<p>China Rush to U.S. Colleges Reveals Predatory Fees for Recruits
2011-05-22 16:01:00.2 GMT</p>
<p>By Daniel Golden
May 23 (Bloomberg) – Leon Lin was ecstatic when he found
out hed be leaving home in southern China to study at the
University of Connecticut. As the Chinese agent whom his parents
paid $5,000 to help him get into the school told him, the
universitys flagship campus at Storrs was a highly ranked
institution, with 25,000 students and ready access to Boston and
New York City. And eventually Lin would return home with the
status and career advantage of a U.S. degree.
It never crossed his mind that hed pay $47,000 a year to
live in an almost empty country inn and attend classes five
miles down the road at a UConn satellite campus comprising two
buildings and 250 students. He shares a room and a microwave
with his only compatriot on the Torrington campus, Li Rirong, a
fellow freshman with similarly dashed dreams.
I didnt know there was a regional campus, said 20-year-
old Lin. I knew there were lots of international students at
Storrs. I said, Torrington campus, what the hell?
Lin and Li reflect the most extreme result of an industry
burgeoning from the fourfold rise since 2006 in the number of
Chinese undergraduates at U.S. colleges. More than 400 agencies
licensed by the Chinese government, and many others that arent,
cater to families eager to see their children gain the prestige
of a U.S. degree. For thousands of dollars, agents help fill out
applications, ghost-write essays and arrange visas.</p>
<pre><code> U.S. Ties
These agents also often misrepresent or conceal their U.S.
</code></pre>
<p>affiliations. They receive payments not only from the families,
who even pony up a share of any scholarships awarded to their
children, but also from an increasing number of colleges, as
well as small operators seeking to profit stateside from the
influx of Chinese students.
Eager to mine a newly affluent China, the State University
of New York, Tulane University in New Orleans and scores of
other schools are starting to pay agents a commission for each
student enrolled – an incentive thats banned when recruiting
U.S. students.
The upshot is that some Chinese students end up paying at
least twice as much as their American counterparts to go to
colleges that arent necessarily the best match for them.
Were pretty much against commercial recruiting agents,
said Alina Romanowski, deputy assistant secretary for academic
programs at the U.S. State Department, which offers free college
advising abroad through its EducationUSA arm. We want to make
sure people dont have to pay for information about college,
she said. Its out there, its available, and we provide it.</p>
<pre><code> Horses, River Rafting
In Lin and Lis case, their agents were working with a
</code></pre>
<p>former U.S. Treasury investigator-turned-real-estate-developer.
He aimed to recruit Chinese students to attend campuses like
Torrington that lack their own housing, and enlist them as rent-
paying tenants. At least one of the agents in China and the
developer represented themselves to students as having a
relationship with the University of Connecticut – a
relationship that never existed.
The developer, Timothy Martin of Granby, Connecticut, also
promised the young men access to flight training, equestrian
lessons, river rafting and other recreations, none of which
materialized. Lin and Li each pay his firm $22,200 a year for
room and board at the inn – about $9,000 more than it would
cost them to live in a dormitory at Storrs. Thats on top of
about $25,000 they each pay in out-of-state tuition, three times
the in-state rate.</p>
<pre><code> The Real Thing
Martin said his company has given Lin and Li value for
</code></pre>
<p>their money.
Were not selling RC Cola in China and saying its
Coke, he said. Were selling Coke.
So far, Lin and Lis experience in the U.S. has been one of
isolation and frustration. Torrington has no other foreign
students, and little in the way of English-language help. Its
just a desert for them here, said Christine Mosman,
Torringtons student affairs coordinator. Its so sad.
China passed South Korea in the 2009-2010 academic year as
the leading source of international undergraduates at U.S.
colleges, accounting for almost 40,000 students, according to
the Institute of International Education, a New York-based
nonprofit group. Chinas one-child-per-family policy and its
growing wealth mean middle-class families there can afford U.S.
tuitions that far exceed the cost of Chinese universities.</p>
<pre><code> Few Counselors
About 80 percent of these students use agents, according to
</code></pre>
<p>a May 2010 report by ***** China, an online social network that
matches Chinese students with colleges and scholarships. Since
placement at domestic universities is determined by an entrance
exam, Chinese high schools rarely provide guidance counselors,
and agents fill the gap for students looking overseas.
The system works well for many Chinese applicants whose
agents take into account their academic records and personal
preferences and guide them to appropriate U.S. colleges.
