To the latter end, as hypercompetitive classmates scoured campus for an academic edge, Migliacci began his semester with a preemptive hedge: that he'd finish with a 3.0 GPA or lower.
"I wasn't wagering enough to motivate me not to do well," Migliacci said. "But at least I'd walk away with some money if I didn't."
Soon, thousands of students nationwide will have access to the same choice. After a soft launch at the University of Pennsylvania and New York University last year, Ultrinsic is expanding to over 30 schools this fall, including Harvard, Princeton, Pennsylvania State University, and the University of Southern California. Now operating from an office in New York, the founders expect enrollment - over 500 through the spring, between Penn and NYU - to jump by about 100 per new school. (The company declined to discuss its financial history or expectations.)
Gelbart, who graduated from Queens College in 2009 after transferring from Penn, and Wolf, also a Queens College alum, conceived the idea on a lazy Sunday afternoon at Penn a few years ago. Wolf, visiting for the weekend, offered to pay Gelbart $100 if he aced his exam the next day. Gelbart won the bet.
"Students like learning, but it's work," said Gelbart, president of Ultrinsic. "People want to see an immediate payoff for that hard work."
Most participants opt for success-based bets, Gelbart said, and not the grade insurance. This model of motivation, he says, compels students to assign proper value to long-term academic goals they may neglect - say, learning the material - by distracting them with short-term payoffs.
"The point of the site is to push yourself," he said.
