EducationUSA Weekly Update: New & Improved!

EducationUSA PDF format

As we all come to grips with how to reach our intended student audiences overseas, as international educators, at EducationUSA we've taken a huge step forward. Those who know our network of 400 advising centers in 170 countries, may have heard of our Weekly Update before. This newsletter goes out every week to all centers, and up until the last three months was a simple email, PDF or word document that then got parsed out by centers, or simply posted to their center's student contact, put up on their websites or in their centers.

While there was certainly value in this approach, it didn't always meet students where they were. After surveying our advisers earlier this year we learned that we needed to provide them greater control and choices over how they receive and distribute Weekly Update content. For those not familiar with Weekly Update (WU), it contains typically announcements of scholarship & financial aid assistance available for international students, and a "Campus News" section highlighting new academic programs that might be attractive to international students, or major events that would be relevant for international students to know. We collect these stories from U.S. institutions that submit information through the higher ed section of our EducationUSA site. The online form (for those institution representatives who have been approved for login access to our site) allows for a substantial amount of information including institutional logo, website, all social media links, related video url/embed code for the post, as well as specifics on the award or news story.

The end result allows us to maximize the effectiveness of this higher ed institutional content for our student audiences abroad. In so doing, when we publish our WU each week, our EducationUSA Advisers have the ability to choose how they wish to receive these announcements (in html email, PDF, and/or in pre-packaged social media-ready posts, all versions replete with bit.ly url shorteners that allow us to track globally how and where these posts are read. Since we launched this program in June, our WU posts have increased from about 10,000 click-throughs to currently 14,000 each week. That number will only increase as the academic year kicks into gear.

More importantly for U.S. representatives (and for students) the content from both of these sections of the WU are also fed automatically into two RSS feeds on our site for financial aid and for news. In addition to the posts, and RSS feed content formats, we also for the scholarship/financial aid announcements create individual pages for your WU submission on our site that feed into a growing financial aid database, that will also soon include national scholarships from various countries around the world that students can access to study in the U.S.

So, I invite all my U.S. higher ed colleagues at accredited institutions to:

1. Request your U.S. higher ed login access to our site if you haven't already 
2. Submit your institution's scholarship & financial information for international students into our Weekly Update
3. Stay tuned for more developments on how the financial aid database will become a great resource for you as well.

Until we meet again...

How Marco Met Sharifa: The Value of Relationships Between EducationUSA Advisers and U.S. College Reps

The Ohio State University Sends Representative to Uzbekistan 


This was the headline last month, after Marco Chavez from Ohio State University's Undergraduate Admissions office visited Uzbekistan, and specifically, our EducationUSA Advising Center in Tashkent.  Sharifa, our senior adviser in Uzbekistan, helped set-up visits for Marco during his visit.  But this relationship began a year ago, when Sharifa had the opportunity to connect with Marco when she participated in a post-NAFSA campus visit to Ohio State.  


Let's explore what happened as these two had the opportunity to work together.


Sharifa shares her experiences on this connection between her advising work and her visit to Ohio State.

What are the value of campus visits for EducationUSA advisers?

Advisers are able to see the university with their own eyes to tell students about it, to see each school at university, get to know the faculty member and admission officers. Meeting with international students studying there can give us an idea as to whether our students from Uzbekistan can do well at this university. Also getting to know the culture of the university, diversity, prices, possibilities of programs, climate and others is very useful. All of these opportunities help the adviser see the whole picture and you never forget about it.  

After your visit to OSU, what kind of communication did you have with the people you met?

We were e-mailing each other and established a skype communications, which helped us to communicate faster. I could communicate not only from work, but from home as well, since the time differences are difficult to make the communication faster via Skype.

What were you able to set up for Marco during his visit to your country?

Participation at our college fair. I posted at the www.educationusa.state.gov site, then sent him the link, so that he could participate. I set up two school visits, one to Tashkent International School and one to Academic Lyceum No. 2.

Specifically related to Marco's visit, what were the benefits for you and your students?

For me it was that I learned more about this university and learned more about U.S. Higher Education. Students were able to learn about the programs ... and learned about the options available.

Do you have any advice for U.S. institutions who are looking for ways to explore relationships with EducationUSA Advisers?

I would say that EducationUSA advisers are experts on what is going on in the country and they know really well the local systems. They have huge network of schools, language centers, students, teachers and professors, and other contacts. This expertise gives the U.S. university representatives more options to explore in reaching a broader pool of candidates to recruit to their schools. I advise the U.S. universities to contact first the EducationUSA adviser to learn about the country and options. 

Marco's shares his responses.

What are the value to US institutions of campus visits by EducationUSA advisers?

Having advisers who speak to students day in and day out provides an opportunity to learn about the trends and issues facing certain regions. The advisors provide an insight into their areas about how to best outreach to their students and make the most of our resources in targeting their students. By having them on campus they are able to see first-hand what our university is like and can then speak to their students about life on our campus in a concrete way using real examples. However, the personal connections and friendships facilitated by the visits are what make the visits truly worthwhile. J Its very nice to be able to call them and let them know you will be visiting them and having that bond already there.

While Sharifa was at OSU, what did you arrange for her to see?

Sharifa visited Ohio for an entire week. During her time here she was able to tour 9 universities and discover some parts of Columbus. We held a cookout on one of the evenings and for one half day we held a seminar. During the seminar the advisors were given the opportunity to present their centers and countries to other universities who did not participate in the hosting. We hosted Sharifa on the Ohio State campus for an entire day. During her visit to campus she was able to meet representatives from Undergraduate Admissions, Graduate Admissions, Law, MBA, American Language Program (intensive English), and the Office of International Affairs. We also had her go on a campus tour led by a current student and meet with other current students.

