Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What kinds of questions can I ask here?

Most importantly - questions should be relevant to the ThinkEducationUSA community, which is focused on helping international students learning about studying in the USA. You can ask questions about subjects such as: university entrance requirements, testing, credentialing, scholarships, financial aid, visas, and anything else related to learning about American universities.

Before you ask - please make sure to search for a similar question. You can search questions by their title or tags (key words).

What kinds of questions should be avoided?

Please avoid asking questions that are not relevant to this community; that are too subjective; or that are argumentative.

What should I avoid in my answers?

The ThinkEducationUSA Q&A Forum is a question and answer site -- it is not a discussion group. Please avoid holding debates in your answers as they tend to dilute the essence of questions and answers. For brief discussions please use the commenting option available with each question.

Who moderates this community?

The short answer is: you. The ThinkEducationUSA community is moderated by the users. The karma system allows users to earn rights to perform a variety of moderation tasks based on their “badge” level. Click on the "badges" tab to learn more about different badge levels.

How does karma system work?

When a question or answer receives positive votes, the user who posted the question or answer will gain "karma points." These points serve as a rough measure of the community trust in that user. Various moderation tasks are gradually assigned to users based on this point system.

For example, if you ask an interesting question or give a helpful answer, your input will likely be “up-voted.” On the other hand if the answer is misleading -- it may be down-voted. Each vote in favor will generate 10 points, each vote against will subtract 2 points. There is a limit of 200 points that can be accumulated per question or answer. The table below explains reputation point requirements for each type of moderation task.

• Add comments
• Down-vote
• Close own questions
• Reopen own questions
• Retag questions
• Edit any answer
• Open any closed question
• Delete any comment

What is Gravatar?

Gravatar means globally recognized avatar -- your unique avatar image associated with your email address. It's simply a picture that shows next to your posts on the websites that support gravatar protocol. By default your gravatar appears as a square filled with a snowflake-like figure. You can set your image at gravatar.com

To register, do I need to create new password?

No, you don't have to create a new password. You can login through any service that supports OpenID, e.g. Google, Yahoo, AOL, etc. Login now!

Why can other people edit my questions/answers?

The goal of this site is to help international students learn about studying in the USA. Questions and answers can be edited like wiki pages by experienced users of this site, and this improves the overall quality of the knowledge base content.

Still have questions?

Please ask your question, help make our community better!