UNITED STATES ACHIEVERS
PROGRAM (USAP)
THE PROFESSIONAL ADVISING LEADERSHIP – REPORT 2005
THE PROGRAM
The USAP was established with the strong belief that all talented international students, regardless of economic background, should have equal access to opportunities for study in the United States.
USAP PURPOSE:
USAP assists highly talented, economically disadvantaged students to negotiate and finance the application and financial aid process for admission to higher education in the United States. USAP students require full and nearly full financial assistance in order to attend college or university.
USAP VISION:
To expand the program to other African and developing countries; to maintain links among generations of USAP students; to build a crucial corps of future leaders, well trained, capable, open-minded and committed to their home countries.
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE USAP-PAL PROGRAM (May 2005):
Researching admissions and financial aid policies at highly selective colleges and universities that are interested in international students and who are able to fund them fully or nearly fully; Seek potential future funding and donations for USAP program; Promoting USAP as a program and raising awareness of its expansion; Reviewing all aspects of USAP program design, using perspectives of advisors, admissions officers and USAP students with aim of strengthening the program; Solidifying criteria for identifying students for USAP program in home country; Developing promotional materials for USAP program; Solidifying the USAP Trust Fund;
HIGHLIGHTS FROM ADVISORS’ VISITS:
Anthony Nemecek: North Carolina and Ohio
I visited the Morehead Foundation at UNC-Chappell Hill to discuss the possibility of there being dedicated USAP places for the final interviews. Currently, Morehead Scholars come from the US, the UK and Canada. Schools throughout each country nominate students and those students attend regional interviews with approximately 120 sent to NC for the final interview. Those that are successful, approximately 44 each year, receive full tuition, room and board, a laptop and many extras including summer travel. I proposed that the USAP coordinators would select at least 2 candidates ( in total from all programs) that Morehead would then pay for them to attend the final selection events in NC. Their response was extremely positive and they are making the proposal to the Board in July!
Duke University was extremely positive about USAP candidates and welcomes more applications. Additionally, Duke may be very useful for post-grad USAP students as all non-professional programs are fully funded.
In Ohio Oberlin, Denison and Wooster, all have USAP, were also keen about the program spreading, although Wooster and Denison still find full funding problematic. However, with gap-funding they are excellent environments for USAP students. The most welcoming school and very keen was Kenyon. They seemed to think they could find full funding for USAP kids and gave the impression that a funding drive was about to take place where funding could be found!
I also visited Otterbein, Case Western and Baldwin Wallace. While each like the program, they did not see in the near future the funding levels being available. However, each promised to contact should additional funding become available or if a change in ‘thinking’ occurred within the university.
Gaston Lacombe: New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, California
Saint Anselm College presently enrolls about 6-8 international students annually. They would like to increase that number, if only they would be able to secure more funding. International students should not apply for early decision, since financial decisions are only made in February. They are very receptive to a program like USAP.
Saint Michael’s College, while they admire the program, they do not presently have the funds to give large to full financial aid packages. They are not able to provide full funding for international students.
Bates, Bowdoin, Dartmouth and Middlebury College, since all these colleges are very welcoming to foreign students and can offer full financial aid packages; there is no question that they are very receptive to the USAP program. The admission officers were impressed with our rigorous selection standards, the way the USAP program is administered and the how it can help admission officers in making better decisions. They all added that any extra information we can add to the application to help them make a better decision is welcome. Almost all of them also indicated that they don’t really like initiatives like the “Posse Foundation” or other similar programs because they ask for committed spaces, and they believe that they do not encourage quality; rather quantity. With colleges who have already accepted USAP kids, we spent a long time discussing the values they bring to their colleges.
Occidental does not have too many international students on campus, but is supportive of the program and will be happy to consider USAP students. They will take in consideration our recommendation and understand that these are strong pre-selected candidates. Since they are able to offer a few full financial aid packages, the financial need of our candidates would not be a deterrent to them since they are looking to diversify and increase their student population. They would be very happy to receive application from countries “other than Bulgaria”.
Claremont McKenna College as for this year, for the first time ever is offering fully-need scholarship. The president of the college has made the increase of international students numbers a priority.
Pomona will not consider international applicants for early decision; their international financial aid packages usually include a job. They already have accepted USAP kids and Mr Poch emphasized how he truly enjoyed working with Rebecca. They would happy to review more USAP candidates.
Pitzer College is not well endowed and does not offer financial aid to foreign students. It is not well suited for USAP program. California Institute of Technology are looking to attract kids from variety of countries, and USAP program can offer that. In addition they appreciate the fact the students are been pre-selected and prepared by professionals.
Folashade Adebayo: Iowa and Illinois
Drake University offers full funding to international student (they have already accepted one USAP kid) they have scholarship program that international students can benefit from but very competitive, they pay a lot of attention on the applicants writing skills. They love to have international students.
Grinnell College has a huge endowment, going through their admission process was very helpful to me as an advisor it would help me strength my students’ application. Students applying to Grinnell have to be unique in their own way. It was good to know that they have certain allocation of funds yearly for African students.
Northwestern University IL, just started a merit based scholarship program this year, they where please to know about USAP and would be willing to accepted students but they strongly encourage the talented ones to apply, SAT scores have a lot of role to play in the selection.
Loyola University and DePaul University do have partial financial aid available to international students, the USAP program have to be discussed at a higher level to decide if full funding would be made available to international students. The financial aid office promised to bring up the USAP program during the next budget meeting. DePaul University however has various merit base graduate assistantships and would encourage more graduates to apply for funding.
Illinois Institute of Technology students must interview on-campus before they can be considered for full funding (this is not possible for USAP students), there always have a set period of time for the interview. It is an institution that personal relationship would go a long way to help negotiate funding for USAP students. While one campus, I was able to increase funding for one of my talented students.
University of Chicago is excited about USAP students they would are looking forward to more quality USAP applications from other countries.
I visited the Posse Foundation in Chicago, I was able to look at their own model very similar to USAP, we had a long talk about funding, how we can raise fund – they made useful suggestions like getting Nigerian organizations or individuals based in the US to contribute to USAP trust fund. We need someone in the US to help coordinate the trust fund, she also advice we write up a proposal for $250 to $1,000 and justify how much it can go to help the program etc. She was willing to make more research and get back to me on fund raising issue.
Macarthur foundation, said that USAP program did not fall into their primary goals and objectives. They focus on international issues, help improve public policy, support public interest media etc. but they were glad to know about USAP and promise to get in touch if they find anything that would benefit the program.
Rebecca Zeigler Mano: New York, California, Massachusetts
PARTICIPANTS
REBECCA ZEIGLER MANO — ZIMBABWE
ANTONY NEMECEK — UNITED KINGDOM
GASTON LACOMBE — LATVIA
FOLASHADE ADEBAYO — NIGERIA
Submitted by Folashade Adebayo