How many students could realistically apply to Frontier?

Three steps, each narrowing the pool. Start with geography to set the annual graduate base. Apply subject-area filters to find the technically capable pool. Then a series of considerations to arrive at a realistic number of applications for Frontier.

Step 1 — Geography: select target counties

✓

Baltimore City

72% grad rate · Hub location

FIT's physical hub. Highest economic disadvantage of the four counties — the price point is most powerful here. Strong Catholic and independent school sector (Loyola Blakefield, Maryvale, Archbishop Spalding). Primary channel: examination and technical high schools.

4,240

✓

Baltimore County

86% grad rate · Largest pool

Most populous of the four counties and the largest graduate pool. Economically diverse — ranges from affluent Towson and Catonsville to lower-income areas in the east. Home to UMBC, which has a strong CS and engineering culture that shapes the surrounding school ecosystem.

10,080

✓

Howard County

93% grad rate · Highest STEM density

One of the wealthiest counties in the US with a high concentration of federal contractors, NSA, and defense-sector professionals. Students here are academically strong but may feel squeezed between full-ride schools and mediocre state options — the most likely source of the deliberate, high-agency opt-out archetype.

6,865

✓

Anne Arundel

Conditional — 45 min commute friction. Not Year 1.

Sizeable graduate pool but significant commute friction to the Baltimore City hub. Lower tech density than Baltimore City, Baltimore County and Howard County. Include for reference; deprioritise for Year 1 outreach.

5,540

Graduate figures: MSDE 2023-24 public school enrollment x county graduation rates, plus an estimated 46% private school supplement (Maryland has 46 private school HS enrolments per 100 public — 5th highest in the US, per NCES 2023). Private school figures are estimates; county-level private enrolment data is not published by MSDE.

21,185

high school students graduate each year across selected counties

Step 2 — Subject interest: three lenses on the technically capable pool

No single data source cleanly identifies students with builder instinct. These three approaches each use the lower bound of their respective estimates to give a conservative view of the technically capable pool.

CTE subject participation

Upper bound — broadest proxy

~24% of graduates

Maryland statewide CTE participant data. IT cluster accounts for 23.5% of all secondary students. A student who took one IT elective counts the same as someone who has been building for years — so this significantly overcounts genuine interest. Treat as a ceiling.

Source: MD 2023-24 Secondary CTE Participants · IT = 23.5% of all students

Computer science course enrolment

National lower bound figure

~6.4% of graduates

Nationally, 6.4% of high school students take a foundational CS course (Code.org 2024). Maryland is likely above this — the state mandated all high schools offer CS — but 6.4% is the conservative floor. Does not capture self-taught builders who never enrolled in a formal CS class.

Source: Code.org State of CS Education 2024 · National figure used as lower bound

College major intention

Students heading into FIT-adjacent subjects

~10% of graduates

62% of graduates go to college. Of those, ~25% choose CS, engineering, maths, or business (NCES 2023). Using the lower bound — CS, engineering, and maths only, excluding business — gives roughly 16% of college-goers, or ~10% of all graduates who would traditionally study technically adjacent subjects.

Source: NCES Condition of Education 2023 · CS ~5%, engineering ~6%, maths ~3% of bachelor's degrees

Technically capable pool

~2,100

10% of 21,185 graduates · range 5–15%

Three lenses converge on a 6–10% range using conservative estimates. The 5–15% range accounts for county variation — 5% Baltimore City, up to 15% Howard County. This measures technical capability, not likelihood of choosing FIT.

Step 3 — Realistic applications: filters that shape the consideration pool

Of the technically capable pool (~2,100), several filters reduce who would genuinely consider FIT. Each removes a share of the pool — what remains is the realistic consideration set.

Filters that remove students from the pool

Wants a campus experience

Large

The biggest single filter. Many students — and their parents — associate higher education with social development, sports, dorms, and community. FIT doesn’t offer this and doesn’t pretend to.

Wants a specific traditional degree

Large

Students set on mechanical engineering, medicine, architecture, or law — fields with licensure requirements or narrow pipelines — will correctly identify FIT’s SE and DS majors as not the right fit.

Prestigious alternatives

Moderate

High-capability students who get into Ivies, MIT, Stanford, or strong LACs have a compelling alternative with strong social proof. Particularly relevant in Howard County where academic performance is high.

Trust and unfamiliarity

Moderate

A new institution with no alumni network and no track record. Even students who like the idea will hesitate without social proof. This filter shrinks significantly by Year 3 as graduate outcomes become visible.

Family expectation

Moderate

Particularly strong in first-generation families where a traditional degree carries significant social meaning. Even a motivated student may not be able to choose FIT without parental support.

