uncovers the narrative threads already emerging across their classes and activities, and surfaces personalized college prep recommendations — specific internships, research programs, and competitions — matched to who the student actually is and where they live. The plan updates as the student grows, with weekly accountability built in. When a student needs human inspiration and support, The FlightPlan can connect them directly with a Curious Cardinals mentor from a top university.
“A great college counselor knows 20 students deeply. The FlightPlan knows what worked for 10,000. We held back from college guidance for years because we believed the business of manufacturing kids for schools was antithetical to what we stand for. What we built instead is a platform that gives every family the strategic clarity they deserve — while honoring who their child actually is,” said Audrey Wisch, co-founder and CEO, Curious Cardinals
The launch date is deliberate. May 1 is National College Decision Day, the moment every high school family in America is watching seniors commit to college and quietly asking what it means for the students who come next. Curious Cardinals is answering that question directly.
The FlightPlan opens today to its Founding Class of 100 — a closed pilot cohort of the first 100 families to use the platform.
Resources
- Launch Video: Watch on Instagram
- Press Kit: Audrey Wisch 2026 Press & Media Kit
About Curious Cardinals
Curious Cardinals is a personalized learning platform that matches K-12 students with college and graduate school mentors — from Rhodes Scholars to D1 athletes — to turn genuine interests into standout work. Founded in 2020 by Audrey Wisch and Alec Katz while students at Stanford University, the company has worked with more than 15,000 students, logged 100,000+ hours of 1:1 mentorship, and raised $7 million from Anthos Capital and Audacious Ventures. Investors and advisors include Deb Liu (former CEO of Ancestry and creator of Facebook Marketplace), Emily White (Managing Partner at Anthos Capital and former COO of Snapchat), Kristin Sverchek (former President of Lyft), Desiree Motamedi (CMO of Salesforce AI), Vlad Magdalin (founder of Webflow), and Alison Pincus (founder of One Kings Lane). Curious Cardinals is headquartered in San Francisco, CA. Learn more at curiouscardinals.com.
About The FlightPlan
The FlightPlan is an AI-powered college counseling and admissions strategy platform. At launch, it is primarily for students in 9th and 10th grade, intentionally early enough so a student has a runway to authentically shape their narrative. It delivers a transparent scorecard of where a student stands relative to their target schools, uncovers the narrative threads already emerging in their coursework and activities, and surfaces personalized college prep recommendations — specific internships, competitions, and research programs matched to who the student actually is. Built on the proprietary experience of working with 15,000+ real students and insights from the track records of what has worked for 10,000+ mentor applicants from top universities, combined with public admissions criteria from every U.S. college and insights from Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, The FlightPlan provides the strategic clarity that has historically required a private admissions counselor. The first 100 families to sign up join the Founding 100, a closed pilot cohort. Learn more at theflightplan.com.
About Audrey Wisch
Audrey Wisch co-founded Curious Cardinals in 2020 at 19, leaving Stanford during the pandemic to build the company. She has since become a leading voice on AI and education, delivering more than 200 workshops to schools, parent communities, and Fortune 500 companies, and publishing a weekly newsletter that reaches approximately 30,000 parents. Her work has been featured on CNN, CNBC Squawk Box with Andrew Ross Sorkin, The Today Show, Bloomberg, and Forbes. She was named Forbes 30 Under 30 in Education at 19, recognized as the youngest honoree of the Jewish Women International Women to Watch award, and named to Inc.’s 2026 Female Founders 500 list. She has spoken at the Diane von Furstenberg WomenInCharge conference and is the lead subject in the forthcoming documentary The Drug in Our Pocket. For more information, follow on LinkedIn.
Media Contact
Jules Nichols
press@curiouscardinals.com
