<p>The number of American high school students competing for spots in American colleges will begin to decrease after this year's bumper crop of high school students. But it looks like the top schools will keep up the competition by beefing up their recruitment of international applicants:</p>
<p>Colleges</a> scour China for top students - The Boston Globe</p>
<p>Thanks for sharing the link to the interesting news article. </p>
<p>I've long anticipated this, as my demographics FAQ shows: </p>
<p>DEMOGRAPHICS </p>
<p>Population trends in the United States are not the only issue influencing the competitiveness of college admission here. The children already born show us what the expected number of high school students are in various years, but the number of high school students in the United States, which is expected to begin declining in a few years, isn't the whole story. </p>
<p>First of all, if more students who begin high school go on to college, there will be more applicants to college even with a declining number of high school students. And that is the trend in the United States and worldwide. </p>
<p>Second, colleges in the United States accept applications from all over the world, so it is quite possible that demographic trends in the United States will not be the main influence on how many students apply to college. The cohorts of high-school-age students are still increasing in size in some countries (NOT most of Europe). </p>
<p>Third, even if the number of applicants to colleges overall stays the same, or even declines, the number of applicants to the most competitive colleges may still increase. The trend around the world is a "flight to quality" of students trying to get into the best college they can in increasing numbers, and increasing their consensus about which colleges to put at the top of their application lists. I do not expect college admission to be any easier for my youngest child than for my oldest child, even though she is part of a smaller birth cohort in the United States. </p>
<p>And now I would add to this that at the very most selective colleges that have just announced new financial aid plans, next year's (and the following year's) crush of applicants will be larger than ever. When colleges that are already acknowledged to be great colleges start reducing their net cost down to what the majority of families in the United States can afford, those colleges will receive more applications from all parts of the United States, and very likely from all over the world. </p>
<p>The Austin American-Statesman newspaper in Texas published news about these trends in an article about a particular applicant in April 2008. </p>
<p>The Economist magazine published a brief article about these trends in April 2008. </p>
<p>University</a> admissions in America | Accepted | The Economist</p>
<p>This is a little misleading. The story is about a Harvard recruitment initiative which is essentially the personal project of its math department chair, who has been very involved in Chinese politics (and in self-promotion) for a long time. Few schools have enough wealth to do what Harvard is doing here. However, many, many second- and third-tier public universities, especially in the Northeast where college-eligible populations are expected to decline, have been trying to solicit applications from paying customers in China. That has been going on for a while.</p>
<p>Full paying students is the key for most US universities. The primary growth market for US boarding schools is Asia and has been for about a decade now.</p>
<p>It's not just Harvard recruiting in China. There was an article in the London Times recently about how Ivy League schools are trying to recruit the best and brightest British students as well.</p>
<p>Several of the usual well known colleges have been traveling abroad for years. It's actually mid-tier to lower-tier colleges that have been active longer at sending admission officers overseas to recruit (usually full-pay) students. But if certain top colleges have endowments to give full financial aid to ANY admitted student, as HYP do, then it makes sense for those colleges to get that message out all over the world.</p>
<p>Boston University was aggressively recruiting in Asia in the 1990s and you could see the results on Commonwealth Ave and Beacon St. But my anecdotal recollections say that numbers dropped sharply with the Asian economic crisis in the late 1990s.</p>
<p>We discussed this issue during the summer when the dollar was particularly weak. The dollar has bounced about 18% off the lows and it may make education in the US less attractive. There is an important Bretton Woods II meeting next week which may have very large ramifications for currency exchange rates going forward.</p>
<p>BU did recruit aggressively in the 90s. The Asian financial crisis put a brake on its efforts, but these have resumed lately. Both US and European universities have been recruiting aggressively in Asia.</p>
<p>USC has offices in Hong Kong, Taipei, Tokyo and Mexico City. They have been recruiting internationally for years and take pride in the number of international students.</p>
<p>A really easy way for me to tell is to visit a certain Thai restaurant in Cleveland Circle on the weekend. We haven't been there in years as my wife can make all of the great dishes that they serve now. </p>
<p>Boston University (Wikipedia):</p>
<p>The incoming freshman class for 2007 was 68% white, 15% asian, 7% international students, 7% Hispanic, and 2% black. The plurality of registrants were from Massachusetts (21%), followed by New York (15%), New Jersey (9%), California (8.5%), Connecticut (6%), Pennsylvania (4%), and Texas (2.7%).[21] Twenty percent of the student body is Jewish, and BU has the second-highest number of Jews enrolled of any private university in the country.</p>
