Due to these absolutely objective measures, there is no notion of “reach schools” or “safety schools.” Students don’t visit schools to see if they fit, the test score tells them if they’ll fit. The American philosophy of subjective admissions is truly foreign to these students, their parents and teachers and that’s where they look for external advice. Application components like personal statements, extracurricular activities and essays are not part of the domestic college search process and thus need explanation and interpretation, as is the most confusing thing of all – “test optional.” Students wonder, “If a standardized test is required for domestic admissions, what does it mean to have an optional admissions test?” And, “why don’t the American schools accept my board score for admission?”

The confusion doesn’t stop there. Additional confusion comes from the loose way American’s use the term “college.” For most countries, “college” is a pre-university path, a 13th year program designed to bridge gaps in the student’s past experiences and to help a student gain entry into the more respected university. It is a path similar to American community colleges, but what is hard to understand is the way the term “college” is associated with a well-respected 4-year or even graduate school experience.

Another baffling aspect of the US landscape is the subjective role of rankings. By nature of the domestic admissions, schools are ranked based on entrance level board scores, very objective. In the US, rankings are very subjective, based heavily on measures of reputation and not based on board scores. US News, the king of the American rankings has defined categories of schools as “national”, “regional” and “liberal arts,” not necessarily official terms. American schools often discuss Liberal Arts as a focus or philosophy, but in a world focused on entry into the workforce and professional, marketable skills, the concept of Liberal Arts is also foreign.

Somebody is needed to help students and their parents understand these differences and add some clarity and credibility to the process. Because such knowledge and expertise in not housed in public schools and many of the private schools, families need to find this advise from the private sector. Private counseling does exist, but for most families this priced out of reach, so the educational agent has become the primary source of this type of information.

Agents are typically local business people who for years have maintained a storefront or office locations, serving the local population. They are respected members of the local community, often having western degrees themselves or having staff with western degrees. They have frequently travelled to visit universities and provide first-hand accounts of the university environment to families who will most likely never see the campus before their student enrolls. Their offices are tangible reassurance that the student is in good hands and the agent is a person to go in case of trouble while the student is away. The agent is bi-lingual, has business licenses and is invested in the proper treatment of the students. The agent has convenient hours, can be easily reached by phone and is often referred by satisfied neighbors and friends. The agent is a trusted resource in the search for schools.

University recruiters on the other hand are seen as opportunistic, choosing to pay very brief visits to communities, often only at a fair or expo. They often don’t speak the native language and come without knowledge of the local cultures or traditions. They struggle to recognize local transcripts and academic records, often pushing students to third-party credential evaluators. American schools have the added disadvantage of operating through documents that are use “standard” size 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper as opposed to the metric (A4) paper used outside North America.

For undergraduate students, parents play a very important role in the decision making process when it comes to where/what their children will study overseas and parents are generally the ones who fund the whole process. A purely on-line process, or talking to foreign counselors overseas, is not desirable for most parents, many of whom prefer to discuss their children’s study options at length, face to face, with a specialist, preferably one who speaks their language. Brochures and web site are far too general and do not provide a true picture of the institution, nor do they provide enough specific information.

The agent becomes a place for the parents to validate what the student has discovered online or through interaction with their friends. They want some level of assurance that the student will get accepted, especially in light of all the subjective measured used in the admissions process. Parents want someone to provide oversight in the many complex and often confusing aspects of the admissions and enrollment process. EducationUSA and other collective information sources can be helpful in this process, but they are never committal and they never make recommendations. Families want reassurance and they want someone to make promises and agents are the ones a majority of families trust.

This bears repeating, families trust their agents. It is the same kind of trust that a real estate agent or an insurance agent brings to a product. In America, the vast majority of consumers goes to a real estate agent to buy a house or goes to an insurance agent for protection, so it should not be hard to understand how someone half way around the world would want to go to a local business person to help them purchase a higher education degree for their child.

