NY Times article on int'l students

[turtleblues]

<p>interesting article
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/11/education/11agents.html?ref=education%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/11/education/11agents.html?ref=education&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

[tetrisfan]

<p>I’ve never heard of these agents for undergraduate applicants here in India</p>

[MidwestMom2Kids_1]

<p>

colleges like the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, a small Baptist university in Belton, Tex., are thrilled to land more international students, like the 25 Chinese students who arrived this year, through new agreements with commissioned agents. </p>

<p>“We like these students from two perspectives,” said Elizabeth Tanaka, the director of international students. “Looking outward, we are a Christian university, and we like these students on our campus, not necessarily to convert them, but to give them an opportunity to discover Christianity. And looking inward, our student population is typically from the tri-county area, and they think anything outside of Texas is exotic. If we bring the world to them, that is a heart-opening, mind-opening experience.”

</p>

<p>The small U.S. colleges benefit by being considered by kids who otherwise who never would have heard of them. The students at these small U.S. colleges benefit by meeting students from other countries.</p>

[interesteddad]

<p>Paid recruiters are not limited to overseas. The Questbridge organization is paid a per head bounty for each low-income or URM student they successfully recruit.</p>

<p>

Federal law forbids universities to pay recruiters based on how many American students they enroll, a ban meant to block aggressive recruiters from signing up unqualified students for college, including welfare recipients, in order to pocket the commissions — knowing the students would be likely to default on federal student loans.

</p>

<p>This probably explains why Questbridge doesn’t get paid their bounty until the student enrolls for the second year at the school.</p>