Collegify, initially began as a coaching centre for Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), Graduate Record Examination (GRE) and Graduate Management Aptitude Test (GMAT) exams in Kolkata in 2008, but is now into mentoring students aspiring to go abroad since 2011. “We are different from other admission consultants as we are not affiliated to any universities and work on commission. Also, with respect to suggesting options to students, we stop right at the top 50 universities for US and 20 for UK, Singapore and other countries,” says Rohan Ganeriwala, Co-Founder, Collegify, which has offices in Singapore, Kolkata, Delhi, Jaipur and Bangalore.
With respect to recommendations, Collegify takes into consideration the following aspects — student’s background, areas of interest, extracurricular activities they have engaged in, future plans and such. They also help students with essays. Aware of our misgivings, Ganeriwala clarifies, “We don’t write the essays for them. We help with proofreading, check if their essays conform to the questions asked and whether their thoughts and ideas are clearly mentioned and so on.” Depending on the number of colleges an aspirant is applying to, Collegify charges Rs 20,000 for Singapore, Rs 40,000 for UK and Rs 65,000 for US applicants.
Stressing on the genuineness of the venture, Ganeriwala says, “We don’t compromise on quality. We are not like other consultants promoting some university, where at the end of the day, you just come back with a different experience. We target students who want to settle abroad and are concerned about their careers and help them get into the best of institutes aligned with their capabilities.”
While Ganeriwala is a BCom Honours student from St Xavier’s College, Kolkata, most of the mentors on his 25-member team have studied abroad in premier institutes, he says. While there are also students who pay online visits on the Collegify website in order to get clarity on their higher education choices, most of the traffic is via personal visits. “Parents and students don’t trust online communication when it comes to studying abroad. Even in our counselling sessions, they keep coming to us for better clarification. And that is why we are looking to expand to Mumbai, Bhubaneswar, Nagpur, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh and Guwahati in the future,” says Ganeriwala. According to him, all this is going to take sometime as he wants to zero in on the right people first, before looking to expand.
We also ask him about the popular courses with the students. “For undergraduates it is Business Management and Engineering. At the postgraduate level, more interest is shown in Journalism and Mass Communication courses. Liberal Arts is also picking up big time,” he says.
So far Collegify has mentored about 1,800 students. Details at www.collegify.com.
shilpa.vasudevan@newindianexpress.com