One of Chinas biggest agencies, Guangzhou-based EIC Group,
charges $4,000 to $6,000 – depending on the ranking of the
colleges – for a maximum of six applications, plus $150 to $300
for each additional application, according to a contract
reviewed by Bloomberg News. If students dont pay fees on time,
EIC can withhold letters of acceptance and visa documents. All
the negative consequences are borne by the client, the
contract states.
Students must also pay 10 percent of any college
scholarships or financial aid to EIC. Anything wrong with
that? said Albert Li of EICs U.S. department in Beijing. Its
an award for our writer, for the consultant, its kind of
encouragement.</p>
<pre><code> Scholarship Share
For agents to benefit from financial aid is horribly
</code></pre>
<p>wrong, said Yenbo Wu, associate vice president for
international education at San Francisco State University.
That money shouldnt be collected. Thats for students.
EIC is certified by the American International Recruitment
Council, a Bethesda, Maryland, nonprofit organization that helps
colleges vet agents. Founded in 2008, the council has 129 member
colleges and reviews agents for legal, financial or ethical
problems.
Agents are entitled to a share of scholarship money, said
the councils executive director, John Deupree. When you go to
a restaurant, youre supposed to tip on the full price even if
you have a coupon, because the waiter does the same amount of
work, he said.
Audrey Li, 19, a Beijing high-school graduate seeking to
study art and architecture, agreed to pay her agent more than
$3,000, plus 10 percent of any financial aid.</p>
<pre><code> Thats Robbery
After she was admitted to Hobart and William Smith Colleges
</code></pre>
<p>in Geneva, New York, the agency missed the Jan. 1 application
deadline for a $20,000 merit scholarship. She begged the college
for another chance, and was awarded the scholarship, plus
$15,000 in additional aid. Because of its mistake, the agency
waived its $3,500 share, Li said.
The agent has absolutely no reason to take any amount of
any students scholarships since the money is supposed to be
awarded solely toward the student, she said. Some other
agents even take 15 percent – thats robbery!
U.S. colleges are prohibited from paying incentives to
recruit students who qualify for federal financial aid. Theres
no such ban on recruiting international students, who are
ineligible for federal grants and loans.
EICs clients include Drexel University in Philadelphia and
San Diego State University. The American Language Institute at
San Diego States College of Extended Studies pays the agency 15
percent of tuition, or commission of $299.25 to $897 a semester,
for each student recruited to an English-language program,
including five students this term, spokeswoman Gina Jacobs said.
The institute doesnt provide scholarships, she said.</p>
<pre><code> $8 a Day
Some of the services provided by agents in China violate
</code></pre>
<p>ethical standards for college admissions in the U.S. About 90
percent of recommendation letters for Chinese students are fake
and 70 percent of essays arent written by the applicant,
according to the ***** China report. Many agents in China have
folders full of successful essays, which they tweak each
year, ***** China Chairman Tom Melcher wrote. Others hire
recent returnees to write essays.
One former employee of an agency in eastern China was paid
$8 a day to craft essays in 2009-2010 for 20 applicants to U.S.
colleges, she said, asking not to be identified. All of them
were admitted, she said.
Most of the applicants planned to major in finance or
accounting, so for them she wrote essays describing how the
student had been motivated by reading a biography of a famous
American businessman such as Bill Gates, she said in a telephone
interview. For recommendations, teachers names were signed
without their knowledge, and extracurricular credentials such as
student-union president were made up, said the 23-year-old.</p>
<pre><code> Pay for Success
U.S. colleges are flocking to use agents that recruit in
</code></pre>
<p>China. Doing so allows them to boost international revenue while
avoiding the up-front expense of sending their own admissions
staff.
Aiming to increase international enrollment to 32,000 from
18,000, the State University of New York system has accepted
bids from agents, including five in China, whom it will pay 10
percent of first-year tuition for every student recruited.
International students at the New York system pay tuition of
$13,380, more than 2 1/2 times the in-state rate.
Because SUNY doesnt have a lot of liquidity to invest in
recruitment, it makes sense to pay for success, said Mitch
Leventhal, vice chancellor for global affairs. SUNY will make
sure applicants know that their agents are paid by the
university, he said.</p>
<pre><code> Tulane, Rutgers
At least 80 American schools have signed up with IDP
</code></pre>
<p>Education since that agency – half-owned by 38 Australian
universities and half by online employment firm Seek Ltd. –
began recruiting international students to U.S. colleges in
2009. Schools including Tulane, Rutgers in New Brunswick, New
Jersey, and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona
Beach, Florida, pay IDP $2,500 for each enrollment.