Awareness

Year 1 constraint

A student can’t choose FIT if they’ve never heard of it. In Year 1, targeted school outreach reaches an estimated 30% of the consideration pool. This grows every year as brand builds.

After all filters

~10%

of technically capable pool

Realistic applications

~210

students per year

Upper limit: ~2,100 technically capable students

All rates are working assumptions — not published data. Consideration rate will grow as trust, brand recognition, and graduate outcomes accumulate.

What problems do they have with current options?

Problems we solve

Foregone income

A four-year degree requires four years of not earning. For students who need to contribute financially, this is a structural barrier.

Output mismatch

Traditional degrees produce transcripts. The market rewards portfolios. Capable students who are already building can see this gap — and can’t find a degree that meets them where they are.

Tuition costs often result in high debt

The average US student graduates with ~$37K in student loan debt from tuition fees alone. For most students without a full scholarship, a four-year degree means starting adult life already behind.

The cost of campus infrastructure

Housing, meal plans, and campus fees are where traditional education monetises its model. Students who don’t need that infrastructure pay for it anyway.

Structural inflexibility

Fixed timetables and mandatory relocation exclude students with jobs, care responsibilities, or other commitments — regardless of their capability.

The social default is university

Students who want something different have to actively justify that choice to parents, teachers, and future employers — without a clear alternative they can point to.

Lacking talent density

In a large university cohort of hundreds, a builder might find two or three people who think like them. The peer group that actually shapes you — the people who push you, collaborate with you, and hold you to a standard — is hard to find at scale. FIT is built entirely of those people.

Future problems to solve

Brain drain from mid-tier cities

Talented students leave Baltimore for college and rarely return. A city-rooted FIT keeps builders inside the ecosystem that needs them.

Not a focus

Social and welfare problems

Poverty, housing instability, and mental health crises require wraparound support FIT is not designed to provide.

Escape from home environment

For students who need distance from a difficult home environment or are looking for new role models, residential university genuinely delivers something FIT does not. This is a real reason to choose elsewhere.

What is Frontier’s solution and why do they care?

Now

Accredited 3-year degree

A fully accredited US university degree completed in three years — without putting your life on pause or taking on significant debt.

$200 a month. Debt-free.

~$7,200 in tuition fees for the full three-year degree. For students without a scholarship offer, this changes everything.

Earn while you learn

Work on your own venture through the Frontier Venture Studio — built into the degree, not a side project. Real output, real income, a public portfolio before you graduate.

Live at home

Meet a new peer group in your city while managing costs by living at home. Not for everyone — but for students already rooted in their city, FIT is built around that.

Cohort of builders

Selected on what you’ve built, not your grades or test scores. Every student has shipped something real. You’re no longer the only one in the room who thinks this way.

Arrive with credit

Work completed through partner clubs and programmes counts towards your degree. You don’t start from zero.

Global immersion

Immersive experiences in Taiwan’s hardware ecosystem and Rwanda’s emerging tech sector. Different markets, different problems, different scale — the kind of exposure that reshapes how you build.

Industry partnerships for real work

An industry partnership that puts students onto real challenges with real companies from day one. Not simulated briefs — actual problems, actual stakes, and work you can talk about.

Future

Part of your city’s culture

Events with local companies, a city-based advisory board, and deep roots in the local tech and education ecosystem. FIT as a civic institution, not just a school.

Not a focus

Guaranteed job placement

FIT prepares students to create opportunities, not to be placed in them. Portfolio and reputation do the work a careers office would.

Campus social infrastructure

Sports teams, athletic facilities, Greek life, residential halls. Students who want a traditional campus experience will find it elsewhere.

Wraparound social services

A large mental health, counselling, or student welfare division. FIT is a high-agency environment — students who need significant institutional support are better served elsewhere.

Escape from home environment

For students who need distance from a difficult home situation or are looking for new role models through residential living, traditional university genuinely delivers something FIT does not. This is a real reason to choose elsewhere.

How each persona reads this

Young founder

Lands: Venture Studio, earn while you learn, arrive with credit, $200/month. The cost proposition is genuinely compelling — they understand the ROI problem with traditional degrees better than anyone. Part of your city’s culture (Future) also resonates.

Doesn't land: Live at home — neutral. Global immersion — too far ahead. No guaranteed job placement is actually a positive signal for this persona.

Hard sell: Cohort quality. They've been in rooms with people who call themselves builders and aren't. They need proof, not a claim. $200/month may also trigger price-as-prestige scepticism — is it that cheap because it’s not that good?

