It is with great pleasure that, together with 13 other overseas educational advisers coming from around the world, I participated in the PAL Fellows Training Program from April 27, 2004 to May 18, 2004. The PAL program is supported by the US Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) and administered by the College Board. Its aim is to provide senior-level training and research opportunities for overseas educational advisers belonging to the educationUSA network. My main subject of research was about GRADUATE ADMISSIONS PROCEDURES AND POLICIES. Thanks to this professional development program, I aimed at becoming more efficient in answering questions from graduate students filling out their applications. I was particularly interested in speaking with graduate admissions officers from a certain number of schools and/or departments : Business, International Affairs, Communication and Law (LL.M. programs). I had several objectives in mind : being more efficient during individual consultations but also during group sessions ; being able to prepare a document explaining in detail graduate admissions procedures for a French speaking public.
My program was divided into several segments. From April 27 to May 5, I attended the NAGAP conference in Boston together with three other advisers. During that first week, I was also able to visit several universities in the area : Tufts University, Boston University, Brandeis University and Harvard. From May 5 to May 6 and once again from May 17 to May 18, all the PAL Fellows had a meeting and a leadership seminar in Washington, DC in the offices of the College Board. Along with Olga Sanchez, educational adviser from Bogota, Colombia, I also spent one week in New York . During that week, we had the opportunity to meet with graduate admissions officers from New York University, Columbia University, Teacher's College, New School University, Fordham University and Yeshiva University.
I will divide my PAL report into three parts so as to give the results of my research :

1. The NAGAP conference
2. Discussions with graduate admissions officers in Boston, New York and Washington, DC
3. Washington, DC meetings and Leadership Seminar

THE NAGAP CONFERENCE : APRIL 28 - MAY 1

As explained on the website, www.nagap.org, "The National Association of Graduate Admissions Professionals is the only professional organization devoted exclusively to the concerns of individuals working in the graduate admissions and recruitment environment. NAGAP is committed to serving the needs and interests of graduate admissions professionals."
The 17th Annual Conference took place in Boston. The topics that were discussed were the following : Admissions work ideas and issues ; Diversity Initiatives ; Enrollment Management ; Graduate Student ; Services and Student Affairs ; International Student Regulations ; Marketing/Recruitment ; Personal Development and Management ; Program and Staff Management ; Technology/Web Management.
Of course, the majority of the sessions were mostly aimed at graduate admissions officers and were not, as a whole, really of interest to overseas educational advisers. However, overseas educational advisers should consider the idea of attending the NAGAP conference as a good way both to network among the graduate admissions world and to understand their concerns and progress.
Two sessions were particularly interesting for overseas advisers : one session on SEVIS and another on "Recruiting Abroad". The SEVIS session particularly developed the consequences of the new visa regulations and the fact that they have been a brake especially upon those applications coming from South East Asian students (mostly Chinese students). They are the ones who have the most visa denials (but they are also among the ones that send the most numerous applications). Moreover, the Chinese government has engaged a new policy to encourage their students to stay in China. The session on "Recruiting Abroad" enabled us (myself and the three other educational advisers) to do a presentation on our role as educational advisers, the educational systems in our respective countries and the kind of problems most of our students are dealing with when applying to a graduate school in the United States. This session was quite successful and certainly provided a good means for overseas educational advisers to be more visible among graduate admissions officers who are often not aware of our existence and who recruit many graduate students from abroad.

DISCUSSIONS WITH GRADUATE ADMISSIONS OFFICERS

I will not develop the admissions requirements aspect since this is the kind of information everybody can find on the school's website. I was more interested in the inside view of graduate admissions evaluation procedures. Before starting the program, I prepared a list of questions to ask the graduate admissions officers I was supposed to meet. The topics I wanted to discuss about more precisely were the following: General graduate admissions procedures (admission schedules, composition of admissions committees) ; foreign credentials evaluation (especially how they see three-year undergraduate foreign degrees like the Licence in France) ; consequence of new visa regulations ; flaws that graduate admissions officers often see on applications coming from abroad and tips for a good application ; does a Fulbright scholarship make a difference ; in addition to general questions about financial aid policies.

