About GradsHQ
We built the tool we wished existed.
Applying to graduate school abroad usually starts with a hundred browser tabs and no clear sense of where to even begin. GradsHQ starts the other way round — with your countries, your goals, and a straight line to what's actually relevant.
Built for African talent. Designed for the world.
2
Target countries, Free
5
Target countries, Premium
10
Free programme results per search
48hr
Resume retention window
6
Articles published so far
A note from the founder
34
applications submitted for his own PhD — and the reason GradsHQ exists.
My journey to graduate school was anything but straightforward.
I completed my Master's at the Higher School of Economics in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, and today, I am pursuing my PhD at LUISS University in Rome, Italy. But getting here taught me something that had nothing to do with academic ability.
For my PhD, I submitted 34 applications. Not because I was confused about what I wanted — I knew what I wanted. The problem was that I did not have a system to help me navigate the maze of countries, universities, programmes, funding opportunities, supervisors, requirements and deadlines. I kept thinking: there has to be a better way.
That experience inspired GradsHQ. We are building the system I wish I had when I started: one that helps ambitious people understand where they fit, discover where they should apply, find funding, strengthen their applications and navigate the journey with clarity.
Because graduate school should be about pursuing your ambition, not figuring out how to navigate the system. Welcome to GradsHQ.
Olatunbosun Onaopemipo Olalekan
Founder, GradsHQ · PhD Candidate, LUISS University, Rome · MSc, Higher School of Economics, Nizhny Novgorod
What we believe
Six commitments that shape every feature we ship.
Country-first, always
We never show you a worldwide wall of universities. Tell us where you actually want to study, and everything — programmes, funding, deadlines — stays inside that scope.
Verified, not invented
Every programme and scholarship carries a source and a verification status. If we can't confirm a tuition figure or a deadline, we say so — we never guess and present it as fact.
You stay the author
GradsHQ coaches, questions, and organizes. It doesn't write your statement for you, invent your achievements, or answer application questions on your behalf.
No guarantees, ever
A fit score is a signal, not a probability. We will never tell you that you're guaranteed admission or a scholarship — the outcome is always yours to earn.
Minimal data, on purpose
Your resume is deleted within 48 hours of upload. We keep what's useful for as long as it's useful, not a day longer.
Built narrow, on purpose
Two target countries on the Free plan isn't a limitation for its own sake — it forces real research over endless browsing.
Our mission
Navigate your way to graduate school — wherever you're starting from.
We're building this for applicants who don't have a family network of people who've done this before — starting with African talent, and designed to hold up for anyone navigating graduate admissions from outside the system it was built for.
See it in action
An example journey through GradsHQ.
An illustrative walk-through, not a real applicant — but exactly the shape of what happens when you build your profile.
- 1
Discover
A Nigerian citizen living in Italy, with a Nigerian bachelor's degree, tells GradsHQ she wants a Master's in Management — and picks the UK and the Netherlands as her only target countries.
- 2
Match
GradsHQ researches real, current programmes in exactly those two countries — never Germany, never Canada, unless she explicitly adds them.
- 3
Fund
Scholarships open to her nationality and degree level, scoped to the same two countries, show up alongside the programmes.
- 4
Score
Each programme gets a fit signal and a readiness score built from what's actually true about her profile — never a fabricated 'admission chance.'
- 5
Track
She saves the programmes and scholarships that fit, and they're waiting for her on her dashboard the next time she logs in.
Get in touch
Have a question we haven't answered?
Check the FAQ on the homepage first — most questions about plans, countries, and how matching works are covered there. Anything else, we read every message.
What our applicants are saying
Real stories, coming soon.
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Placeholder programme, Placeholder country
“Placeholder testimonial — this is where a real applicant's story will go once beta testing wraps up. It'll speak to what it felt like to go from an overwhelming worldwide search to a focused, country-scoped plan.”