Club Competitor

Lands: Cohort of builders, Sand Centre, arrive with credit, global immersion. Credibility signals matter most. No campus social infrastructure (Not a Focus) is a genuine negative.

Doesn't land: $200/month may actively work against FIT here. If this student has a scholarship offer — partial or full — the price comparison changes completely. A full ride to a state school is cheaper. The pitch must lead with the model, not the price.

Hard sell: Employer and grad school recognition. And the price-as-prestige problem is real — $200/month needs to be justified by visible cohort quality, not just stated.

Digital Native

Lands: GitHub commits, side projects, open-source contributions — FIT is the first institution that counts these. Arrive with credit validates what they’ve already built online. Cohort of builders means people who actually ship, not group-project passengers.

Doesn't land: Global immersion and Sand Centre require showing up in person — the thing this persona is least comfortable with. Live at home is fine but irrelevant; they live online regardless of where they sleep. No campus social infrastructure is actually a neutral-to-positive.

Hard sell: The in-person parts. FIT has real-world components — cohort sessions, industry partnerships, immersive experiences. This persona needs to see that FIT values what they build online while offering a reason to step into rooms they’d normally avoid. The stretch is the sell, not the obstacle.

Neighborhood Builder

Lands: $200/month is the headline — this is the persona for whom every other option is priced out. Earn while you learn is non-negotiable, not a perk. Arrive with credit validates self-taught work. Live at home is a genuine positive — leaving isn’t an option.

Doesn't land: Global immersion feels abstract and distant. Sand Centre is unfamiliar territory. No campus social infrastructure means no built-in community — they’ll need to see that cohort replaces campus.

Hard sell: Institutional trust. Every system they’ve encountered has either ignored them or failed them. FIT needs to show up where they are, not ask them to come to FIT. Peer voice is everything.

Who else is in the market and how do we defend?

Current competition

Traditional universities

Slow incumbents with centuries of brand trust. Many students will still prefer the campus route — and for some (escape from home, campus social life) they genuinely should. FIT doesn't need to beat universities; it needs to be the obvious choice for the students universities aren't serving well.

Community colleges

Free or very low cost, locally accessible, and often respected by employers. A genuine competitor for cost-sensitive students. FIT's answer is the model, not the price — cohort quality, venture studio, global immersion, and an accredited degree are not things community colleges offer.

Apprenticeships & work directly

Students can earn $20+/hr at Amazon, Google, or a local employer without a degree. For the talented rebel especially, this is a real alternative. FIT's answer is earn while you learn — and an accredited degree at the end of it.

Emerging competition

Edtech startups

National, hyped, going city by city to build relationships and credibility. The gap to close: don't leave space for edtech to fill what FIT doesn't. Venture studio, big names on the advisory board, digital community, and visible outcomes are what prevent edtech from eating the market FIT is building.

Not a focus

YouTube / Skool & content creators

Personality-led influencers selling content courses. These aren't accredited degrees — and the students FIT is targeting know the difference. Not a direct competitor; not worth engaging with as one.

How are we going to make them aware and build trust in Frontier?

Now

School-based outreach

Target 5–6 examination and technical schools in Baltimore City, 3–4 in Howard County. Contact could be the college counsellor or STEM/AP coordinator — whoever has the closest relationship with the right students.

Local code schools & STEM programmes

Offer credit recognition for existing summer programmes and co-design outreach curricula. Students arrive with a head start, introduced by someone they already trust.

Hack Club / MLH / Discord / Reddit / X

One post, self-selecting. Surfaces students school channels miss entirely. Low activation cost — worth doing immediately.

Makerspaces & events

Baltimore Hackerspace, hackUMBC, Battle O’ Baltimore, FIRST Robotics. Reach builders in the spaces they already inhabit. Pipeline and signal-testing in one.

Future

Word of mouth

The most powerful long-term channel. A founding student saying "this is real" to someone who looks like them carries more credibility than any outreach FIT can do directly.

Local & national PR

Baltimore Sun, Technical.ly, and national education press. A story about a credible alternative to the traditional degree — founded by a Stanford team, partnered with Anthropic — is genuinely newsworthy. Strongest once founding cohort outcomes are visible.

Not a focus

Community orgs — YMCA, Boys & Girls Clubs

High relationship cost. Hold until Frontier Foundations is operational — that is the right vehicle for this population.

Paid online advertising

The students FIT is targeting are sceptical of institutions by nature. A paid ad reads as desperation, not selectivity. Reach should be earned, not bought.

Viral video campaigns

Optimised for reach, not quality. One well-placed post in Hack Club Slack reaches more of the right people than a video with a million views.