After her visit to OSU, what kind of communication did you have with Sharifa?

After Sharifa’s visit we mailed the material that we hoped she would disseminate at her center and sent a thank you email and survey. It wasn’t until I was thinking about traveling to Uzbekistan that we communicated again.

Specifically related to your Uzbekistan visit, what will be the benefits for you and your future students?

My visit to Uzbekistan was valuable on many fronts. Seeing the country and the facilities that Sharifa has will allow me to plan more effective outreach efforts in Tashkent. I gained a better sense of the issues and concerns that students face, better than if I had just read about it. Students were able to learn more about Ohio State and education in the US in general. And I was able to explain to students the complexities and issues revolving around applying to US universities from the viewpoint of a university.

Do you have any advice for US institutions who are looking for ways to explore relationships with EducationUSA Advisers?

Its important to get to know advisors, even if the budget doesn’t allow for hosting or traveling, there are other options such as Skype, DVCs, email, and telephone. From my experience advisors want to help universities and students connect and find the right fit for each other. It’s also important to ask questions. Each region is different and even cities within the same country may have different mobility trends or issues. Its important to know what issues are affecting your prospective students. 

Marco's and Sharifa's experiences are by no means unique.  This year, close to 100 EducationUSA Advisers will visit the U.S. for various conferences and training opportunities.  Many of them will be actively hoping to include college and university visits as part of their travel.  Likewise, we encourage our U.S. colleagues who are traveling overseas to make EducationUSA a key stop, much like the 475+ representatives who just this calendar year alone (January 1 through March 11) who have interacted with our advisers abroad.

To express your interest in hosting advisers for possible visits to your campus or your state/region if your part of an existing international education consortium of accredited institutions, we invite you to contact our new Professional Development Manager, Robin Helms.  

Facebook and EducationUSA: An Update

Facebook is the driving force in social media today. Four or five years ago many thought of this fledgling social network as just a fad, limited to college campuses in the US. Today, the number of users on Facebook worldwide (as of this blog post: over 262 million) would make it the 4th largest country in the world, only 38 million or so behind the US. Keep in mind that 70% of all Facebook users are outside the US. This is where my US international admissions colleagues really have an opportunity to break ground.

While there are certainly a multitude of types of social media (from microblogs, to blogs, to photo/video sharing sites, to newsfeeds, and many more) out there to use, the big dog they are all looking to is Facebook. I've covered some of the other options and avenues to reach out using social media in other past (and future) posts, but today, let's focus on the current state of affairs with regards to the use of Facebook.

At present, 38 countries worldwide have more than 1 million Facebook users:

1. United States 79,808,380
2. United Kingdom 19,042,180
3. Turkey 12,834,260
4. Canada 12,091,440
5. France 11,654,520
6. Italy 10,598,540
7. Indonesia 8,358,660
8. Australia 6,293,200
9. Spain 6,251,860
10. Argentina 5,996,380
11. Colombia 5,934,060
12. Chile 5,178,360
13. Mexico 4,505,500
14. Philippines 4,477,400
15. India 3,959,980
16. Venezuela 3,943,660
17. Germany 3,725,060
18. Malaysia 2,549,180
19. Belgium 2,430,020
20. Sweden 2,397,560
21. Hong Kong 2,192,800
22. Denmark 2,059,480
23. Norway 2,058,300
24. Taiwan 1,950,680
25. South Africa 1,870,900
26. Greece 1,796,400
27. Egypt 1,786,500
28. Israel 1,669,160
29. Switzerland 1,557,480
30. Singapore 1,533,040
31. Brazil 1,439,080
32. Czech Republic 1,298,140
33. Netherlands 1,260,140
34. Finland 1,195,040
35. Peru 1,107,140
36. Thailand 1,077,140
37. Serbia 1,041,840
38. New Zealand 1,030,060

All of these stats can be found on http://www.checkfacebook.com/ which also provides data on the fastest growing countries and a demographic breakdown by age group of each countries population. In almost every country, 50% or more of the Facebook users, are in the 14-24 year old range, i.e. prime college material.

Many domestic admissions offices in the US have been increasingly using social media: YouTube channels, iTunes podcasts, student blogs, and webchats, and also social networks like Facebook to recruit and/or convince to enroll at their respective institutions. But I ask today, how many of you are using these tools explicitly to attract international audiences?

We have realized at EducationUSA that we need to "live" where our student advisees live. And in so many (not all, mind you) countries that place they live most is online, and increasingly online on their mobile phones/devices. Even in some of the most remote countries on earth, mobile phones are must-haves. In fact, in many developing countries families go from no phone at all to having a mobile phone (and no land line).

Specifically as it relates to Facebook, we have made a concerted effort to encourage and train our advising centers to set up and use center profiles, groups and fan pages to reach out not only to their student advisees, but also to help connect those advisees to former students who are now in the US, and probably living on Facebook. We have created an EducationUSA page which we invite you "become a fan." This page serves a multitude of audiences but can connect you with our advisers and their Facebook profiles, groups and fan pages as well.

I invite you to check out the "Info" tab on the Fan page to see a list with hyperlinks to the growing presence of EducationUSA on Facebook--17 center profiles, 22 groups, and 26 fan pages from centers around the world. This list is updated fairly regularly so bookmark the page and come back often.

We encourage our colleagues in international admissions to set up their own Facebook fan pages and/or groups specifcally for international students looking to get connected with your institution. For more ways to connect with our EducationUSA centers as you recruit internationally, please contact me for details.