My younger sister is planning to study engineering abroad. Being
the ‘nothing better to do’ elder brother, my dad conveniently put all the
responsibility of getting information about different courses available. Since
I was a geography graduate, I had almost no idea about engineering entrance tests
in India, let alone those in USA, UK, Australia or any other country.
I took the easy way out and ‘Google’ed my problem and came
up with quiet a few websites that has information for students looking to
abroad for their future studies. Many were rich in information while some had
data that are pre historic. I did a quick scan of what Google had to offer and
found out that Study Places stood out from the rest.
The site’s navigation is very simple with a search box in
the center, country-wise and field wise tabs on the left. The search engine is
pretty good, bringing up relevant results except if you are looking for some ‘Personality
Development’ course(incidentally, I was). There are quite a few well written articles
on different career paths on the home page itself which makes for a good read.
Snippets of questions asked by students and their answers given by experts,
newsletter subscription and an event calendar are the other important elements on
the home page.
Now, all education sites have information exam schedules,
admission procedure, loan procedures, some amount of counseling and study place
is no exception. However, apart from these, there are a few other services that
the website offers – which makes it truly unique.
Campus Videos – It is helpful for students to have a first
hand experience of how does the campus(read students) looks. After all, look and feel of the institute and its’crowd’ is an important factor =D
Travelling Tips – Everyone tells you how to get admission,
but the site also has good amount of information on student life at campus, average cost of living as well as
travelling tips. Now this is something new!
Forums – Students can discuss their careers and academics in
the forum section. There is also an ‘Ask an Expert’ section. Nothing special
about them as all other education related sites invariably has them. The forum seemed quite active with questions and discussions.
Results – You can check your results on the sites for exams
like AIEEE, IITJEE and others. Since I didn’t had any valid roll number, I can’t
confirm its credibility.
Study Materials – Downloadable learning tool, online tests
and study material are available for free.
Profile Test – This is a very interesting seven page psychometric
test to evaluate what type of career suits you the most. The results were
correct in my case(Much to my father’s dismay, it was NOT ’good for nothing’):o)
Counseling – Almost all pages mentions ‘Live chat with counselors’,
This shoud be helpful for students if they manage to find someone online. I have tried, they replied that someone will get in touch with mw soon. So, I’ll reserve my comment on that.
The site is still in beta stage so I was expecting minor
glitches, but have not encountered any bug yet. Overall, a good knowledge based website for
10+2 and Graduate students; especially for those who are **looking to go abroad
for higher studies.*