By Marley Frankel, News correspondent

For Guhan Unal, students and the state of their wallets are inseparable realities.
That’s why he launched the Boston-based site studentrate.com last April, a site that offers local and national deals for students shopping online or eating at a local restaurant. Unal said he conceived the idea while working for Ernst and Young, where he specialized in managing potential financial risks of clients to help them make the most of their investments.
‘We felt student discounts should be available for free,’ he said. ‘However, there aren’t many deals without central depository for student discounts on the Internet. In this day and age, this should be on the net and should be free for students who are technically not making money at the moment.’
With an innovative idea and a prospective money-making machine,’ Unal went on to develop the website with high hopes to turn a profit, he said.
To make money through their website, the company charges a fee to national vendors like Macy’s, Karmaloop and Bluefly and local vendors like The Original Party Trolley, Nick’s Comedy Stop and Crazy Dough’s Pizza.
‘I thought this website was a way to introduce my innovative idea and make money not from students, yet through vendors and advertisements,’ Unal said.
Unal said another distinguishing factor is the way dues are collected.
‘By charging a nominal fee to the vendors, they are listed on our site, and in turn, we create coupons for them and essentially get them more business,’ he said.
The benefit to the vendors is they are able to get more business through college students and show the public that they are student friendly, he said.
In hopes to keep the site agreeable, Unal said there is an option to opt out of notification e-mails from the site. The user can choose how often they would like to hear about new deals.
With new offers posted daily, students can shop online and receive a discount at the end of their purchase.
‘I frequent the site a few times a week in case a new deal recently posted relates directly to me, such as their Apple deals,’ said senior information science major Jonathan Albertelly.’ ‘
Another aspect of the website is it they allows ratings to be posted about the discounts offered. Hillary Mann, marketing manager for studentrate.com, said this feature keeps the site from being a nuisance to its users.’ ‘
‘ ‘By allowing students to rate the vendor’s discounts, this website is more user-friendly,’ she said. ‘If students do not like the deals they are receiving, they can offer their feedback to the websites coordinators.’
After registering by entering a name, e-mail address and school, the student can then create a password to have an account set up. This account entails access to company discounts through the web and some printable coupons. To specify your result, there is a search box that has a tab with options like arts and entertainment, food, beauty and spa, automotive and financial. To further your specification, an optional tab is included for a zip code and mile radius.’ ‘
‘I’ve never used this site but I would sign up because it’s free and I could possibly get deals on electronics,’ said Alex Masel, a sophomore music industry major. ‘But I don’t shop online often so I’d probably use it to check what deals they have a couple times a week.’

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