User:TheSpeedX/sandbox

Introduction
Edulix is an Internet site and forum that provides free 'crowd-sourced' services and products to aspiring undergraduate and graduate students around the globe. The site is primarily designed as a one-stop resource for scholars with a crowd-generated database of information about university education and career in the US, Canada, Europe and Australia. While the majority of its members come from the Indian sub-continent,Edulix's membership has a very significant international element with increasing membership from China, Turkey, Latin America, and Europe.

Over the years, edulix has fundamentally transformed the way international scholars seek and achieve world-class graduate programs. Guided by the collective wisdom and experience of 125,000 members along with unique database engines, members at edulix often get admission to the best programs that they can possibly can.

Registration
Registration is free. Only a valid email address is required to register.

History
Edulix was founded in 2000 by Sam Kassegne (who is one of the senior most active members in Edulix today). Sam Kassegne, also known as Edulix Editor and his colleague/college mate Yalcin Sert got together to bring Edulix to life. The main motivation of the founders was their belief that only former international students can really understand the needs and challenges of other aspiring international students. Apart from the founders, alumni of various universities, the people who themselves benefited from Edulix, strive to answer queries and help the users.

Edulix serves as a memento to the ancient port of Adulis on the Red Sea coast that used to be a major port for trade and business between the far, near and Middle East in the tenth and eleventh centuries. Along the same lines, Edulix.com wants to be a portal where students from many corners of the world find help in their pursuit of their dreams of a world-class education and career.

Major sections of Edulix include :

- Infobank/UniSearch

- Profile Evaluation Forums

- Results

- University Specific Threads

- Visa & Immigration Forums

- Travel Planner

- EduChat

- Private Messages

- Edulix Cafe

UniSearch
UniSearch is Edulix’s database of student profiles and results. It has details such as the GRE/TOEFL scores, GPA and university results. Members can search through the database based on filters, which gives them a fair idea of the current admission trends. UniSearch has data of members since the year 2006 which is probably the only repository of such detailed data. A search based on similar profile parameters will result in some suitable university names being provided, which are then further evaluated by the current members based on the applicant’s profile

Profile Evaluation Forums
Profile evaluation forums are probably the most viewed forums on Edulix and the one which newbies visit most often. Applicants can use this forum to ask for seniors’ opinions about the universities they plan to apply to and other universities which are known for their popular courses. Seniors can also provide a fair idea of the applicant’s chances at these universities, based on personal experiences and their past knowledge of admission trends.

University Specific Threads
The university specific threads is a repository of information specific to a university, whether it be about the ongoing research or about the application process. Usually, an alumni/ student of the university takes up the onus for providing information and solving any issues which applicants/ juniors may have. Since the thread is managed by students who have been in close association with the university, they are able to provide accurate and helpful information in most cases, or at least can find someone who can.

Visa and Immigration Forums
After the applicant finalizes the university of his/her choice, his next stop is the visa and immigration forum on Edulix. Right from the filling up of the DS160 forms, to the visual design of the consulates and the type of questions which a VO can ask, this forum has all the information required to prepare for a student visa interview. Also as members appear for their interviews, they post their experiences on this forum, providing valuable insights for future applicants to learn from.

Edulix Travel Planner
The travel planner is a utility which is not directly part of the forums but allows students flying to different universities to plan their travel and also coordinate their flight times and itineraries etc. with others. A member can either create his own travel plan, or search for existing travel plans to join in.

EduChat
EduChat is an AJAX based group chat for Edulix members. The main purpose of Educhat is to quickly respond to queries from newbies who seek immediate help. However, it is used for general discussions too, which are not directly related to the admission process.

Private Messages
Edulix provides a way to send private messages to other members. It is meant for    quick and expedited replies. Though most discussions happen on the forum, PM’s can be used to exchange private information, say your email ID/phone number or to ask a senior to review your SOP and other discussions which you don't want the whole world to know about.

Edulix Meets
Though primarily an Internet forum, over the years Edulix members have organised user meets in different cities in India. These provide an opportunity for users going to the same university to get to know their future college mates before they leave the country. Even before deciding on universities, Edulix meets help students to get in touch with other applicants for the same course/university and make the application process easier for them.

Webinar/Conference
From time to time, seniors at Edulix host webinars or conference to help the current applicants and newbies. Seniors studying at different universities answer queries. They provide inputs on specific research being carried out at their universities and in other related universities as well. The queries pertaining to availability of career opportunities in different domain are also catered to. Even though various threads are available to answer these queries, webinars provide a way for students to get real time replies and talk directly to the seniors.

The count of registered users at Edulix has been increasing constantly over the years. Recently, there were almost 1500 registrations in one month, which was around 50 to 60% more than the usual range of about 900-1000 registrations in a month.

Real Time Admission Trend - Unisearch
Edulix’s home page also houses an admit scroller. This ticker gives real time updates of admission trends at universities with data taken from UniSearch. It allows the user to view which universities are announcing results without having to go into the forums.

Edulix Twitter/Facebook feeds
Apart from the forum, users can also access the admission decisions from UniSearch at Edulix Twitter (http://twitter.com/Edulixing) site and the Edulix Facebook group.