Is there a magic recipe for enrolling 50 international students in a timeframe of 12 months? Working with an English program within a large, public university, we combined a mix of marketing channels to engage students, and the program successfully responded to a total of 625 inquiries.

To learn more about the mix of products and services that were used and the successful strategy we launched for this English program, check out the case study on our site.

By Mim Lee Phillips, MS

International students choosing to study in the U.S. find high value in the experiences they have, lasting a lifetime. Significant for today, higher education institutions see economic fallout from the pandemic and could lose more than monetary repercussions. While in 2018 international students attributed 44.7 billion dollars to the U.S. economy, NAFSA estimates a $3 billion loss in 2020. This impacts both higher education institutions and creates an even greater loss to industries closely associated with international students. Challenging times, definitely. But an additional loss to consider is the potential decrease in enrollments and the inherent value of social mobility for today and future generations in the U.S. and abroad.

International students choose to complete their tertiary education outside of their home country based on many variables. Influencing decisions range from future economic goals, family, adventure, friends/influencers, prestige, scholarships, and the list continues. Dr. Timothy Carey states, “Good choices are decisions that keep you heading in the direction in which you want to go.” No one can doubt that the value of studying across the globe is most likely a very good decision. Lived experiences are imprinted in our memory, resulting in how we interact for the rest of our lives. Recognizing potential global benefits such as learned independence, understanding cultural differences, language proficiency, new education system, meeting new people, and resiliency.

By focusing on the human-centered international experience of four women from four countries across four decades, we can see that — within a 40 year span — the time spent in international higher education leaves an indelible imprint and significantly impacts a person for the rest of their lives.​

By working with The Global Educator Program (TGEP), colleges and universities can host qualified high school/independent counselors on their campus from those specific regions. The counselor cohort is carefully selected to represent students interested in studying abroad and have the means to do so. By hosting the TGEP cohort, host campuses provide international counselors with experiential opportunities to tour their campus, meet with their students, faculty, and the admissions team.

Campuses in New York, Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan, Vermont, Rhode Island, Maryland, and California have already confirmed hosting the TGEP 2021 cohort.

Would you like to host the next TGEP cohort on your campus in June 2021? Check out this link.

Want to learn more about the program? Join the webinar on February 23 at 8AM PT! Experienced counselors will be sharing program details and benefits.

We’re excited to share some great news about additional exposure our Chinese magazine received this month. Thanks to a WeChat promotion run with our partner, i2i Group, the Chinese edition received an extra 67,000 views this month. With the new administration in place and vaccine distribution on the upswing, these additional views are well timed as we collectively begin planning for the coming year.

Now is the time to consider your 2022 print options — get in touch with our team to learn more →

We made it to 2021! It feels seriously magnificent to say goodbye to 2020 and alllllllllllllll of its challenges. Let’s take a moment to appreciate what we’ve made it through and that while we are still facing a bumpy start to 2021, we can see a light at the end of the tunnel.

Now is the time to keep going! We’re going to keep on creating opportunities for connection with international students and keep on working to showcase your schools and programs.

How can we work with you in this brighter new year?

Contact our team to keep going in 2021! →

To Our Wonderful Higher Ed Community --

What a year it’s been! As the end of 2020 approaches, we wanted to take a moment to celebrate our collective resiliency, flexibility, and creativity during a very trying time.

In looking back over the year, we’re struck by how many new avenues have been invented to connect international students with U.S. schools and programs. Without fairs, in-person tours, and regular travel, we all had to find new ways to create connections.

• In April, Student Sessions on Facebook Live launched. To say it’s become wildly popular is not an overstatement — to date, more than 5 million people have been reached.
• We forged new paths for getting our magazines into students’ hands. They’ve been distributed at 800 high schools and read on four new online outlets in China plus seen by an additional 40,000 readers in India.
• With our Unibuddy partnership, students can share experiences with each other, creating the valuable peer-to-peer connection that’s so important to this new generation.

We’re feeling super grateful to have made it through this year and be here at the end of it with you all. From all of us at Study in the USA, we wish you well during this holiday season and look forward to jumping into the challenges and new creations of 2021 together.

—The Study in the USA Team

We’re excited to announce the launch of the Study in the USA video hub site. It’s an amazing repository and resource, full of videos from current international students, recordings of our popular Student Sessions on Facebook and Instagram Live, plus introductory videos to many U.S. colleges and programs. Considering that Gen Z streams video for roughly 23 hours each week, the importance of video cannot be understated. Video is the future of marketing, and Study in the USA is pleased to offer this resource for students and schools.

Get in touch if you want tips on how to use video in your outreach →

Ameliorating our global reputation is going to be our work in the coming years. Convincing the global international student population that the U.S. continues to be the destination for higher education will be our number one priority.

What this means for recruitment is strategic planning. How are you planning for 2021 and even further into 2022 and 2023? How are you going to get in front of students and reassure them that despite the last 4 years, they are more than welcome here?

We can help! Get in touch with our team to plan your strategic marketing and outreach → ​

With our new Smart Match feature, all you have to do is fill out 9 items, and you’re on your way to higher-quality leads. On a dating app, the more information you fill out about your likes and dislikes, etc., the better “matches” are made for you. It’s the same with our Smart Match system. You start with a large pool of leads (quantity!), and the more information you give us about the matches you’d like to see — for example, students from specific countries or with certain test scores — we’ll be able to provide better leads for your school (quality!).

Think of it this way, you’re not losing quantity and are gaining in quality — with the goal of ultimately improving your conversion rate. It’s a win-win!

Contact our team with any questions about the Smart Match dashboard → ​

This week on University World News, an article was published that was co-written by Study in the USA Publisher + CEO Renait Stephens about the decline in international student enrollment.