Mark Shay is a business developer with a long history of success helping higher education institutions recruit students. In an illustrative career that has spanned three decades, Shay has served thousands of customers, ranging from individual faculty members and graduate deans, to university presidents and foreign governments. He is well known for balancing the non-commercial spirit of educators with the commercial realities of operating efficiently and effectively using technology to improve results. He founded StudyAbroad.com, GradSchools.com and has worked in leadership roles at two universities and IDP Education. He has recently started a consulting practice and is serving as an advisor to AAE. Mark is also the editor of ChinaTrend: Insights into the Higher Education market in China

• Read more articles by Mark Shay.

Officially, the use of agents for foreign students is allowed and for domestic students it is not allowed. The governing law of the land is Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965, which defines regulations around Federal funding of student aid programs. Title IV states that its jurisdiction covers only domestic students and thus all regulations tied to incentive compensation and student eligibility are for domestic students only.

Violation of Title IV puts a school at risk of loosing its federal funding and for its students not to receive the benefits of federal programs such as subsidized student loans, federal work-study grants and Pell tuition grants. As long as all of the federal programs cover only domestic students, the federal regulations will exempt foreign students.

The Higher Education Act does expire and thus a reauthorization process has happened multiple times since 1965. After repeated extensions and much political wrangling, the act was reauthorized in 2008. This eliminated the twelve “safe harbors” dealing with Internet recruiting, adult education and online program marketing, but there were no changes in the domestic student limitations of federal programs and the foreign exemptions were restated and reinforced.

Counselors against Agents?

NACAC, the National Association for College Admissions Counseling has taken a stand against the use of agents, arguing that what is proper practice for domestic students should be proper practice for all students. Through their professional standards efforts, NACAC has defined certain recruiting practices as “ethical” and uses its market clout to enforce these standards. NACAC operates the National College Fairs, a major domestic high school recruiting platform and they also control the undergraduate Common Application (Common App). NACAC’s “Statement of Principles of Good Practice” requires mandatory compliance by its members, violations can lead to sanctions that include a ban from the organization for both the individual and in extreme cases the institution. Only NACAC members can participate in NACAC programs like the National College Fairs and the Common App, thus failure to comply with the SPGP puts an institutions participation in these lucrative domestic programs at risk.

The agent “industry” has taken exception with NACAC and has debated the differences of international and domestic practice across many forums. NACAC took the agents’ perspective into consideration but in the summer of 2011, the National Admissions Practices Committee put forth a recommendation that the use of commission-based recruiters be banned. The recommendation was to be voted upon by the membership at NACAC’s 2011 Annual Conference, but the NACAC board stepped in and delayed formal action for two years. Citing pressure from university presidents and organizations such as APLU, the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU Expresses Concern About Possible Ban of Agents in International Recruiting )

Rationale for Using Agents

While NACAC and APLU form a committee to explore the broader issues relating to international recruiting, it bears repeating some of the rationale of using agents. In most parts of the world, public schools do not offer assistance in the search for colleges, so all counseling is done in the private sector. It is the worldwide standard to have the fees for such service paid for by the service providers (schools), just as it is done in the insurance, real estate, travel and employee search industries. Since the practice is so widespread, the best way today for American universities to compete overseas today is to conform to the worldwide norm and use agents. Agents give schools a local physical presence; they have staff that speaks the native language, operate during the same hours as the families and have ties to the local community. In most cases, agents are respected members of the community, working with schools and families to build a reputable local business.

The growth and maturity of the industry continues. AIRC, the American International Recruitment Council continues to see substantial growth in university membership and has increased the number of agencies it has certified. American universities are expanding their use of agents as witnessed by the expansion efforts of firms like Access American Education , IDP Education and EduGlobal . Also in the news lately, China’s biggest agent firm EIC has opened a US office in California and the mega education company Pearson has purchased an English language teaching firm in China that has an agent subsidiary.