Which persona, which channel, which message

Persona	Best channels	Key message
Young founder	Hack Club / MLH / Discord / Reddit / X, makerspaces, code schools	Your venture can be your degree. You don’t have to choose.
Club Competitor	School-based outreach — counsellor, CTE coordinator & AP CS teacher	The cohort is as strong as anywhere. Every student has shipped something real.
Digital Native	Code schools, makerspaces, word of mouth (Year 2+)	Your GitHub is your transcript. FIT is the first institution that reads it.
Neighborhood Builder	Community organisations, churches, workforce programmes, local social media, peer referral	You taught yourself. FIT is built for people like you. The door is open.

Who are we targeting?

Core archetype

High school students who are already building and don’t want to put their life on pause to get a degree. They learn by doing, not by sitting in lectures.

Now

Young founder

Already running something — a product, small business, or side project. Not waiting for permission. More likely to be self-taught than formally trained. Sceptical of traditional degrees because they can see the ROI problem clearly.

Where found

Howard and Baltimore County. Skews private school. Active on X and startup communities more than school networks.

Channel

Hack Club, MLH, X/Twitter. More likely to find FIT themselves than be nominated by a counsellor.

Club Competitor

Hackathon regulars, robotics captains, app challenge finalists. Has a track record of shipped output and public validation. Likely college-bound but open to something better if the peer quality is credible.

Where found

Examination schools (Poly, City College, Western) and strong STEM schools across all three counties. Both public and private.

Channel

School counsellor and CTE coordinator nomination. National partners — MLH, Hack Club, Congressional App Challenge. Highest-yield outreach target.

Digital Native

Lives online — GitHub repos, Discord servers, Reddit threads. More comfortable behind a screen than in a room. Invisible to schools but visible to anyone who knows where to look.

Where found

All counties. Online communities, open-source projects, Discord servers, forums. Digitally visible, institutionally invisible.

Channel

Hack Club, Discord, Reddit, GitHub, X/Twitter. More likely to find FIT through content than outreach.

Neighborhood Builder

Self-taught on a phone and a hand-me-down laptop. Traditional college was never a real option; community college feels like settling. Waiting for a door that was actually open.

Where found

Baltimore City neighbourhoods, community centres, libraries, public housing. Not visible through school STEM pipelines. Found through community organisations and word of mouth.

Channel

Community organisations, churches, workforce development programmes, local social media. Peer referral is the strongest channel — trust comes from people, not institutions.

Future

Creative technologist

Creatives with a strong maker instinct — musicians, filmmakers, visual artists who are building, not just consuming tools. The output is the proof: a music production pipeline, a short film with custom visual effects, a zine with a digital distribution system. Creativity is the signal; the medium is secondary.

Where found

Arts magnet schools and Baltimore City more than suburban counties. Underrepresented in STEM pipelines but visible through creative portfolios and competitions.

Channel

Arts school counsellors, makerspaces, creative communities online. Stronger fit as FIT’s programme range grows.

Arts student seeking a dual degree

Existing college students enrolled in arts programmes who are questioning the value of their current degree as the creative industries face disruption. Interested in adding technical credentials without starting over. FIT’s flexible model and low monthly cost makes a dual-track viable in a way a second traditional degree isn’t.

Where found

MICA, Towson, community college arts programmes across the region. Likely to self-identify once FIT’s brand is visible in creative communities.

Channel

Not a Year 1 outreach priority. Worth watching as arts degree scepticism grows and FIT’s reputation builds.

Not a focus

Unmotivated students

FIT assumes drive that is already present — regardless of background. The filter is motivation, not where someone comes from. FIT is designed to democratise access to high-quality technical education, but the entry point is a student who is already building.

How does Frontier become part of the city's fabric?

The fundamental challenge

Low-cost universities are very hard to make work

A low tuition model only works at massive scale — and in a competitive market with centuries of institutional tradition, that scale is very difficult to achieve. The economics don't work at small cohort sizes. In the short term, this is the core challenge. Over a 10-year period, as outcomes become visible and trust compounds, Frontier could become increasingly mainstream.

The numbers at Baltimore scale

Assuming 100 students in Baltimore — already 50% of the realistic application pool — student fees generate ~$240,000/year. That barely covers a general manager. It is not a viable standalone business at city level.

Three paths forward

Option A: Low-cost, fully remote, national model. No GM, no city infrastructure. Strip costs to the bone and pursue thousands of students across the US. Unit economics only work at real scale.

Option B: Alternative university — not low cost. Charge a price that reflects quality and prestige. Compete on cohort, outcomes, and brand rather than affordability.

