British and Australian universities have for years paid commissions to overseas recruiting agents, and as a result have attracted a growing share of international students. Now the practice is spreading in the United States, especially at community colleges and public universities eager to enroll more international students, who may pay several times the in-state tuition....But the use of agents is raising uncomfortable questions and strong feelings, with some education officials queasy about a system in which those who advise students on their college selection have a financial stake in the choice, an approach they fear could make the college-admissions process into a global bounty hunt....
Overseas recruiting agents have long been used on the West Coast, especially by community colleges like Skagit Valley, which offer intensive English courses to prepare students for college-level work.
Linh Nguyen, 17, who came to Washington last fall after finishing 11th grade in Vietnam, applied to Skagit Valley on her agent’s advice. “They told me that it’s a small college, but it has a good quality,” said Ms. Nguyen, who paid $300 to her agent.
Bates Technical College, an open-admissions institution in Tacoma, Wash., pays 15 percent of the first year’s tuition to its agents in Taiwan and China, according to Cheri Loiland, the associate vice president for extended learning.
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