International Student Admissions

There seems to be intense debate in the UCs (University of California) system as to the exact number of international students they should be allowing to enter their institutions. We have already touched on the debate a bit here. For a more detailed discussion on the issue, I recommend reading this link -

Fix #1 was bringing in lots and lots of foreign students, who would presumably come with fists full of cash.  But also, with problems.

I yield to no one in my appreciation of UC Berkeley’s traditional international flavor. I vividly remember the first time I approached Sather Gate. A woman wearing a sari was coming out as I went in, and I thought to myself that I was—finally—a true citizen of the world, privy to all its delights and entertainment. Among the international friends I made as an undergraduate were a Kurd, (from an ethnic group I’d only encountered in books) a Chilean Socialist (two firsts there), an Israeli woman who thought I was an Indian because of the sound of my name, and my whole rooming-house full of women physics students from Taiwan, who taught me how to cut up a chicken with a few swift strokes of a cleaver without removing any fingers by mistake. And they were all amazing people, brilliant high-achievers, admitted because of their outstanding abilities—not, however, including their ability to pay big bucks for tuition.

There’s a real danger that today’s international students will become nothing more than cash cows. There’s the possibility that the student body will be overloaded with the privileged offspring of the ruling classes who couldn’t cut the mustard back home, and that merit will go out the window.

It doesn’t have to happen that way, but the risk is there. The same caveat applies to out-of-state American students, who will also be paying those lucrative higher tuition fees.

Overall, the percentage of these special categories is jumping from 6% to 8% of the student body in the whole UC system, with UC Berkeley getting the biggest increase. Berkeley continues to be a very saleable brand in brand-conscious Asia, with much more cachet than Los Angeles or Riverside.

A major difficulty with embarking on the mission of educating the world, even if we get nothing but the cream of the crop, is that these students are not nearly as likely as they used to be to stick around after they graduate. India and China in particular are developing their own industries which will employ their own top graduates. This might leave California, high-tech California in particular, short of top talent, having educated too few Californians and too many people who just go home after they graduate.

Accepted gives a good summary of what U.S. MBA programs are looking for from their international applicants. The focus of the post is on Chinese applicants but the lessons are universal -  

• Demonstrated experience in an international business environment
• Applicants who have made an impact
• Rising stars, recognized by senior management
• Leaders, managers, and mentors to others
• Passionate, directed people
• Community activists
• Applicants who understand why they need an MBA from an American institution
• Communicators who ace the interview

The San Francisco Chronicle has an interesting article regarding the burgeoning number of international students at California universities -

When Rebeca Ponce signed up for summer classes at UC Berkeley through her university in Mexico, she knew she was in for an experience that would broaden her view of the world.

She had no idea.

The 20-year-old business administration student from the Tecnológico de Monterrey soon found herself sitting in a classroom where she and students from India, Germany, China, South Korea, Australia, her own country and countless others are the overwhelming demographic.

“Studying at UC Berkeley has been a really rewarding experience. I have made many friends from different countries,” she said. “I wish there would have been more U.S. students to get to know more about Berkeley’s lifestyle, but I loved interacting with people from all over the world, learn from their cultures … and see life from other perspectives.”

The result of a concerted outreach effort, the number of foreign students attending classes in UC Berkeley’s summer program this year has climbed 50 percent over last year. The 2,356 international students make up 16 percent of the 15,000 total students enrolled, said UC Berkeley summer sessions director Rick Russo.

The infusion of international students is evident in the Negotiation and Conflict Resolution course Ponce is taking. About 98 percent of students in the class are from abroad, said Haas School of Business Professor Eli Kass, adding that such diversity cultivates a classroom dynamic distinct from what students would find during the regular school year… Read more here

The enrollment of international students in undergraduate and graduate programs in the U.S. has somewhat suffered as a result of the worldwide economic crisis — but not as much as many have feared, a report from the National Science Foundation (NSF) declares.

The total number of international students in the United States rose by 3 percent from fall 2008 to fall 2009.The only fields of study that suffered declines were psychology, education and the humanities (the NSF report is based on federal data on visas).

There is reason for a bit of concern for colleges however - there appears to be a declining rate of annual growth: Total foreign enrollment rose by 4.3 percent from 2006 to 2007, by 3.7 percent from 2007 to 2008, and by 3 percent from 2008 to 2009…

Read the rest of the report here.

