The Tufts Admissions Office is continuing its long tradition of recruiting international students from all corners of the globe-and according to Assistant Director of Admissions Lana Asfour, Tufts is one of very few schools actively recruiting students from the Middle East.
Asfour said that many other institutions are hesitant to do so. "After Sept. 11, some schools were holding back, but Tufts has always gone to the Middle East," Asfour said. "Only now, many schools are finally realizing that the Middle East is a great market to get into. Harvard and Georgetown still don't go."
Asfour said that some other schools, including the University of Pennsylvania and Northeastern University, do travel to the Middle East to recruit students.
Ten students from the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) are currently enrolled at Tufts, according to Asfour, herself a U.A.E. national and Tufts graduate. Thirty students from the U.A.E. have applied for admission this year, as have 12 from Bahrain.
Leon Braswell, Director of International and Transfer Admissions, said that the University has been sending admissions officers overseas to meet and talk with prospective students for over 20 years.
"Tufts is fortunate to have the funding to travel extensively outside the United States recruiting juniors in high school," Braswell said.
Members of Tufts' admissions staff typically travel internationally for 10 weeks in the fall term and three weeks in the spring, visiting foreign high schools and holding small international sessions with prospective students.
"Our international recruitment is different than our domestic programs mainly because we offer more of a personal one-on-one contact with the students," Asfour said.
Admissions officers typically visit international baccalaureate, American or international private schools to provide information and acquaint themselves with prospective applicants.
"We plant the seeds of Tufts," Braswell said. "We go to areas where we see potential growth, and we search for the best possible students for Tufts."
Thanks to Tufts' long international recruitment history, Asfour said that alumni in foreign countries help immensely in finding potential applicants. "We are producing a lot of overseas alums who do alumni interviewing and help us get our message out," Asfour said.
Yet Braswell said that Tufts continually searches for new recruiting locations to increase its international student population. "We try to be strategic in identifying new areas; China is a new area for me and a very promising one," he said.
Mexico is another targeted area, but has proved a challenging region from which to draw students. "Mexico is a difficult market to crack, mainly because most of the students there stay in Mexico, or if they leave, they go to colleges and universities in border states," Braswell said.
At Dartmouth College, the admissions office practices techniques similar to those employed at Tufts. According to Dartmouth Director of Admissions Maria Laskaris, the college travels to Asia, Europe, Canada, and South America for outreach.
"We rely a great deal on information on our Web site and e-mail communication, along with our viewbook, to get key information to our prospective international students," Laskaris said.
Georgetown University Admissions Officer Kathryn Timlin echoed Laskaris, saying that Georgetown too relies heavily on Internet-based information dissemination.
"Many students are now using the web to find potential schools," Timlin said. "Everything they need is available on our Web site, and it even allows them to contact us through e-mail."
According to Timlin, Georgetown does not currently send admissions staff to visit countries in the Middle East, "but traveling there is definitely something we are open to in the future."
At 15 percent, Tufts boasts a higher percentage of international students than Dartmouth's seven percent and Georgetown's 10 percent.
"Tufts is known globally, and our [admissions] travel fits with our commitment to an international focus," Braswell said.