1. General graduate admissions procedures
— Role of graduate admissions office : unlike their undergraduate counterpart, the graduate admissions office has the responsibility of receiving the applications and dispatching them to the different departments. Apart from that its role is often limited to financial aid and/or other purely administrative questions. Sometimes the graduate office or the specific College inside a university review applications a second time after the Chairman of each department has looked at them (ex : College of Communication of Boston University).
— Admissions schedule : in most schools, each department has its own deadline and has a relative autonomy with regard to applications evaluation. Ex : for Harvard MBA program, there are 3 admissions periods : one application deadline in October with a notification in January; another application deadline in December with a notification in February ; the last application deadline is in March with a notification in May. (Foreign applicants should consider the first two admissions periods). The Fletcher School (Tufts) and Brandeis University (International Business program and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences) said they even had an early admission procedure around November and December and encouraged foreign students to apply during those early admissions. The majority of schools that I visited gave the applicants until April 15 to respond to offers of financial aid, adhering to the Council of Graduate Schools' resolution : "The Resolution is concerned with the conditions surrounding the acceptance of offers of certain kinds of graduate student financial assistance, namely, scholarships, fellowships, traineeships, and assistantships. The general spirit of the Resolution is that students should have an opportunity to consider more than one offer and should have until April 15 to do so, that institutions and students should be able to view acceptances in force after April 15 as binding, that everyone should know what the rules are, and that an offer by the institution and its acceptance by the student constitute an agreement which both expect to honor." (see www.cgsnet.org/PublicationsPolicyRes/resolutions.htm). Given the new visa regulations graduate schools have decided to notify foreign students earlier than the previous years. Quite a few schools have accepted deferred admissions if the international student could not obtain his visa on time. Financial certification is asked at the end of the admission process, when the student has been admitted and has accepted the admission. The visa work is mostly carried out by the international admissions office. However, in some schools, there is a special international students and scholars office for the graduate level.
— The composition of the admissions committee is different from one university to another and sometimes from one graduate office to another inside the same university. For the Fletcher School and Georgetown University's Master of Science in Foreign Service program, each application is reviewed by a committee of faculty, current students and sometimes even alumni. Other schools such as Boston University Graduate Schools of Arts and Sciences and the Teacher's College of Columbia have 1 to 4 faculty members (only) who are reviewing the applications and who are making decisions. In some schools (like Harvard MBA program) only administration staff is reviewing applications. For Yeshiva's LL.M. program, professional attorneys are doing applications evaluations.
— Comments on the different parts of the application : According to the majority of schools officials I met with, it would appear that the most important parts of the application are at the same time the essays and the letters of recommendation. Grades are important, but, given the fact that I visited schools that were particularly selective, almost 100% of their applicants already have very good grades. More faculty members (belonging to admissions committees) than I thought did not really give importance to admission tests like the GRE or GMAT and thought it was not the best indicator. For example, for the Brandeis Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the GRE can be waived. The Harvard MBA program does not give priority importance to GMAT scores. Georgetown's Master of Science in Foreign Service program does not require that international students to take the TOEFL and GRE, but let them choose between the two. For some schools, the application can be held for 2 years if the applicant has a portion that is insufficient (ex: insufficient TOEFL for Teachers' College). Like the Fletcher School, some schools have conditional admissions for international students who don't have a sufficient TOEFL and offer an orientation program in the summer with Intensive English courses. The TOEFL scores remain very important. But more and more schools are becoming flexible about admission testing and can accept the IELTS or another test (Brandeis, Teacher's College). However, if the applicant did not obtain the minimum score : no admission (especially for Brandeis and Boston University).
— Interviews are not always conducted. Sometimes by phone or with an alumnus when it is a foreign applicant. For Harvard MBA most applicants who are called for an interview have a good chance to admitted. Fordham LL.M. will conduct an interview if the TOEFL score is under 250.
— Work experience : important for Harvard MBA, Columbia LL.M. but not as essential for the New School University Milano Graduate School of Management and Yeshiva's LL.M. program. The Fordham MBA admissions can be more flexible concerning international students and consider internships. Just a quick remark : the Harvard and Fordham MBAs seem to have a lot of students that used to work in family-run companies. The Harvard Business School is, by the way, known for its excellent MBA program in entrepreneurship.