Option C: The city partnership model. Undergrad as the beachhead, revenue from what that presence unlocks — workforce development, Sand Centre contracts, corporate philanthropy.

Frontier is pursuing Option C

The model

Embed deeply into the city's economic fabric — building brand, talent, and relationships until Frontier is part of the city's identity. Revenue is the outcome of that embedding, not a standalone commercial strategy. Undergrad is the lead arm that makes it possible.

Undergrad

Beachhead

Workforce development

B2B revenue

Sand Centre

Contracts & placements

Corporate philanthropy

CSR & goodwill

Revenue streams

Student fees

$200/month · ~$2,400/year · 50 students across DS & SE → ~$120K/year per city. Not the primary revenue driver — the beachhead that makes everything else possible.

Note: global immersions are not included in this fee and must be stated clearly in student-facing materials.

Workforce development

Companies pay Frontier to upskill their existing workers. Same curriculum, same faculty, different customer. High-margin once the undergrad cost base is in place — and a natural conversation once companies are already hiring FIT graduates.

Sand Centre — contracts & placements

Municipal and corporate AI projects delivered by FIT's student and graduate network. The win-win: the city gets an AI partner genuinely rooted in it — graduates who studied, worked, and stayed — not an external provider who arrives and leaves. That trust can't be replicated without the embeddedness that undergrad creates.

Corporate philanthropy

Companies that benefit from a stronger local talent pipeline — but won't pay directly for upskilling — contribute under their own name. It's CSR spend, not a procurement decision. They get naming association with something credible. City & state programmes (YouthWorks-style) add a further $2–3M per city target.

Operating costs

General manager & learning support

City-level operational lead covering relationships, student experience, local partnerships, and day-to-day learning support. Est. ~$150K all-in per hub.

Space

City likely provides the space at no cost. Frontier covers opex — maintenance, internet, furniture, utilities. To be modelled per hub.

Faculty & overhead

Mix of full-time faculty and part-time practitioners, plus a contribution to central costs — accreditation, technology, and central team. Key unknown — critical to model at 50 students per hub.

A week that changes how students think.

Frontier offers partner organisations a plug-in 5-session module that sits inside your existing programme. No restructuring required. Run it intensively across one week, or spread it as one session per week — whichever fits your schedule. You choose the track that fits your cohort, we provide the curriculum and train your facilitator — then a Frontier team member joins for one day to bring it to life.

Choose your track

5 sessions · Run intensive over one week or one day per week · Partner's choice

Track A

Technical Course

For cohorts who already have soft skills or leadership content covered. Students get genuine technical depth in a subject their existing curriculum likely doesn't reach.

01Core Synthetic Biology

02AI & Generative Models for Biology

03Bioinformatics & Computational Genomics

04Translational & Applied Biology

05High-Performance Computing & Compute Infrastructure

Track B

Professional Foundations

For technically strong cohorts who need the range — how to lead, communicate, pitch, and operate. Based on ALX's proven Professional Foundations curriculum, condensed to five sessions.

01Leading Self — habits, self-awareness, emotional intelligence

02Thinking Like a Builder — problem definition, research, design thinking

03Communicating for Impact — presentations, technical writing, market thinking

04Leading Others — teamwork, agile, conflict, decision-making

05Demo Day — pitch, personal brand, elevator pitch, credential awarded

How it works

Frontier provides

Full curriculum package for the chosen track

Train-the-trainer session before the week starts

One in-person day from a Frontier team member

Frontier-branded certificate, digital badge, and skills transcript for every completer

Nomination pathway to Frontier's founding cohort for standout students

Partner provides

Nominated students — not open enrollment

A facilitator to deliver the daily sessions

Space and devices where possible

Light accountability and check-ins across the week

Co-hosting of the Demo Day session

The Frontier Day

On one day during the week, a Frontier GM joins the cohort in person. This isn't a pitch — it's a conversation. They talk about what Frontier is building, why this cohort of students is exactly who they're looking for, and what the path looks like. Students who are interested get a direct next step: a conversation, not a website. The best students leave knowing there's a door open.

What students leave with

Frontier Builder Foundations — Certificate

Every student who completes the week receives a Frontier-branded certificate, a verified digital badge with skills tags, and a skills transcript they can attach to a college application, LinkedIn, or fellowship application. Standout students receive a direct invitation to an admissions conversation with a Frontier team member — no cold application required.

Builder pipeline

Organisations and events across target cities — pulled live from the tracking sheet.

Organisations by city

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GTM Summary

Live progress across cities and channels. See the strategy around target market, value proposition, and distribution.

By City

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By Distribution Channel

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Events

Upcoming events across target cities — pulled live from the tracking sheet.

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