Collegespeaks Blog

Hey All

Collegespeaks has received a nomination for being one of the coolest startups for the year by NEN!!! That’s yet another milestone for Collegespeaks and gives us all the more reasons and motivation to work harder.

Thanks to all our Collegespeakees and to Akshay, Chaula, Deepak, Varsha and Aarti, our team who have made it possible. The activities, suggestions and feedback that we constantly receive from our Collegespeakees have been a boost to us and now we need to gear up to prove how strong a community we are.

We need your votes to help  make Collegespeaks the coolest startups for the year. So start voting by logging on to http://www.hotteststartups.in/viewandvote.do?method=fetch&businessFn=viewandvote&startupId=59.

The journey so far has been a pleasure and an exciting one just because of the support from our members and again, only with your support can we go further. Good luck to all of us and thanks in advance for all your votes…

Vidya

Campus Reps is the opportunity which helps you chisel your networking and communication skills, something most in demand these days for your career progress.

A Campus Rep is the point of contact for Collegespeaks for that particular college. As a Campus Rep, you will bring a steady inflow of members to Collegespeaks and enhance the activities on Collegespeaks by regularly posting Quotes, Grades, Announcements etc. Both the Campus Rep and the members have their share of rewards based on their activities.

To become a Campus Rep, one needs to be a member of Collegespeaks. It is also important that as a Campus Rep, you have your profile complete with your picture (ideally your own picture), a brief description of yourself and some Quotes posted for your college.

Once selected, you will receive a starter kit with our tee-shirt, bag and other handy things. You will now come up with interesting ideas to evoke your campus people to join Collegespeaks, tell them how they can earn points and convert those points into rewards. You will verify members from your campus, distribute freebies and thus encourage them to re-visit Collegespeaks. All the way, we will support you wherever you need, either with the freebies or any other technical assistance. As a Campus Rep, you will be a part of the Collegespeaks Team.

Your targets will be to bring at least 50 members from your campus and contribute at least 1000 quotes through the members. Any member who agrees, disagrees or wants to take further a Quote posted by another member is free to do so by posting comments against Quotes. This way an outsider would get a complete overview of your college.

Even after achieving your target, you can continue bringing more members from your college, so that you can participate in the lucky draw for the best Campus Rep of the year, who wins a laptop. You will realise that during this whole process, you have given an edge to your CV with real life experiences to support your leadership, networking and negotiation skills, which will be very helpful irrespective of what career you choose.

If you think you have the enthusiasm and energy to take up this challenge, apply now to become a Campus Rep for Collegespeaks. All the very best for your endeavour!!!

Hi all!!! You now have more reasons to visit Collegespeaks. The points feature, of which we spoke recently, is now there on the site for you. I know there is an enthusiatic lot there among you, who already know of it and have already become more active. And I also acknowledge being a little late in informing you of this new feature.

But what many might not know, is we also have an Announcements section, where you can post the latest campus-happenings, birthday gatherings, farewells, fees deadline and anything under the sun that you can think of. The only condition, it has to be related to your campus and campus people.

So stop reading and find out more on how to earn more points and win freebies.

In fact, we always had this on our minds, but took some time before introducing it. There were so many other things which have kept us occupied…You guys must be knowing what start-ups have to go through….Besides working on new features to the site, beautifying it and making navigation easier for our users, we have also been trying to give you a fun ride on Collegespeaks…believe me, without even those tiniest glitches ,which I know, you come across at times.

Moral of the story is -you will soon be able to see yourself earning points for all your hard work. In the meantime, please continue dropping in and sending in your queries and feedbacks. Any word from you is an incentive to work harder. Once we’re through with the changes, we’ll soon be back with the details of the new feature.

Thanks a lot and keep visiting!!!

Hi, there. It’s me again to share something new again. We keep doing things to make the site more useful and serve the student community better. We’re co-sponsoring M. H Saboo Siddik College of Engineering, Byculla, Mumbai.

Almost every college has it’s own fests and they do it with great pomp and show. Pulling in sponsors and having the event highlighted on radio or other print media is also very common. But seldom have we though of having internet partners. Collegespeaks brings in this concept of being net sponsors for the first time, so that students give attention only on the promotions and execution.

This very well goes with what we intend to provide - insider information about campuses. Fests are a time when students of other campuses and alumni want to take a sneak into the campus and there’s no better way than this being done on a site which is dedicated for students and campuses.

Collegespeaks team works hard to give users the best possible on-site experience. As we are in beta version, all your feedbacks on errors or suggestions are appreciated and we’ll deal with them as early as we can. Thanks again for the support received all along, so far.