<p>I guess that 7% international is a pretty big number.</p>
<p>Won</a> sets back South Koreans' overseas education plans - washingtonpost.com </p>
<p>Full financial aid for internationals really helps a college have clout in recruiting.</p>
<p>Colleges by percent of nonresident alien students (not an exhaustive list, by far): </p>
<p>19 percent at Florida Institute of Technology </p>
<p>College</a> Search - Florida Institute of Technology - Florida Tech - At a Glance </p>
<p>18 percent at Babson </p>
<p>College</a> Search - Babson College - At a Glance </p>
<p>13 percent at Carnegie Mellon </p>
<p>College</a> Search - Carnegie Mellon University - At a Glance </p>
<p>13 percent at Mount Holyoke </p>
<p>College</a> Search - Mount Holyoke College - MHC - At a Glance </p>
<p>13 percent at Macalester </p>
<p>College</a> Search - Macalester College - Mac - At a Glance </p>
<p>11 percent at Princeton </p>
<p>College</a> Search - Princeton University - At a Glance </p>
<p>11 percent at Columbia </p>
<p>College</a> Search - Columbia University - Columbia - At a Glance </p>
<p>11 percent at Penn </p>
<p>College</a> Search - University of Pennsylvania - Penn - At a Glance </p>
<p>10 percent at Harvard </p>
<p>College</a> Search - Harvard College - At a Glance </p>
<p>10 percent at U of Chicago </p>
<p>College</a> Search - University of Chicago - Chicago - At a Glance </p>
<p>9 percent at Yale </p>
<p>College</a> Search - Yale University - At a Glance </p>
<p>9 percent at Brown </p>
<p>College</a> Search - Brown University - Brown - At a Glance </p>
<p>9 percent at Cornell U </p>
<p>College</a> Search - Cornell University - At a Glance </p>
<p>8 percent at Dartmouth </p>
<p>I always assumed all universities did this (not just american ones). Certainly all the ones I'm familiar with go recruiting abroad. At my D's school in Canada, many of the top US and UK schools visit and every year seem to take students.</p>
<p>My S's school just started a program where they are asking native English speakers to meet once a week with foreign students just to talk. The foreign students are having trouble understanding some English phrases.</p>
<p>What I liked best about my alma mater (which reports 3 percent of its students as non-resident aliens) was the chance to meet lots of international students and to learn about other countries before visiting them.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Even fifth-graders in Wellesley, Newton, and Brookline, who as adults will face international competition for jobs, should begin beefing up their academic r</p>
<p>Sorry to reply to my own message, but I must say that I'm profoundly and sadly struck by the difference between the message articulated in the quote from Harvard's Dean Fitzsimmon's vs. the advice and philosophy articulated by MIT admissions officers such as Matt McGann. </p>
<p>The MIT philosophy is that the primary motivation for your decisions about what to do in high school should NOT be a driving desire to get into MIT (or, presumably, any other college.) Rather, if you are intellectually inclined, you should pursue the things that interest you primarily for their own sake.</p>
<p>There is a lottery to Harvard and MIT admissions (and their ilk) and if all the fifth graders in the country and the world work harder, it won't make more seats available at either, and many kids who grew up with "prestige name schools" as their primary motivation from fifth grade on are bound to be disappointed.</p>
<p>But how about if places like Harvard join MIT, Yale, and other colleges in using the power of their names along with the ease of access through internet webcasts to inspire all children to explore their curiosity about the world, to think deeply about ways to make it a better place, to grow up to be happy and productive adults who enjoy working cooperatively together with others, regardless of where they go to college.</p>
<p>I'm not sure I know how to deliver the message, but Fitzsimmons has a point much talked about in my community. The global competition at every level is something Americans are not used to. We are rapidly losing economic clout and retaining jobs will be a huge challenge. What do we communicate to parents who do know how drastically things have changed? Those who still think getting into a top college is still like it was for us? I'm looking around at my oldest's friends graduating from colleges having an incredibly hard time finding jobs associated with a college grad. What do we say and not say?</p>
<p>Very few countries send their top students to the US for a college education. At the graduate level, top US research universities with their massive resources are unmatched by their international rivals. Graduate enrollment at places such as MIT, Harvard or Stanford has been rising rapidly and now approaches 40%. Not so at the undergraduate level where international enrollment has continued to hover between 6% and 10% over the past two decades. In the English speaking world, second tier US universities have been losing ground to less expensive British and Canadian universities. </p>
<p>The best students from countries in East Asia or Western Europe are much better prepared for college than their US counterparts and generally stay in their respective countries where they can get excellent post-secondary education at a fraction of the cost of a US college education. Most international students have already covered in high school what US universities teach during the first two years of college.</p>