Fueled by a strong desire by American universities to recruit overseas, we can expect that a lot of growth in the agent industry will happen over the next two years, making US schools much more dependent on this channel and making it much more entrenched in standard university practice. From my perspective, now is a very good time for universities to consider starting with or expanding their agent representation. Agents are not oversubscribed (they have capacity) and they are eager to build alliances and invest in bringing on new clients. Agent’s business is booming as interest in studying overseas is growing is most countries and student interest in coming to the United States remains very strong worldwide.

• For further reading, NACAC president Jim Miller comments on agents
• Join AIRC and the quality assurance in international student recruitment

About the Author

Mark Shay is a business developer with a long history of success helping higher education institutions recruit students. In an illustrative career that has spanned three decades, Shay has served thousands of customers, ranging from individual faculty members and graduate deans, to university presidents and foreign governments. He is well known for balancing the non-commercial spirit of educators with the commercial realities of operating efficiently and effectively using technology to improve results. He founded StudyAbroad.com, GradSchools.com and has worked in leadership roles at two universities and IDP Education. He has recently started a consulting practice and is serving as an advisor to AAE.

• Read more articles by Mark Shay.

Drill down a little further and you’ll see that 50% of the international students in the USA are at over 125 schools and 80% are at just over 350 schools. You can call these the sweatshirt schools, the ones that you see logos emblazoned on in Starbucks and malls and tourist hotspots worldwide.

If you are a school in the top 25, then life from an international brand perspective is great. Sports Channels put your school’s name and logo across the world and big events like bowl games and March Madness get you fans in all corners of the globe. Even if you are in the top 125, life is still very good because you have regional cache and good brand recognition. It certainly helps if your school is named after a prominent city or state.

For the rest, it’s trouble. There are over 2,400 colleges and universities and if you count trade schools, that number grows to over 4,000, all trying to grow their international presence and their international enrollments. How do the overcome the overseas brand dilemma – a brand will get you students and without students, you don’t have a brand.

The 4 P’s of International Student Recruitment

Perhaps the best was to think about building your international brand is through the “4 P’s” a marketing philosophy long popular with the advertising industry. This is a marketing mix of Product, Price, Promotion and Place. For a US college wanting a brand overseas, “The 4 P’s of International Student Recruitment” are:

• PRODUCT – What is it you are selling: your school, your segment/category, a US degree or an American educational experience? Think about this in terms of your domestic advertising slogans, often viewed as clever plays on the history of mission of a school. How do these relate to an international student? One college has a slogan of “Your revolution starts here?” How will that play in China or the Middle East today?
• PRICE – It’s not just the sticker price, it is cost of living, cost of travel and in today’s volatile currency market, the cost IN LOCAL CURRENCY. Where do you sit competitively, not only in against other American colleges and universities, but against foreign colleges and universities?
• PROMOTION – If you get past the above two hurdles, now you need to need to spread the word. Do you advertise and promote it yourself, or through others? Do you rely on existing outlets like EducationUSA, Commerce Department fairs and trade tours, private tours, overseas fairs and international education expositions? Do you take advantage of the work of your faculty when they travel overseas? Do you leverage your study abroad students while they are in country? Where do you advertise?
• PLACE – Often the most confusing P, place is about getting it into the hands of the consumer, making it accessible. Who guides students through the complexities of international communication? Where and when do they do this? What do things like “test optional”, “official transcript” and “personal statement” really mean?

For those who know the business, the 4 P’s are clear, and they are clear for each of their primary source countries. What works with one country or culture will not necessarily work for others, so your 4 P’s then get multiplied by the number of target markets and become a complex marketing plan.

This takes time, money and expertise. Local expertise it critical, something an agent can help you with. If you don’t have a physical presence in country, your agent can be the PLACE. They can help you with your PROMOTION – think about co-branded advertising where the two of you split the cost or having them attend fairs in your place. The agent can help you with building a successful marketing message that will localize the PRICE and PRODUCT branding. If you have not cracked the Top 125, you can still win with a solid marketing mix and the right international partners; it’s an investment in the future of your institution.