IDP charges some students in China from $3,000 for
community colleges to $7,000 for top-30 colleges, and takes 10
percent of any financial aid or scholarship, according to a
contract reviewed by Bloomberg News. Because IDP isnt licensed
to operate in China, it forms partnerships with agents there,
and it is really their contract that the students have to
sign, spokesman Matthew Ulmer said in an e-mail. Revamping its
China operation is a company priority, he said.</p>
<pre><code> Whac-a-Mole
Agents practices in China have raised alarms at the U.S.
</code></pre>
<p>State Department and elsewhere. The departments EducationUSA
wing stopped contracting with institutions in China for college
counseling in 2009 after finding that some of its partners were
acting as agents or receiving commissions from agents or U.S.
universities.
Agents may lead students to choose a college or
university that will not meet their needs, according to an
August 2009 policy.
Lauryne Massinga, EducationUSAs regional education
advising coordinator for China, said that as soon as it warns
one agent to stop using its logo, another starts. Its like
the game Whac-a-Mole, she said.
The National Association for College Admission Counseling,
an Arlington, Virginia, nonprofit group for admissions
professionals, issued a statement last week that paying
recruiters to increase enrollment isnt appropriate domestically
or internationally, said NACAC Executive Director Joyce Smith.
Some schools are using agents as a quick fix, she said.</p>
<pre><code> Relationship Building
Fifteen schools, including Wake Forest University and the
</code></pre>
<p>University of Maryland, have joined an alliance called CNA-USA
to bypass agents and build relationships directly with Chinese
high schools, said Richard Hesel, principal of Art & Science
Group, a Baltimore-based consulting firm that helped set up CNA-
USA last year. Representatives have visited high schools in
Guangdong province, conducted application workshops for
students, and provided college counseling at no cost to the
families or high schools, Hesel said.
The University of Connecticut, which has increased
international enrollment from 25 to 128 in five years, sends
admissions staff to China. We tell students, We dont have
agents, Lee Melvin, vice president for enrollment planning
and management. They cant call on your behalf. They cant
write essays on your behalf. Well build our international
population ourselves.
That didnt protect Lin and Li. They were steered to an
empty inn and a branch campus meant for commuters by their
Chinese agents and Martin, the former federal investigator.</p>
<pre><code> Clever Guy
In an interview at a Friendlys restaurant in Windsor
</code></pre>
<p>Locks, Connecticut, Martin, 49, talked about how earlier that
morning, his car had broken down as he was taking two of the
four Chinese high-school students who live and pay rent in his
Granby home to a standardized test.
Born in White Plains, New York, Martin attended Manhattan
College in the Bronx, served three years in the Coast Guard, and
then became a Treasury agent investigating money laundering.
He left the government in 1995 because it was busting my
chops about how he could afford his Westport, Connecticut,
home on Long Island Sound, he said. Outside income as a builder
paid for the home, he said. I walked away clean.
Martin is a clever guy in an unconventional sense, said
Richard Klugman, a former Treasury colleague.
Martin embarked on a career in real estate, which included
renovating a crack house in Torrington into a hotel. Two of his
properties went into foreclosure in the past three years as real
estate values plunged nationwide.
He formed American International Student Centers in early
2010, run out of his house. Martins partner, a native of China,
hires agents there on commission, including the companies that
brought Lin and Li to Torrington.
I have a lot of connections among agencies in China,
said the partner, who asked not to be identified.</p>
<pre><code> Sort of Tricking Them
American International Student Centers started by supplying
</code></pre>
<p>Chinese students to Connecticut high schools. It has enrolled 14
international students at Woodstock Academy, which serves as a
free public school for the area. Foreign students pay $11,201 in
out-of-district tuition and $4,000 in English training if
needed, said Woodstock headmaster Kim Caron. American
International Student Centers, which places the students with
local families or rents housing for them, charges them about
$25,000 for room and board, Martin said.
American Internationals website bills Woodstock as
formerly a Yale Prep. Martin based the description on a
Wikipedia entry stating that Woodstock had an informal
connection with Yale until 1956.
Thats all the Chinese need to hear, Martin said. Im
sort of tricking them. Theyre going to a public school. But
theyre happy with it.</p>
<pre><code> Declining Enrollment
Caron asked Martin this month to take down the Yale
</code></pre>
<p>Prep description. That is not accurate, the headmaster
said. We were not ever known as Yale University Prep School.
