I once worked for an LAC tutoring foreigners who were admitted but then were shown to lack even a basic level of English. Oh yes, it’s a big problem, and yes colleges do look the other way. The young adults I tutored were full pay and also brought money into the local economy because they rented condos, hired maids, bought cars, and hired American students to write their papers. Actually, when I was in grad school, a rich girl from Colombia kept pestering me to “help” her with her papers. Her writing was on the elementary school level in thought, not just language. She got very nasty and threatening with me when I refused, which did scare me.
That privilege may only be for those who are “undocumented”.
<<<if colleges="" wanted="" to="" stop="" the="" practice,="" all="" they="" would="" have="" do="" is="" re-administer="" toeffl="" once="" new="" student="" showed="" up="" on="" campus.="" instead,="" just="" look="" other="" way,="" and="" pocket="" cash="" from="" full="" payers="">>>
In the dark ages a 550 TOEFL was good enough for most schools, some were even 500 (which is near Me Tarzan You Jane level English judging from my 500’er friends). I did a 610 and that was reasonably good and allowed me to study without too much trouble.
Many schools do just that. For TA’s there’s some speaking heavy test that many schools use; others use local tests or interviews. The IELTS is supposedly a bit more accurate. The problem here is that the prospective students can’t begin to comprehend how difficult it is to study in another language to begin with… My kids are born and raised native English speakers here in the Midwest and I see them breezing thru some heavy duty reading - I shudder thinking how someone like me FOB (Fresh Off the Boat) 30 years ago would have fared…
Slightly OT, but to show how much things have changed, 40+ years ago, I was considered a foreign student, although I had lived in the US since age 7. I was applying to grad schools, and GWU, where I had attended UG, wanted me to take the TOEFL. Other graduate schools were not so demanding, accepting my GREs (700+) and Miller’s (93) scores as indications of fluency. I felt it was over-the-top to insist on my taking the TOEFL, so I withdrew my application and attended elsewhere.
So, we have gone from insisting on the TOEFL from students that we know speak English to accepting students that we have a strong suspicion don’t speak English. 40 years of progress.
I don’t think it’s quite a “strong suspicion”. There are plenty of honest foreign students, and I expect the cheaters are the minority. Schools aren’t going to stop taking foreign students because of this. Personally, I think acceptance should be contingent on a skype interview to confirm the adequacy of spoken English, particularly for those students who are being brought in not just to study but also to serve as TA’s.