2. Evaluation of foreign credentials :
- Most schools (except Milano and sometimes Yeshiva's LL.M.) do in-house foreign credential evaluations and don't use private credential evaluation services. Schools like Fletcher, Boston University, Harvard, New York University and Fordham (LL.M. program) are aware of the French educational system and know for example what is a Grande Ecole since they have exchange agreements with some of the best French Grandes Ecoles (i.e. Fletcher has agreements with Sciences Po Paris and HEC) or French universities (Fordham LL.M. with the Sorbonne). Also, some schools like the Brandeis International Business School with 60% of their students being from abroad are used to reading applications with foreign credentials. Some schools (like NYU) have a staff member called a credential analyst who is supposed to know everything about foreign credentials, especially about false diplomas and degree correspondences. (In Milano's case, with only a small body of international students, it is not worth their effort to do credential evaluations themselves. Yeshiva's LL.M. program will prefer its foreign applicants to go through the new LSAC foreign credential evaluation service : see https://llm.lsac.org/llm/logon/splash.aspx )
— More schools than I thought consider the French Licence (a three-year degree) as the equivalent of a bachelor's degree even if they prefer something more. For instance, Boston University's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences will accept the application of a holder of a French Licence if he has done some additional classes. For Boston University 's College of Communication, three-year degrees from abroad are often considered as equivalent to a Bachelor's degree without any other requirements. For the Brandeis Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and Teacher's College, the Licence is definitely the equivalent of a bachelor's degree. On the contrary, Georgetown's MSFS wants a four-year degree. The Columbia LL.M. and Fordham LL.M. will even want a five-year degree (what we call a DEA or DESS) from a French applicant and/or work experience. It can also differ from one school to another inside the same university. For example, NYU Graduate School of Arts and Sciences will generally refuse to admit holders of three-year degrees from abroad, whereas NYU Tisch School of the Arts will. It can be explained by the fact that Tisch is more interested in experience/background than in academic level. Same thing for Parson's School of Design which will attach more importance to the portfolio than to the GPA. Yeshiva's LL.M. will prefer the Maitrise (French four-year degree), but will not reject the Licence (they want at least three years of legal studies).

3. Consequences of 9/11 :
— As a whole the majority of schools I visited have not seen an enormous drop in the number of applications. For the Brandeis MBA program there are even more applications. However, they have seen some kind of change in the profile of the applicants. The B.U. College of Communication has seen fewer applicants from Europe. The Columbia LL.M. which always has an important number of applicants from France, has noticed that the quality of the French pool of applicants has gone down this year. Linda Tobash, at IIE placement service, and I spoke of the fact that international graduate admissions has dramatically decreased and that international enrollments have seen a 30% drop since last year. Again, I must point out that the majority of schools I visited have very good international reputations and this would explain why they did not really suffer from the consequences of 9/11.

4. Flaws that graduate admissions officers often see on applications coming from abroad :
— Boston University international admissions officer (Paul Green) complained about incomplete applications and lack of follow up from students, i.e. accepting or rejecting an offer of admission.
— Statements of purpose and essays are often neglected by applicants (not only by foreign applicants).
— A lot of graduate admissions officers complained about standardized statements of purpose and essays. They insisted on the fact that it was important to see on essays that the applicant knows the school he is applying to and is not applying haphazardly. That is why the applicant should not write the same letters to each university. He/She must show he has done some research for each of the schools to which he/she is applying.
— Columbia Law School Director of Graduate Legal Studies (Sylvia Polo) complained about the lack of usefulness of some letters of recommendation coming from famous faculty or professionals who did not seem to know the applicant very well. Teacher's College graduate admissions officer, Thomas Rock, even complained about fraudulent letters of recommendation coming from abroad.
— For NYU Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, a lot of applicants think they have the credentials to get into a graduate program whereas they don't.
— For Parson's the major flaw is the tardiness of applications and the poor translation of transcripts.
— For Fordham LL.M. : personal statement not always done by the applicant (incoherent with low TOEFL scores).
— The Fordham MBA representative criticized resumes made by applicants and wanted skills to be put first instead of education. Applicants don't always recognize the importance of their former work experience, Fordham wants to see their progression in work experience.

5. Tips for a good application :
— Applicants should not put aside any part of the application.
— Applicants are encouraged to get in touch with faculty members before applying and work with them on their research project. (This is particularly useful when the professor just happens to be a member of the admissions committee !)
— A good letter of recommendation must talk about the experience of the student, his personality, his individual contribution to the class. Harvard MBA insisted on the contribution to society or direct environment and leadership. How the applicant had an impact on an organization ? His ability to work with others.
— For Harvard MBA program : one letter of recommendation can come from a customer, a supplier or the bank manager that lent the applicant money or even a peer/fellow worker.

6. Does Fulbright make a difference ? / financial aid questions
— For Brandeis, Teacher's College and New School University Milano Graduate School of Management, Fulbright students and scholars are mostly welcomed.
— For very selective schools like Harvard and New York University (both graduate schools of arts and science), every application is looked at in the same way : there is no particular preference for Fulbright scholars. However, a pre-selection letter from the Fulbright office could be a "plus". A lot of schools said that Fulbright has some influence but is not a must.
— NYU Graduate School of Arts and Sciences admissions officer, David Giovanella, explained that for Master's degree programs if the applicant obtains a Fulbright grant the first year, NYU would be ready to fund the second year.
— At Columbia LL.M. program, most Fulbright holders get a complement from the school.
— In general, financial aid is not systematically available for international students for first year master's degree programs. Most students must wait until the second or third year to get assistantships or merit-based scholarships. However, a lot of PhD programs are fully funded.