There is no record in Yales archives of a relationship
with Woodstock, said Judith Ann Schiff, the universitys chief
research archivist. Two major histories of Yale dont mention
the academy, and it was not among the 17 active prep school
clubs at the university in 1910, she said.
The Gilbert School in Winsted, Connecticut, is in
discussions with Martin to import 20 foreign students, said
Superintendent David Cressy. Enrollment has been declining,
he said. If you dont want to make difficult cuts in programs,
you look for other sources of revenue.
When his partner told him that some Chinese parents wanted
to send their children to U.S. colleges as well, Martin had the
idea to recruit Chinese students to UConns Torrington campus
and put them up at the Tollgate Hill Inn in nearby Litchfield.
Martin had discussed leasing the Tollgate, one of the 50 oldest
inns in the U.S., from owner John Pecora, an old friend. Its
very slow up here during the winter, Pecora said.</p>
<pre><code> Upscale Housing
Martin said he didnt worry that the Torrington campus
</code></pre>
<p>lacked resources for foreign students. The Chinese only care
about the ranking. He charges more than university housing
because the inn is upscale compared to what they get at
Storrs, he said.
Martin broached his idea with two UConn staff members at
the Torrington campus last June 23, and asked for authorization
on university letterhead to solicit applicants, according to e-
mails reviewed by Bloomberg News. Torrington officials referred
his request to Melvin, the vice president for enrollment
planning, who denied it within a month, they said.
Martins partner began approaching agents in China anyway,
offering one of them $1,000 per student. The company was also
purporting to be affiliated with UConn. An agent wrote the
university seeking confirmation that American International
Student Centers was representing it. The agent attached a letter
she had received from the company. It carried the UConn seal and
asserted that special consideration will be given to students
applying through the AISC for the Torrington campus.</p>
<pre><code> 54 Credits
I overstated my boundaries, Martin said, adding that he
</code></pre>
<p>assumed at the time that he had an agreement with UConn.
The letter from Martins company also guaranteed that
Torrington students could transfer to Storrs after one year.
Most students need 54 credits to transfer, or almost two years
worth, Torrington admissions counselor Dana Forchette said.
Melvin shot off a warning to Martin. As we have
repeatedly indicated, the University of Connecticut hasnt
agreed to any special arrangements or partnerships with AISC,
nor have we agreed to extend preferential treatment to
applicants through your programs, he wrote in an Aug. 16
letter. Use of UConns seal, he wrote, should be discontinued
at once.
Martin was sorry for any misuse that might have occurred,
he answered in an Aug. 30 e-mail. He said he was asking the
companys representatives to remove UConn logos from their
correspondence.</p>
<pre><code> College Fair
More than three months after Martins apology, Lin was
</code></pre>
<p>billed $22,200 to pay American International Student Centers for
room and board at the inn, according to an invoice reviewed by
Bloomberg News. The Dec. 16 bill displayed the university seal
and was headed, University of Connecticut Office of
Undergraduate Admissions.
The misrepresentation wasnt Martins fault because agents
in China billed the students and forwarded the money to his
company, he said.
Beijing Star Overseas-Study Service Co., the agent for
Lins roommate, Li, feigned a connection with the University of
Connecticut in March at one of Chinas biggest college fairs.
At the China International Education Exhibition, employees
of Beijing Star, a state-owned company under the China Council
for the Promotion of International Trade, set up a UConn booth
and handed business cards to throngs of Chinese students. The
cards featured UConns oak-leaf logo and Web address and the
title of director of admission at the universitys China
liaison office.</p>
<pre><code> Misunderstanding
In a pitch on the site Nihao Wang, where Chinese students
</code></pre>
<p>search for universities, Beijing Star labels its own phone
number as UConn Beijings Office Number.
Beijing Star hasnt posed as an official representative of
UConn, Yang Jingfeng, who handles market promotion for America,
said in a telephone interview. This is a misunderstanding,
said Yang, who had a director of admission business card at
the fair.
Martin said he was unaware until after the college fair
that Beijing Star was calling itself UConns China office. While
he would have discouraged that tactic, I dont believe UConn
owns its logo in China, he said. I dont think Beijing Star
is breaking the law.
While UConn officials didnt endorse American International
Student Centers, they told Martin that his recruits were welcome
to apply. Three were enrolled at Torrington for the semester
that started in January. One female student refused to go,
complaining she had been misled. The university found housing
for her at Storrs.</p>
<pre><code> Hotel Living
That left Li and Lin in the Tollgates newest building, a
</code></pre>
<p>1992 colonial, where their room has become an island of college
life, littered with clothes and the remnants of old meals. They
sometimes study in the lower ballroom.
