Careful evaluation and a lot of work can go into the process of choosing, visiting and applying to a university. 

And choosing a university when you are on the other side of the world can be a challenge. For international students, the possibility to visit beforehand is very often not an option at all.

In addition to the great distance comes the lack of knowledge about the American culture, its university system and the application process.

“Chinese parents and students often don’t have a clue of what America is let alone what the application process is,” said Liuran Fan, international student from China and graduate in human development and families studies.

Therefore the use of an agent or agencies has been become fairly popular in Asia, especially in China.

“These agents are in a way like counselors. They help a student apply to a university,” said Timothy Tesar, enrollment services adviser for the Office of Admissions.

These services from the agents do come at a cost. 

“The agency emailed the school everything on my behalf, applied for me. All I had to do was to take the IELT, [International English Language Test,] and then apply for my visa,” Fan said.

Agencies can really help families because they can bridge the gap between the student and the school, Fan said.

“We can not really speak English after we graduate, and all our high school transcripts and even the recommendation letters are in Chinese,” Fan said. “The agency helps translate them.”

At the time, she had just graduated from high school in China. Fan said she and her parents had no knowledge of what the application process entailed. She said the agency helped her a lot to apply to the school; however, these services sometimes come with a catch. 

“The fee that they charge is very high,” Fan said. “And I didn’t have lot of choices. They applied me to probably to four or five schools and got three offers back. The agency just recommended the low tuition and the good environment of Iowa State.”

Fan chose Iowa State, even though she had also been accepted to universities in New York and Kansas.

Tesar called the use of agencies a mixed bag. He said he had experienced really good agents but personally prefers to talk to a student directly, because he is then able to pass on information to them firsthand.

“Also, some agencies just want to make money,” Fan said. “And so the schools they recommend might not be the ideal school for someone to go to.”

Students can double check the accuracy of their agency by going to the universities websites.

“Most students after they graduate from high school have the ability to read English, but I myself just simply didn’t want to go to a website and check,” Fan said.

It might also be the case that certain agents work with certain universities. It is possible that some universities pay agents to send students to their universities.

Tesar said Iowa State does not pay agents.