Q. What is IGotDinged?

IGotDinged is a student community website. The website is designed to increase your awareness on matters of future education and to help you make informed decisions about your career. We believe in sharing of knowledge and encourage you to contribute at IGD. The more you will contribute, the more you will learn.

Please go through the list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) to understand the site better. If you still have any questions, write to us at feedback@igotdinged.com or use the feedback link on our website.

Q. Who is behind IGD and for what reason has it been created?

We are a young team of people some of who have gone through experience of applying to foreign universities and have faced the dilemmas at various stages of admission process. We feel that most students lack proper information to make informed decisions and land up in hands of expensive and inapt admission consultants. So, we conceptualized and designed this website to create a platform where all future aspirants, current students and alumni can come together and help each other out.

Q. How do I as a student benefit from IGD?

There are so many ways that students can benefit from IGD. There are 6 student books and each has a specific purpose:
Resume Book: Allows you to connect with Alumni who have already gone through what you are experiencing. Also you make your resume and share it with other aspirants and learn from one another.
Artilog Book: Helps you stay connected with latest news happening in your field of study through our article system. You also get to write your own student blogs and read blogs of other students.
Discussion Book: Raise your questions on admission, colleges etc. in appropriate forums. Subscribe to discussions that matter to you and stay up-to-date with updates.
College Book: Get information about the colleges, universities and consultants that matter to you. Read what others have to say about them in their testimonials.
Profile Book: Provides you with updates on your subscribed discussions, recent activities of friends, your recent activity and points etc.
Friend Book: Make new friends or find old ones and stay connected.

Q. What is a Profile Book?

The Profile Book is your homepage when you login into IGD. It allows you to edit your personal information (using Edit Profile button under your profile picture). It also shows you the log of your recent activity, how many points you have accumulated (Points Earned under My Points) keeps you informed on what your friends are doing at IGD, what discussions you have subscribed etc.

Q. What is Resume Book and how is it useful?

A Resume Book is a place where you mention information about your personal, professional and academic qualifications. It is like a virtual resume that can be shared with others. You can search for other people’s resume by name or perform an Advanced Resume Search to find people you are looking to connect with.
Once you find that person(s), you can view his/her resume depending on if the resume is marked private or public. If it’s a private resume, you can send the other person a request for mutual sharing of resumes (i.e. your resume will also be visible to the other person). If the resume if marked public, you do not need any permission.

Q. How to mark a resume as a private resume in Resume Book?

Under Resume Book, go to Edit Resume and there you will find a an option to mark your resume as Public or Private under academic section.
Please note private resumes are not visible to all but can be mutually shared with other people. Public resumes are visible to all.

Q. What is an Artilog/Article and how do I submit it?

An Artilog is a combination of Article and Blog.

Using the article system, you can share interesting stories from all over the internet. For instance, you were surfing the web and you found an interesting article that you think is worth sharing with other aspirants. You go to Artilog Book and click on Submit an Article. You then select the category (such as GMAT, GRE etc.) and copy paste the remaining 3 fields i.e. the article title, URL and few lines of description.

A blog is similar to article but you do not submit it from internet. Instead, you write your own student blog and submit it. Just click on Create a Blog in Artilog Book, select the category, title and write your thoughts.

Q. Where can I see the list of various Artilog categories?

All Artilogs are divided by categories to make them more useful. Some examples of categories are USMLE, GMAT, GRE, CPL etc. You can find the list of artilog categories under the Artilog Book. Just click on the link at top left called Artilog Category and select your relevant category from next page.

Q. What is the Discussion Book?

A Discussion Book is a place where you can raise your queries under appropriate forums. There are forums for different study groups. Under Discussion Book, click on your relevant forum (e.g. GMAT and Related Discussions) and you will be taken to that discussion forum. Here, you will find all the questions already raised in that forum along with author, number of replies, views, score etc. You can raise a new discussion by clicking on Start New Discussion link on top right of this page. If you wish to see the detail of discussion, just click under any topic name and you will be taken to discussion detail page. Here you can read and reply to that discussion.

There are two kinds of replies that you can give. You can either to first discussion question (the one on the top) by clicking on the Reply button on top right of your page. Alternatively, you can reply to an already given reply of a member using button next to that reply.

Q. What do you mean by subscription in a Discussion Book?

In case you wish to reply to an existing discussion, you will need to subscribe to that discussion using the Subscribe button on the top right of the discussion detail page. As long as you are interested in that discussion, you can subscribe to it. The benefit of subscribing to a discussion is that you can see updates to that discussion under the My Subscription’s Updates section in Profile Book. You need not visit Discussion Book again but directly click on links in Profile Book and see the updates on your discussions. If you are no longer interested in a discussion, you can unsubscribe from it using the same button.

Q. What is Friend Book?

A Friend Book is a place where you can search for new people, make them friends or reconnect with old friends. Once you are friend with a person, you get to see the list of recent activity of that person in you profile book. You also have the option of sending private messages to your friends and communicating with them.

Q. What is College Book and what are college testimonials?

A College Book is a place where we have the list of different colleges and universities, what all courses are offered in these institutions, where are they located, their websites etc. A college testimonial is a way of providing any additional information or feedback for a college. Any registered user can write a feedback. In fact, we encourage you to write feedback about the colleges that you have studied in. If you find your college is not in the list, you can always add them using Add College link. The College Book also allows you to search our database for college or university names or search for colleges based on their course list.

Q. Where can I find the list of admission consultants and how are they rated?

You can find the list of admission consultants in the College Book. For this, you need to click on Admission Consultants link on the bottom left of college book screen.
There is no explicit rating mechanism for admission consultants because it is difficult to verify the identity of user. However, any registered user can write a testimonial for admission consultant that he/she has used. One can always connect with that user to get more information.

Q. What do you mean by Score, Ping, Ding?

Every article, blog and discussion thread is rated based on user liking. So, whenever you like an article, you give it a thumb up, also called ping. And if you dislike, you give it a thumb down which is known as a ding.
Score of an artilog or discussion represent that number of pings minus the number of dings and represents the usefulness of that information.

Q. What do you mean by points and how do I accumulate them to become a top dinger?

Almost every activity you do on IGotDinged has a certain number of points associated with it. So, the more you use IGD, the more points you accumulate. Top dingers represent the people who have accumulated the highest points in our system.

Top Dingers are featured on our website and stand a chance to get lucky and win exciting prizes. More of that will come little later.

Q. Where can I see how many points I have accumulated and how?

In the Profile Book, under My Points, you can see how many points you have accumulated today and also see your total points.