Exposed: The Scandalous Practice of Using Overseas Agents to Place Foreign-Born Students in American Universities

Are you concerned about getting your child or grandchild into college? You should be.

Here’s a story a surgeon friend told me. He’s a Notre Dame graduate who describes himself as a “major” donor. His son wanted to enroll in the Notre Dame engineering school. He has excellent grades from a well regarded high school and only missed one question on the math portion of the SAT; only five missed on the verbal. The kid was rejected. My friend called the Admissions Office to plead his case. He asked if his son could at least be put on the wait-list—turned down flat again!

If you can get beyond the admission officer’s short-sightedness of refusing to wait-list a major donor’s child (when the officer could just let his application die a quiet death), it’s a chilling forecast of things to come for American children. Of course, Notre Dame prides itself on its global enrollment.

I live in Pennsylvania where the leading public universities—Penn State and Pitt—are the nation's two most expensive state colleges. They too are in globalism's grip.

Recent media stories have reported that foreign-born university admissions  increased sharply over the last several years. Last November, the Institute of International Education issued its annual “Open Doors” report which showed a 5.7 percent increase in foreign-born students enrolled in American colleges. In some schools, the freshman class has more than 15 percent foreign born. Read my CAPS syndicated column about this injustice here.

Now a bad situation is poised to get worse. President Obama has threatened to cut funding to schools that keep increasing tuition annually as most of them have done. [Obama Threatens to Withhold Federal Aid from Colleges that ‘Jack Up’ Tuition, by Jim Kuhnhenn and Kimberly Hefling, Associated Press, January 29, 2012]

So…the university says “Okay, no more tuition hikes.” But then it accepts 250 more overseas, full freight students to compensate. And, presto, just like that your kids have 250 fewer shots at a freshman seat.

Among the contributing factors in the increased foreign-born student enrollment is the use of paid overseas agents who collect as much as 15 percent of the first year’s tuition. Because it led to widespread abuse, the United States banned this practice twenty years ago. CAPS’ homepage story is here.

Said Barmak Nassirian, an associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers:

“When you deputize someone to represent you who doesn’t eat unless he brings you warm bodies, you can expect all kinds of unfortunate practices.”

Today, there’s a move afoot to ban U.S. colleges from using agents—and with excellent reason. The “unfortunate practices” that Nassirian referred to include altering transcripts and falsifying letters of recommendation that make the candidates appear more qualified than they are.

As outrageous as enrolling foreign-born students at the expense of Americans is, it’s just the iceberg’s tip. When they graduate, many foreign-born apply for change of visa status from student to non-immigrant worker, take jobs and remain in the United States where they raise families and add to the overall population growth.

For the greater good, the trend toward more international students should end. Whether it will is another question. University elites and Washington, D.C. globalists love more diversity.