I’m going to continue my studies…hmmm…but where do I start from?!! Well, I first need to find an institution that suits my constraints….now, that I have shortlisted a few campuses, I’m unable to decide which one to join….. I wish I had some acquaintance from these institutions!!….but, I don’t even belong to that place.

If I’m not wrong, this is the turmoil that anyone who’s interested in seeking higher studies, goes through. Just imagine your wish being granted and that too, just a click away!!! A search, just as powerful and advanced as Google, which answers all your queries about your college and course …..A search where you would just put your area of interest and you would be generated with a list of courses with the colleges where those courses are offered…As a value addition, you also get to know an inside-the-campus feel of your would be alma mater through experiences shared by current grads and alumni…and all this on one platform.

Collegespeaks.com fulfills this wish and saves your time and energy spent on scouring through hundreds of different websites, looking for colleges and course information. This is the first of its kind educational networking that intends to be a one-stop website for everything about higher education. So keep checking back for updates…

The moment we think of a logo, we associate with it the brand and the philosophy that goes with the product. I wanted a logo with which students could relate themselves to…something that would depict an average student and their swinging moods. Hence, we came upon the current logo. The four colours speak for the different moods and personality traits. The tag line, which was arrived upon after intense brainstorming and of course with the intervention of the designers, goes well for both the students as well as colleges.

So, here we are, with a name, a logo and a tag line-all of which speak for the services that we intend to deliver. And like any other owner, I would always be proud of my concept and creation…but am certainly open to suggestions……for the better.

For most of us, higher studies and all related searches for higher studies end the moment we have cleared an entrance examination and have managed to secure a place in some institution. Then comes the phase II of our search, where we are running helter-skelter and trying to find a little more info about our would-be college. ‘That’s an altogether new place’ , ‘Where am I going to stay….and with whom’ , ‘Now I’ll have to hunt for a room partner…my fundamental requirements’ and more of these questions which keep us bewildered much much more than the pre-examination era. Colleges’ websites?? Forget them…they don’t come anywhere in the periphery of even our wildest imaginations when thinking of finding answers to these issues. Colleges’ websites can’t handle even the courses and infrastructure. Handling issues like these would be distant dreams. They don’t even find a place in the notice board of the college.

But are they really supposed to be that distant…at least they aren’t in the west. Although, in the Indian scenario, I guess colleges first need to provide updated information. I feel someone must also give these, otherwise considered secondary issues, a serious thought. For the moment, http://www.collegespeaks.com/ has made a good effort in collecting course information of different colleges. At least this website has saved the initial hassles of looking around for course info. The good thing is - it’s also providing a space to colleges with a space as good as the college’s own website. At least now, colleges can keep students updated by posting information on a hassle free site. So students, lets hope to see some activity here soon

Finally…..Collegespeaks.com is launched. It was in September last year, when the idea seeded. I was with my husband in one of those sarkari rest houses (with flora & fauna in abundance to the extent of thinking and even being creative at times, as you can see) – back from Glasgow – and never ceasing to think of newer ways and ideas of using the web more interactively.

What started as a platform to provide inside information about colleges, shared by students themselves, took the current shape with not just students but also colleges having a space for them. Collegespeaks.com, as it looks today, is the result of actually delving into a hundred thousand websites, some very good suggestions from Akshay & Chaula (for having the site development in safe hands) and of course, my husband, with his management insights & fundas. So here we are!!! Collegespeaks.com is now in closed beta version and has opened to colleges for registration. Over the year, Collegespeaks.com has built a sound database of colleges and their courses from across India. Not to mention, the innumerous complexities created by the lack of availability of information in our country and all the possible threats of which people have made us aware of, time and again. All this has only contributed to getting rid yet another hurdle and helped us tap yet another opportunity. We have now entered the next phase – a step ahead (or may be many steps ahead) since we started last September. Every day there is something new to learn and every passing day gives an increased confidence as we talk to more and more colleges. I’ll come back soon with more updates.

  Vidya Vyas
Collegespeaks.com

Collegespeaks.com has recently launched after months of planning, conceptualising and improvising! The site is now open for registration to colleges in India by invitation. The website has 3000 colleges and more being adding everyday! 

Why, you may ask, should colleges register on Collegespeaks.com? Here are some reasons:

• Collegespeaks is the only online platform bringing colleges and students together
• Colleges get a site within Collegespeaks with no space limitations
• Once you register, you can update your info as often as you want
• Colleges can upload pictures to Campus Pics, add prospectuses and admission forms to Downloads
• Add as many pages/sections as they need to their site in Collegespeaks
• And be visible to a large number of students

You can sign up for a 90 days Free Trial right away. Contact us  for more information on registrations. We’re sure you will enjoy being on our website.

We are excited about the website, it would be great to receive feedback from you.