Factors to know about Foreign education consultants

The brokerage of student enrollments by foreign universities creates a student enrollment grey market that misleads and misinform. Arguably, the pursuit of a foreign degree and the pleasure of walking into an education counselor’s office should be kept separate.

Higher education is a costly affair, and most importantly the student’s future depends on it. There are bigger costs when it comes to seeking admission to a university overseas. Many would agree, the costs towards a Master’s degree program in India is generally about 30 – 40 per cent lower than the ‘preferred destinations’ abroad.

Now the most obvious question arises – Why? Because unlike in India, getting admitted to a foreign university is often facilitated by a ‘consultant’,  earning them a high markup simply for filling a seat in an institution of higher learning abroad, increasing the tuition costs – sometimes up to 40 per cent higher.

No one should feel obliged to adopt a particular process or put on a status quo issue. So if you want to seek a foreign university program and are hell bent on it, do due diligence check on the student counselor you meet next. Arm yourself with the knowledge that often the most ‘preferred’ universities are not necessarily the ones that suit your needs rather they could be the ones that offer a greater profit margin to the counselor. Know that the tuition fees you pay to the foreign university, a percentage of these come back to the counselor that has helped you seek an admission!

Foreign universities often engage in enrollment drives overseas visiting many countries to source student enrollments and offer on-the-spot admissions. It is an offer made, when the offer actually does not exist. Well known and state funded universities do not have to go out and seek students for enrollment, only the lesser known ones do.

There are of course some interesting variations to how student enrollments happen – and it seems that on the whole it is just an exhaustive affair. But there’s a deep routed effect to these practices – students often end up paying admission fees to multiple foreign universities in the hope of getting a confirmed seat and consequently are recipients of multiple (I-20) immigration documents, allowing them to switch to a different college on arrival. God forbid if the university turns out to be a fraudulent one!