About the Author

Mark Shay is a business developer with a long history of success helping higher education institutions recruit students. In an illustrative career that has spanned three decades, Shay has served thousands of customers, ranging from individual faculty members and graduate deans, to university presidents and foreign governments. He is well known for balancing the non-commercial spirit of educators with the commercial realities of operating efficiently and effectively using technology to improve results. He founded StudyAbroad.com, GradSchools.com and has worked in leadership roles at two universities and IDP Education. He has recently started a consulting practice and is serving as an advisor to AAE.

• Read more articles by Mark Shay.

Access American Education (AAE) Announces Being Certified by the American International Recruitment Council(AIRC)

HCMC, Vietnam, June 17th – AAE receives its AIRC certification, which means that it is now recognized as a quality provider of educational knowledge and information to Vietnamese students and families and that AAE adheres to the highest ethical standards.

The announcement on June 16, 2011 is a key achievement for Access American Education(AAE). AAE, an educational consultancy agency, is the first educational consulting agency exclusively focused on the Vietnamese market. The company was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States in 2008 and opened its Vietnam office in Ho Chi Minh City in 2009. Since that time, AAE has grown in size and currently represents over 140 U.S. educational institutions. AAE focuses on overseas study in the United States only – and no other countries. AAE is the first educational consulting agency exclusively focused on the Vietnamese market to be awarded this honor and only the second agency in the country to be AIRC certified.

The American International Recruitment Council(AIRC) was established in 2008 to develop standards of ethical practice for educational institutions and student recruitment agents for the recruitment of international students to American colleges and universities. AIRC was conceived and created by accredited U.S. colleges and universities as a non-profit Standards Development Organization. Their standards are used successfully by a range of associations concerned with the intersection of business and professional practice.

Mr. Brad Wertheimer, President of AAE, is proud to receive this certification. “Being certified by the American International Recruitment Council is a key achievement for Access American Education. This honor validates all of the hard work our team has done for Vietnamese students over the past two years and we look forward to serving the Vietnamese market for many years to come.”

At the AAE’s office in Vietnam, located at 31A Nguyen Dinh Chieu, Q.1 HCMC, students and parents are increasingly coming to AAE for assistance and advice on studying in the U.S. because of the company’s low fees, access to the best American colleges and universities, high scholarship offers and because of the fact that there are American counselors and managers working in the Vietnam office. Students and parents know they can trust the information given to them and know that they are receiving expert advice that will help them be successful in studying in the US. AAE and its staff members know and understand American education.

AAE, as a small agency, is different from other educational agencies in Vietnam. Vietnamese students can get on Skype at midnight with managers, they receive the mobile telephone numbers of counselors, and they can learn from blogs written for AAE from Vietnamese students currently in the US. AAE embraces social media and treats every student like one of their family. These practices have led to a loyal student following on the Company’s Facebook page. As a result, the Company Is currently looking for growth opportunities in neighboring regions/provinces such as Can Tho/Mekong Region and Vung Tau.

The certification from the American International Recruitment Council represents a significant milestone in the history of AAE. AAE has strictly adhered to all ethical standards established by the American International Recruitment Council (AIRC) in all dealings with students, families, and universities since the starting of the company. The management of AAE and staff will continue their good work and help Vietnamese students apply to and attend colleges and universities in the U.S. with ongoing support in the areas of career counseling and college placement as well as help students set up transportation and living arrangements while they are in the U.S.

For more information please contact:
Kate Lyapustina
(215)917-5007

Access American Education has participated at the Vietabroader (VA) College fair that took place in HCMC and Hanoi. VietAbroader Fair is one of the most popular events for Vietnamese students who are looking to study in the U.S. This fair brought together 62 U.S. colleges and universities, and more than 500 students and parents. Access American Education was proud to participate at the fair and introduce many quality US partner institutions to Vietnamese students.