Interviewed in the lobby, they said they come from middle-
class families. Lins father is a civil servant; Lis, a
businessman.
Lin didnt know he was targeted for Torrington until he
received his student visa, he said. When he told his agency,
Academic Asia China, that he wanted to transfer to Storrs, it
had him send an e-mail to Martins partner at American
International Student Centers. I thought AISC was part of
UConn, the student said.
Lu Yuan, America program director for Academic Asia China,
said he believes that UConn-Torrington is cooperating with
Martins partner. This situation is quite common throughout
American universities, he said.</p>
<pre><code> Main Campus
Lu acknowledged that Lin – and the female student, also
</code></pre>
<p>represented by Academic Asia, who refused to attend Torrington -
- didnt know which campus they were going to. From our point
of view, we wanted them to apply for the main campus. Academic
Asias agreement with Martins partner is under discussion,
Lu said. The student feedback was not very good, so we are not
in a situation of cooperation.
Li, a 18-year-old from Beijing, paid Beijing Star $2,300.
While the agency did tell Li he would start at Torrington, it
said he could transfer to Storrs after a year. I didnt know I
had to have 54 credits, he said.
An American International Student Centers Internet slide
show touting the Tollgate Inn and Torrington encouraged Li to
enroll, he said. The show featured opportunities for skiing,
snowboarding, flight training, equestrian and fly-fishing
lessons, river rafting, crew and lacrosse.
Asked if Martin provided these pastimes, Li said, Never.</p>
<pre><code> Copied and Pasted
Li and Lin didnt take advantage of the offers, Martin
</code></pre>
<p>said. Horseback riding? They had no interest, Martin said.
Fly fishing? Not yet. Maybe Ill take them. As for crew and
lacrosse, Thats a mistake, he said. Its copied and
pasted from high-school Web sites.
Their academic experience has been disappointing at times
for them and for Torrington staff. During orientation, I was
completely stunned at how difficult it was to communicate with
them, Mosman, the student-affairs coordinator, said.
To ease their transition, she enrolled the two finance
majors in all the same courses, including math, economics and
Asian history, which she figured would be a snap. Instead, the
history instructor requires oral participation, and these two
guys wont talk in class, she said. Instructors come to me
and say, What do I do?
Lins grades are so-so, he said, and he dropped one
class. While Li has an A average, he has had to spend much
time improving his writing and speaking, he said. Both rely on
computerized translation programs.</p>
<pre><code> Boring Life
They drive to and from campus in a black Nissan loaner from
</code></pre>
<p>Martin with more than 170,000 miles on it. Because the inns
restaurant is closed until Memorial Day, they often eat dinner
at a nearby Chinese restaurant, they said. Grateful for Mosmans
advocacy, they gave her a present: dried Chinese mushrooms.
Life is boring, Li said. School, restaurant, here. We
have some American friends, not very many.
Maybe two or three, Lin said.
Both students sought their families guidance. My parents
were angry, Lin said. Lis parents told him to just go with
it, he said.
Martin took back the car May 9, telling them they would
have to pay $500 a week to use it for the summer. Business man
still a man. Why cant [he] show me some humanity? Lin said.
Martin said the fee includes the cost of insuring additional
drivers.</p>
<pre><code> BeLIEve
On April 7, Melvin instructed the UConn admissions office
</code></pre>
<p>to return applications to candidates recruited by Martin, who
had lined up 15 for next semester. Martin responded in an e-mail
to university officials: This moron has shut down a program
that would have brought Connecticut millions of foreign
dollars.
The FBI is currently looking into this matter,
Elizabeth Vitullo, a compliance and public information
specialist at the university, said in an e-mail response to a
Bloomberg request for documents. The FBI declined to comment.
UConn is trying to extricate Lin and Li. Lin expects to
transfer to Storrs in September, and Li in January. Li had
intended to remain at Torrington and mentor next years freshmen
from China, Mosman said. He was upset when Melvin told him that
UConn would stop admitting Chinese students for Torrington.
Li told Mosman, I am very sad, I have ruined it for the
other Chinese students, she said. It broke my heart.
Asked what other Chinese students could learn from his
experience, Li reached for a notebook and wrote, believe. He
then drew a box around the middle three letters: lie.</p>