Businessweek has an interesting article on the rising cost of MBA education and the implications of this upward trend in costs on international students –   

[...] Yet the outlook isn’t as optimistic for everyone. International students who are more likely to return home to jobs and be paid in local currency will carry MBA debt in U.S. dollars, making it riskier to loan foreign students the money to attend B-school. “Even if they get a huge job [in their home countries] at $35,000 per year, you can’t service that debt, ” says Rosemaria Martinelli, head of MBA admissions and financial aid at Wharton.

Among international students, default rates are now around 10% to 15%, says Sue Roberts, president of Student Loan Corp., a subsidiary of Citibank. “Our experience is that if they go to their home countries, the default rates are higher.”

This story reinforces the importance of students being mindful of the true costs of attendance compared to future predicted earnings. If these calculations are not done correctly, students can be left with a heavy financial burden after graduation.

The TOEFL exam can be taken either online (also known as the ‘iBT’ – Internet Based TOEFL) or on paper (also know as the ‘PBT’ – Paper Based TOEFL). Today we will examine the more common IBT.

Since its introduction in late 2005, the Internet-based Test (iBT) has progressively replaced the paper-based (PBT) tests, although paper-based testing is still used in select areas.

The four-hour test consists of four sections, each measuring one of the basic language skills (while some tasks require integrating multiple skills) and all tasks focus on language used in an academic, higher-education environment. Note-taking is allowed during the iBT. The test cannot be taken more than once a week.

Reading

The Reading section consists of 3–5 passages, each approximately 700 words in length and questions about the passages. The passages are on academic topics; they are the kind of material that might be found in an undergraduate university textbook. Passages require understanding of rhetorical functions such as cause-effect, compare-contrast and argumentation. Students answer questions about main ideas, details, inferences, essential information, sentence insertion, vocabulary, rhetorical purpose and overall ideas. New types of questions in the iBT require filling out tables or completing summaries. Prior knowledge of the subject under discussion is not necessary to come to the correct answer.

Listening
 
The Listening section consists of 6 passages, 3–5 minutes in length and questions about the passages. These passages include 2 student conversations and 4 academic lectures or discussions. A conversation involves 2 speakers, a student and either a professor or a campus service provider. A lecture is a self-contained portion of an academic lecture, which may involve student participation and does not assume specialized background knowledge in the subject area. Each conversation and lecture stimulus is heard only once. Test takers may take notes while they listen and they may refer to their notes when they answer the questions. Each conversation is associated with 5 questions and each lecture with 6. The questions are meant to measure the ability to understand main ideas, important details, implications, relationships between ideas, organization of information, speaker purpose and speaker attitude.

Speaking
 
The Speaking section consists of 6 tasks, 2 independent tasks and 4 integrated tasks. In the 2 independent tasks, test takers answer opinion questions on familiar topics. They are evaluated on their ability to speak spontaneously and convey their ideas clearly and coherently. In 2 of the integrated tasks, test takers read a short passage, listen to an academic course lecture or a conversation about campus life and answer a question by combining appropriate information from the text and the talk. In the 2 remaining integrated tasks, test takers listen to an academic course lecture or a conversation about campus life and then respond to a question about what they heard. In the integrated tasks, test takers are evaluated on their ability to appropriately synthesize and effectively convey information from the reading and listening material. Test takers may take notes as they read and listen and may use their notes to help prepare their responses. Test takers are given a short preparation time before they have to begin speaking.

Writing

The Writing section measures a test taker’s ability to write in an academic setting and consists of 2 tasks, 1 integrated task and 1 independent task. In the integrated task, test takers read a passage on an academic topic and then listen to a speaker discuss the same topic. The test taker will then write a summary about the important points in the listening passage and explain how these relate to the key points of the reading passage. In the independent task, test takers must write an essay that states, explains and supports their opinion on an issue, supporting their opinions or choices, rather than simply listing personal preferences or choices.

It should be noted that one of the sections of the test will include extra, uncounted material. Educational Testing Service includes extra material in order to pilot test questions for future test forms. When test-takers are given a longer section, they should give equal effort to all of the questions because they do not know which question will count and which will be considered extra. For example, if there are four reading passages instead of three, then three of those passages will count and one of the passages will not be counted. Any of the four passages could be the uncounted one.

There are a number of databases that exist for international students looking for Financial Aid. Although these can be a bit cumbersome, if a student is willing to do the research a number of awards/grants/scholarships can potentially be identified -

Abroad Planet Scholarship Resources
Online community of international students studying in the United States.

College Board
Free online financial aid source for scholarships, grants, and loans for all college-bound students, including permanent residents and international students wishing to study in the United States.

FastWeb
Free online scholarship search service.

International Education Financial Aid
Free online scholarship search service designed for international students.

