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The Tufts Daily
Where you read it first | Friday, March 29, 2024

A highly selective pool of international students

When freshman Jae Sung Lee was deciding whether to apply to a high school in the US, less intense academics that proved the influential factor.

Lee, who went to boarding school in the states, said that in his native Korea, students take 13 subjects a year - including English, Chinese, a third foreign language, and moral study. "High school life in the states was relatively easier than the life at home," Lee said.

Through his entrance into American secondary education, Lee was introduced to Tufts. But he said most students at home are more aware of schools like Harvard than Tufts. "At home, nobody has a clue about Tufts, mainly because Tufts is surrounded by famous schools, like Harvard, MIT, BU, and so on," Lee said. "Everybody at least has heard of those schools."

Freshman Christopher Ma, who calls Hong Kong home, agreed with Lee. He said Yale, Brown, and Harvard are the names his fellow students recognize. So how did a

a high schooler in Hong Kong end up at a smallish school in Medford/Somerville?

"Actually, through friends - they go here," Ma said. "[They said it was] a relatively small campus with friendly people." He said that he also considered attending school in Britain, but was attracted to the flexibility of the American curriculum.

"I can do something like economics on top of electrical engineering," Ma said.

Ma attended the Island School, a British school in Hong Kong. Tufts recruits the vast majority of its international students from schools like Ma's, where the curriculum is either American or British in its approach.

That similarity comes for good reason - while Tufts is among the leading institutions of its kind in terms of international student bodies, admissions officers say the abroad applicant pool is primarily affluent students from private schools.

Leon Braswell, senior associate director of admissions, is an active recruiter for international students. Braswell, who travels primarily in Europe and the Middle East, said students from outside of private schools often cannot afford a Tufts education.

"Private schools certainly will only attract, for the most part, families that have the means to send the students there," Braswell said. "For international recruitment, we have very limited financial aid available, so that right there will determine what your market will be."

According to Braswell, Tufts is looking to increase its amount of financial aid to international students, but the process is difficult. International students cannot qualify for either state or national aid from the government, so they are limited to University resources. Compound that limitation with exchange rate issues, and Tufts cannot afford to do international recruitment in less developed countries, or less privileged high schools. Braswell said that in some countries, even professionals earn only the equivalent of $10,000 a year - hardly enough to send a student on an international flight to Tufts.

"Some of our competitors do travel to Africa," Braswell said. "We would probably love to spread the net wider, but if financing is going to be an issue, then how realistic and how fair would it be?" According to Braswell, funding international students is unusual for any US school, but some of Tufts' competitors have more financial flexibility.

Within the limited applicant pool, however, Braswell said the admissions office has little difficulty convincing international students to apply to Tufts. Since Braswell and his associates only visit schools that are located in major cities, most students are looking for a similarly cosmopolitan college experience.

"Of course, Boston is a huge attraction," Braswell said. "At one level, it's not as difficult to present Tufts because we may have all the attributes that all these students are looking for: small classes, research..."

The admissions office does not alter its abroad presentation significantly from the one that is delivered to domestic students. In his information sessions on the Medford/Somerville campus, Braswell describes Tufts as a global community, and does the same in cities like London, Paris, Geneva, and Istanbul.

"Selling Tufts overseas is actually somewhat easy," Braswell said. "We have an international community and it's pretty significant. They want to make sure they're coming into a campus that is used to having lots of international students."

Freshman Tolga Erem attended high school in Turkey, at a Turkish-French bilingual school in Istanbul. Braswell has traveled to Istanbul for admissions purposes and said that he only visits the country's three best private schools, which enroll approximately one percent of all high school students who take an entrance exam.

Erem attended an information session at a hotel in Istanbul, where he heard from a Tufts representative. Erem's sister, who attends Brown, had told him about Tufts when she sent out her college applications two years earlier.

"They said it was like home - big city, many things to do," Erem said. "They said it's fun, and it's a good school, academically."

Erem's college counselor knew that he liked Brown from visiting his sister, and told him that Tufts would be a good match for him. "He said Tufts is almost the same concept," Erem said. "He said, 'you will enjoy it.'"

In the end, some international students end up at Tufts whether or not they're visited by an admissions officer. Freshman Carol Strulovic attended high school in Venezuela and never interacted with a University representative.

"I wanted to come to the US because I wanted a liberal arts education, which in Venezuela does not exist," Strulovic said. "Also, I wanted to live the 'college experience,' which doesn't really happen in Venezuela." She said college in Venezuela was similar to high school, where students do not live on campus, and the campus does not offer very much outside of classes.

Strulovic, who heard about Tufts from a friend who was applying here, said she matriculated at Tufts because she felt it would give her greater opportunities for the future that she wouldn't be given at home. Her high school does not send many students to Tufts. "Actually, I only know about one person who came here, and that was five years ago," she said.

That doesn't mean Tufts isn't considered a reputable institution by the few aware of it.

"People back home don't really know about Tufts," Strulovic said. "But those who do, know that it's a great school."

Tufts currently enrolls international students from 64 countries and territories. International students comprise 14 percent of the student body.