Case Study

UniversityGuideOnline.org

Our Role: Research / IA / Design / Develop / Curate
View site: usauniversityguide.org

UniversityGuideOnline.org

ELS Educational Services, Inc. helps students across the globe gain admission to U.S. colleges and universities. Complete with detailed information on the application process, a dynamic university search tool, and a password-protected section to communicate with counseling agents, UniversityGuideOnline.org has helped thousands of students gain admission to U.S. colleges and universities.

Multi-Faceted University Search

Finding the right university or college is a difficult task. Throw in the element of being an international student, and the search can become overwhelming. Knowing all of the decisions that have to be considered, we architected and developed a multi-faceted search, which dynamically populates results as prospective students select and de-select different search parameters. Students can search schools based on the following criteria:

  • Type of degree ( Associate, Bachelor, Master’s, Doctorate)
  • Location – by state
  • Area of study
  • Specific major
  • Scholarship availability
  • Institution type (Public or Private)
  • Student body (Male, Female, or Co-Educational)
  • GPA requirements
  • Minimum English proficiency level
  • Conditional Letter of Admission-granting (CLA) institutions

Counselor Connect

By creating a profile, prospective students can connect with a counseling agent closest to their location who can assist them in completing the school application process. The counselor connect features allows students and counselors to log onto the site and send messages and files to one another, giving both parties the ability to maintain all communications in one, organized place.

Curation

Since launching the platform in 2009, Local Wisdom has been Curating the site, adding new features and functionality to ensure an optimal user experience while meeting ELS’ business objectives. Sample enhancements have included additional search parameters for the university search tool and file sharing functionality for the Counselor Connect portion.