Manh Dao, Vietnamese student at Illinois Wesleyan University:

VA College fair has always been a place where students find their dream schools and scholarships that can help them fulfill their dreams. For Vietnamese students USA has the finest higher education system in the world. Access American Education brought a lot of excitement for hundreds of Vietnamese students who came to the fair. AAE believes that every student should have a chance to study in USA, and helps students choose the right institution, submit applications, apply for scholarships and visas. I truly believe that AAE will be able to help more and more Vietnamese students in accessing the American dream every year.

I serve as a contributor to Access American Education’s web site, providing editorial support and service to the company as an advisor. I have had several engagements that have put me in between the student and the school and I think I understand the needs of all sides in this equation. There are at least four variables in this puzzle:

• Schools want students who will fit well on their campus and go on to be successful graduates. Schools also want students who can pay tuition, especially with the plateau in domestic enrollments.
• Students want schools that will open doors for them and provide the foundation to launch a successful career. Students also want to have fun.
• Parents want their students to get the best education possible and attend the most recognized institutions possible. Parents also want the status that an elite university will bring to their family.
• Agents want satisfied customers, priding themselves as the middleman, making the best connections that bring more students and more schools. Agents also want relationships that will reward them with handsome fees.

Four parties, all with similar and conflicting interests. Add a few time zones, language and cultural differences and you can see how complex this issue is.

Do I think all students should use agents? No, there are clearly students who know what they want, understand the system and have good counselors and advisors behind them.

Do I think all schools should use agents? No, an agent is an extension of a school’s international recruiting efforts. If a school doesn’t have such an effort, an agent is not an acceptable replacement. On the other hand, schools’ that have very well established international recruiting enterprises might find that agents are redundant and may even weaken their brand.

Do I think all agents are good? No, there are people who view students as a commodity and are just quick riches. They push students to unscrupulous schools, break and bend rules and are profiteers. Groups like AIRC (American International Recruitment Council) hope to raise the barriers to entry for them and governments hope to put fraudulent operators out of business.

Do I think all agents are bad? No, there are a number of very respectable agents of all sizes that serve students and their schools well. Some have stood the test of time and are both well respected members of the local community and trusted allies of schools. I put AAE in this category, which is why I have agreed to contribute to their web site and endorse their efforts.

I invite you to browse through the commentary in this section of the Access American Education web site and participate in the dialog. We hope to have a posting about once a week and welcome you comments and suggestions.

Thank you,

Mark Shay
Contributor, Access American Education

About the Author

Mark Shay is a business developer with a long history of success helping higher education institutions recruit students. In an illustrative career that has spanned three decades, Shay has served thousands of customers, ranging from individual faculty members and graduate deans, to university presidents and foreign governments. He is well known for balancing the non-commercial spirit of educators with the commercial realities of operating efficiently and effectively using technology to improve results. He founded StudyAbroad.com, GradSchools.com and has worked in leadership roles at two universities and IDP Education. He has recently started a consulting practice and is serving as an advisor to AAE. Mark is also the editor of ChinaTrend: Insights into the Higher Education market in China

• Read more articles by Mark Shay.

James Madison and the numbers:

James Madison University is the leading public university in the U.S.. Established in 1908, JMU located in Harrisonburge, a small city in Virginia with a population of over 40,000 people, just two hours from Washington D.C.

The most popular majors in JMU are included Business, Engineering, Health Professions, Social Science

#1 public university (#3 regional) in the south of the United States for the 17th consecutive year(U.S. News & World Report)

44^th best undergraduate business school in the United States (Business Week Magazine)

#6 Best Undergraduate Teaching in its category

21^th in the list of Kiplinger Magazine “100 Best Values in Public Colleges 2010” in America

International Study Center:

Courses offered: Foundation Diploma and Pre Masters

The JMU International Study Center is located in Memorial Hall, which is also home to the College of Education, the Department of Geology and Environmental Science, the Graduate School, and the Military Science Department. Memorial Hall contains two eateries: the Corner Bistro and a Java City. The ISC office contains the offices of the Center Director, Center Administrator, English faculty, and Adjunct faculty, as well as a conference room.