WASHINGTON SEMINARS :

The first meeting in Washington, DC consisted of an orientation for PAL participants to which we were welcomed by Dorothy Mora, Program Officer at the Educational Information and Resources Branch of the Department of State and Theresa Schweser, Director of the Office of International Education at the College Board. (My group who were called the "early birds" because we were among those who arrived the earliest, had a pre-orientation program done by e-mail with Deborah Hefferon before arriving in the United States). Together with Janine Farhat from the College Board and Deborah Hefferon, who is an independent consultant, we discussed our respective goals and objectives and the strategies to fulfil them and tried to develop our teambuilding ability. We also took a psychological test called the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). The second meeting in Washington, DC consisted of a Leadership Seminar whose facilitator was once again Debbie Hefferon. The goals of this seminar were to know ourselves better by reflecting on our own experiences and by honestly assessing our strengths and weaknesses. Knowing ourselves is supposed to enable us to develop our own leadership skills. The MBTI test was a means to know how we function in everyday working life. Where do we get our energy ? How are we processing information ? How are we making decisions ? What is our orientation to the outer world ?
During the second meeting in Washington, DC we also had a chance to meet with several representatives of the State Department : Tom Farrell, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Academic Programs, Mary Ashley, Office Director at the Office of Global Education Programs and Phillip Ives, Chief of the Educational Information and Resources Branch, with whom we discussed our current challenges as overseas educational advisers. I pointed out that after a major seven city Fall outreach program in France, my colleague and I were very much aware of a lack of an American presence outside of Paris. We are convinced of the necessity of going directly to the public.
We also had a meeting with a representative of the visa office with whom we discussed new visa regulations. We learned that the SEVIS fee rule was supposed to be pushed back to September 1st. As usual, everything having to do with visas was not very clear !
To conclude my report and without forgetting my debt to the U.S. State Department and the College Board, I would like to thank the following persons, whose time, comments and advice made this PAL program a memorable learning experience for me (please note that I am listing people by chronological order of our meetings):

Boston :
Nora Moser McMillan, Manager of Student Academic Programs and Registrar, The Fletcher School, Tufts University
Carol A. Murphy, Assistant Registrar and International Student Advisor, The Fletcher School, Tufts University
Jane Etish-Andrews, Director of International Center, Tufts University
J. Scott Whitaker, Associate Dean, Boston University Graduate School
Paul Greene, Jr., Director of the Office of International Admissions, Boston University
Margaret M. Haley, Assistant Dean of Admissions, Graduate Schools of Arts and Sciences, Brandeis University
Holly L. Chase, Assistant Dean for Admission, Brandeis University International Business School
Sharon Ladd, Director of International Office, Harvard University
Christine Sumner, Coordinator of Admissions, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University
Prof. Bob Zelnick, Chairman, College of Communication, Journalism Department, Boston University

Washington, DC :
Andrea Suh, Assistant Director, Admissions/MSFS, Georgetown University
Eleanor Monte, Director, MSFS Admissions, Georgetown University

New York :
David Giovanella, Director of Graduate Enrollment Services, Graduate School of Arts and Science, New York University
Dan Sandford, Director of Graduate Admissions, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University
Linda Tobash, Director of Placement Services Division, IIE, New York
Arthur Austin, Manager - European Programs Fulbright and Academic Services Division, IIE, New York
Schuyler Kirkland Allen, Assistant Manager - European Programs Fulbright and Academic Services Division, IIE, New York
Carl De Angelis and Edward Monks, Office of English and Special Services, IIE, New York
Jim Deleppo, Assistant Director of Admissions, International House, New York
Sylvia Polo, Director of Graduate Legal Studies, Columbia Law School
Marion R. Boultbee, Director of International Services, Teacher's College of Columbia University
Thomas Rock, Director of Graduate Admissions, Teacher's College of Columbia University
Joseph Encarnacion, Associate Director of Admissions, New School University Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy
Melanie Hochberg Giger, esq., Assistant Director of Admissions, Yeshiva University's Cardozo School of Law
Toni Fine, Director of Graduate and International Programs, Yeshiva University's Cardozo School of Law
Sarah Farsad, Assistant Director, Admissions Office, Parson's School of Design, New School University
Emre Ozsoz, SEVIS Coordinator, Office of International Students, Fordham University
Estelle Fabian, Assistant Dean, Graduate Program, Fordham University School of Law
Elaine Gerald, Graduate School of Social Services, Fordham University
Cynthia Perez, Assistant Director of MBA Admissions, Fordham University