International Scholarships
Free online scholarship database for international students wishing to study worldwide.

Mobility International USA
Free online scholarship resource for non–U.S. citizens with disabilities.

I’d like to recommend the following article to any student considering graduate study in the U.S. It has an excellent summary of the benfits of undertaiking such study as well as a collection of perspectives of international students that have taken the U.S. graduate school route. A taste -

Last year, some 2,500 students packed their bags to take their postgraduate degrees in the United States. It was a record for Britons going to North America, with student numbers increasing 4 per cent on the previous year. Such statistics leave prospective postgraduates at home scratching their heads with two questions: what’s so special about studying across the pond, and if the US really is a better place to study, how do you get in on the action?

There are three big advantages to studying in the United States. The first is money. Vast sums are invested in research and development on American campuses, which are already much better endowed than their British counterparts. This doesn’t just mean more free drinks events; it also means having the resources to carry out expensive top-level research that leads to breakthroughs and publications, be it in healthcare or rocket science.

(continue reading…)

Need-blind admission is a term in the U.S. denoting a college admission policy in which the admitting institution does not consider an applicant’s financial situation when deciding admission. There is a “wall” between the Financial Aid Office and the Admissions Office and they do not share information on matters relating to a student’s financial situation. Theoretically at least, a college or university that has a need-blind admissions will not deny a student amdmission if they do have sufficient financial resources.

There are very few colleges and universities in the U.S. that are need blind for international students. These schools are - Amherst College, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, MIT, Princeton University and Yale University.

Middlebury College and Williams College used to be completely need-blind and full-need for international students until they revised their policies due to the recent financial downturn. Although no longer need-blind for international students, Middlebury and Williams continue to meet the full demonstrated need of all accepted international students.

Many students ask me what are the basics they should consider when planning for college. Below is a basic summary of things you should keep in mind -   

Testing:  Remember that there are many forms of testing that colleges require.  All colleges in the country now accept the ACT and I find that some students do better on the ACT than the SAT based on format – but this is something you can work out yourself or with an appropriate counselor.  Also know that there are a growing number of schools out there that are now testing optional.  Students either don’t have to submit test scores at all, or they have other options regarding supplementary materials to submit.  There are many students that don’t test well, but are academically strong.  Perhaps one of these test optional schools is a good route for them.

The Essay:  I have to admit that the college essay is my favorite part of the student’s application.  It is the first thing that I read that is not statistical and it does not give me someone else’s opinion about the student.  This is my chance to hear the student’s voice – to really get into his or her brain and understand the concerns and passions of this particular student.  Students are encouraged to spend a good amount of time on it – and the reality is that the more authentic the student is, the more colleges want them.  Many students spend hours – even days, thinking about what to write that the admission office wants to hear.  There isn’t anything in particular admissions officers say they want to hear.  Rather they require the essay because it provides a window into the personal lives of these students.  Students are encouraged to write about something they are passionate about because that passion usually comes across on paper.

The Counselor Letter:  Most colleges (with the exception of community colleges, some less-selective four-year institutions and large public institutions) require counselor letters.   

The College Interview: Many colleges offer interviews.  If the school requires an interview – then there is no choice.  But in general, if the college states that it is optional, they mean that.  Some students are much better in person than they are on paper and those students probably should interview.  If students have something that they feel they need to explain in addition to the application that’s also a good reason to interview.  In general, the college interview gives the institution a personal way to get to know the student and it gives the admission committee more context.  On the other hand, if a student is terrified of interviews and is probably going to melt in the seat – don’t do it if it’s not required. 

Extra-Curricular Activities: Colleges look at these differently so you want to do some research on the schools that you are applying to and figure out how they evaluate extra-curricular activities.  In general, colleges are interested in finding out what students do with their time outside of the classroom.  This often helps us predict what the students may get involved with when they arrive in college.  In addition, this helps some admissions staff determine match.  For example a college like Pitzer has a strong emphasis on social responsibility.  If I see that a student has participated in socially responsible extra-curricular activities, this may help me determine fit.  Another College like Pomona is more focused on leadership.  If a student has not leadership experience, it was rare he or she would be admitted.  Students need to remember that if a college requires an activities list – this is NOT the time to be shy.  Share everything and be specific about how much time is spent on each activity.  A common question that arises in admissions committee is “how much time has this student dedicated to each activity?”  They are trying to find out if the student is passionate about something, or just threw a few volunteer activities on the resume senior year because it’s time to apply to college.  Basically – they want authenticity. 

These are some factors in the process, but as I stated earlier, they are many.  As time goes on we will look at others in this blog.