All ISC classrooms are equipped with screens, projectors, computers, internet connection, Power Point, and access to Smart white board. Students will access their classes through a computer program called Blackboard, using it to submit homework and assignment, participate in discussions and stay updated about course work.

For more information about the programs as well as admission requirements, please come to our seminar on 9/12/2010. Register to attend before 8/12/2010!

For further information please contact:

Access American Education
31A Nguyen Dinh Chieu Street, District 1, HCMC
Website: www.aaevietnam.com – Hotline: 0909 553 513

During the anniversary, Ms. Nguyen Thi Nhu – AAE Vietnam former director reported the work the office had done in the past year. Access American Education is not only the name but also our mission and goal.

With the advantage of having 2 offices in both Vietnam and the US, there are 2 goals we aim to: Sending Vietnamese students to study abroad in the U.S. & Implementation of U.S. University projects in Vietnam. AAE already had some Vietnamese students who passed the visa interview; the notable case is Nguy?n Ng?c H?ng ??c, with 75% scholarship at Washington Academy high school (worth $23,000 dollars for each academic year).

Besides, some of students are attending the following universities and colleges: Drexel, Delaware Country Community College as well as ELS language center before going to university.

Mentioning the second mission, the remarkable fact is that AAE has collaborated with Rider University organising an exchange tour for 10 American students majoring in business to visit Hoa Sen University.

In September 2010, once again, we organised the visit for 8 faculty coming from PSU (Portland State University) exchanging with the faculty of University of Science and University of Social Science and Humanities with the topic “Sustainable Development and Leadership”.

On the top of that, many interesting seminars about the US education system and university programmes have been held at AAE office as well as at some university halls such as University of Science, University of Economics and Law.

In her latter part of presentation, Ms. Nguyen Thi Nhu introduced the new director of AAE in the coming year will be Ms. Mai Thi Ngoc Huong.

Ms. Nhu also took this special opportunity to thank Mr. Kenny Cooper – AAE Chairman, Mr. James Barger – CEO, Mr. Brad Wertheimer – President at U.S. office for their dedicated and thoughtful support and especially for sending Mr. Spencer Utt in supporting Vietnam office.

The anniversary ended in the joyful atmosphere after an eventful year and cherished hope in the coming year will bring. Kenny Cooper – AAE Chairman emphasized “AAE goal for next year is becoming the member of AIRC (American International Recruitment Council).” This is quite an ambitious goal. Let see what next year will bring to AAE!

Education system in integrated time

According to Mr. Richard Riley – Former U.S. Secretary of Education, the top 10 in-demand jobs in 2010 didn’t exist in 2004. Sites such as Google, Facebook or YouTube are widely used in the youth today was unfamiliar terms and did not exist in 2003. Actually, “globalization” was no longer a strange concept to everybody as the world today is described as “Global Village”, implying the world today has no gap, people can communicate, exchange information or even do business with each other on the cyber world.

In particular, since Vietnam joined WTO in 2007, the term “Trend of trade integration” has been repeated many times by the media. With the growth of modern technology and general trends of world integration, equipping ourselves with necessary knowledge to keep pace with the world is crucial. Students must prepare themselves with the soft skills such as team work, creative thinking,… Karl Fisch stated “We are currently preparing students for work that doesn’t yet exist, using technologies that haven’t been invented in order solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet.”

Trends in modern business world today & job opportunities in the future

Did you update what is happening in the job market these days? Necessary things to prepare for the integration period? Is it easy to search for job opportunities in the future? To learn more about the trade in the world today, please come to our conference “Trends in modern business world today & job opportunities in the future” presented by Dr. Joseph Ugras at 6:30 pm on Nov 12^th 2010. Please register for the conference by Nov 11^th due to limited seats available.