Companies inserting themselves into scholarship applications

[roddy]

This is a newish and somewhat worrying trend. Examples...

 

CUCAS - these look to be university scholarships. $10 non-refundable application fee, $400 if you're successful.

 

This new site, commonapp.cn. This page is aimed at overseas agencies. Make sense of this, if you can: 

Quote

We are directly sanctioned by the Chinese Government, therefore each year, COMMONAPP.CN guarantees our participating students financial support through Chinese Government scholarships, Local Government scholarships and University grants. Of those awards, 100% is earmarked specifically for scholarships for students from commonapp.cn's affiliated partner institutions.

That reads to me as a claim that scholarships aren't being awarded on merit, but on who you apply through. What the financial arrangements are I don't know, but their overseas partners look to be commercial agencies rather than universities. That means two intermediaries between the applicant and the school.

 

Couple of years back, this, with SICAS and the Jasmine Scholarship.

 

I have various thoughts about this. These are general and don't apply to any of these companies in particular.

 

• Existing application systems are opaque and confusing. Imagine being a non-native English speaker, who's trying to do this in a couple of hours of Internet cafe time every week. It's no great surprise if middle-men making the process easier spring up.
• There's a lot of scope for graft. Student pays $500 application fee to agent. Agent pays $200 to school. School recommends student for scholarship and ignores pile of other applications. This would surprise me not at all.
• There's a lot of potential for bait and switch. Draw folk in with promised scholarships - sorry, you weren't successful. Now we have all your details, you could go to .... for $xxx a year. Oh, sorry, you didn't get the full scholarship, but there's a partial one, at a rate the university still makes a profit on, and the course is half-empty anyway...
• Anyone who wants to email me a scholarship application with a non-refundable application fee is welcome. However, in that situation, what motivation do I have to tell you a) that your application isn't up to scratch, b) that there are 2,000 applicants for 2 places and c) submit the application anywhere. 
• Some of the university scholarships look more like first-year discounts. How much effort is being made to inform students if scholarships for the following years are less, fewer or harder to get? Note the T&C's on the CUCAS university scholarship example above: "In the following years if you have great academic performance, you can apply in the University for other Scholarships." Ultimately it is the student's responsibility to consider future funding, but are they getting clear answers if they ask about it?
• From the student's point of view, this could still be a massive bargain. A few hundred dollars for a full scholarship? For all its failings, if you're in a developing nation with a weak education system, the Chinese education system can be a beacon of hope. However, what about the folk without the few hundred dollars to pay up front?
• While my focus here was on commercial firms, things can get sketchy without their involvement - this from the 2016 CSC round, indicated places were being ear-marked for students from a particular university.
• I'm not sure if this is actually happening, but it might be - university has a scholarship quota, but can't find the students to use it (not inconceivable for a no-name university with an unpopular course). Agent pushes students towards it, university pays commission out of scholarship income.

 

Experiences and thoughts welcome.

[hoshinoumi]

I took a curious look at the commonapp.cn website to check what you mentioned about overseas partners and oh, dear, the very first page sounds fishy enough. Still, I looked at my country's overseas partner and found that it was simply some random Chinese name with the "super legit" review of a John Smith. Sure.

Thanks for the detailed post, I hope it helps many people.

 

[roddy]

John Smith gets around. 

[hoshinoumi]

Haha what a globetrotter he must be!

[Lu]

Not even John Smith but 'John, Smith'.

[Angelina]

The worse thing I have seen was an international student studying medicine who told me that he applied through some agency in his country. He is paying the agency, he is paying less than what he would have had to pay the university in tuition fees. 

 

 

BTW "John, Smith" must be a native speaker, blond, teaching English on the side, because whoever is making money out of this is not sending their kids to school in China.

 

Hey, Roddy

 

[lrumin94]

I tried to apply through CUCAS (thankfully it didn't push through) and they decided to ignore my queries. Ended up processing the whole thing by myself, it was fairly manageable, other than the slight stress of researching (which I don't mind).

[edelweis]

 

18 hours ago, roddy said:

CUCAS - these look to be university scholarships. $10 non-refundable application fee, $400 if you're successful.

 

I understood those to be lottery type "scholarships"... didn't Prateeksha get one a few years ago?

 

Myscholarship worth US $2000 AND ONE VOTE OF YOURS!

 

[roddy]

Different, I think. That was from CUCAS itself and was basically a marketing affair, these are from the university with CUCAS finding candidates. 

[Angelina]

The ETS is a private company too. Seems fine for those studying in the US. Not cheap though. 

 

 

I would be worried about admissions in China. At the end of the day, IF it is common knowledge that international students are admitted like that, something that can't be trusted, would employers see our degrees as different from Chinese students, who did not apply through "John, Smith". 

 

At the end of the day, John, Smith is better than Sallie Mae, but we should be careful. 

 

Marketing, I think Prateeksha did this, is different from admissions. 

 

 

 

[roddy]

Giving this a bump due to relevant recent post, and to ask if anyone has any more experiences or stories to share. 

 

Also, here's how it should be done - an actual university, telling you how to apply for a scholarship to study there.