Learning, as philosophers and goofers alike will tell you, is not an easy process. This reality hits you particularly hard when you’ve finished with your ABC and have to start thinking of, perhaps MBA. That’s when the bombardment of questions starts: where, which, when, why, how? It is to answer these that some education portals have been set up. They brings together the pool of knowledge necessary for students to make informed decisions about their education and career. studyplaces.com is one such gateway that provides online information about everything from courses to universities across the globe as well as the procedures and preparation involved. “The idea behind the website is to bridge the information gap that exists today in terms of the universities and courses available,” says Amitabh Nagpal, CEO of the website. He adds that it provides assistance to students from various brackets regarding the many choices available.With streams as diverse as law, medicine, communication and MBA, the site provides information for over 2,00,000 courses across 10,000 colleges across India, UK, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand to choose from. “A decade ago a sound career choice meant becoming a doctor or an engineer. But what we are trying expose the students to is the wide array of options that exist outside of the conventional choices,” says Nagpal. And for the all the queries the students may have, one can also chat with the counsellors or even mail them to get more clarity about a particular course or a college. The counsellors are professional from India and abroad. The counselling network also has students from various universities like Stanford and Berkeley who, with their own experience, help the aspirants to focus on what it is that are looking out to do. They also guide the students in preparation and various aspects involved in colleges. In a year since the site was launched, over 2,00,000 students have registered on it and over 20,000 visit the portal every day. Many of them are not from schools or colleges but are professionals logging in to seek information about options that they can avail. While most of the services offered by the website don’t require a registration, students need to register for specifics like counselling and profile tests, which, however, don’t charge any fee. There are online practice tests for various entrance exams such as SAT, PMT, GRE, AIEEE, GMAT, IIT-JEE, TOEFL and AIEEE, for admissions in Indian colleges as well as universities abroad. The site’s latest feature is the Myers-Briggs-based ‘Profile Test’ for students to ascertain their strengths and weaknesses. “After the students have taken the test, we are able to correlate their personality to the most suitable career options and that is further correlated to the right institutes and courses,” says Nagpal. The website is updated every month and also gives information about the various scholarships abroad and their requirements, information on students loan. “We don’t represent any particular university but help bridge the information gap. So all the information is put out for students so they can choose that suits them best.” While the Forums brings together students to discuss and post queries across topics that could range from a specific university abroad to varied courses and their results, there’s also an interesting feature, ‘Events’ that informs one about any education-related events in various cities.
