EducationUSA

EducationUSA is a global network of more than 450 advising centers supported by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) fosters mutual understanding between the United States and other countries by promoting personal, professional, and institutional ties between private citizens and organizations in the United States and abroad, as well as by presenting U.S. history, society, art and culture in all of its diversity to overseas audiences. Millions of prospective students learn about U.S. study opportunities through EducationUSA centers each year.

Mission

EducationUSA centers actively promote United States higher education around the world by offering accurate, comprehensive, objective and timely information about educational opportunities in the United States and guidance to qualified individuals on how best to access those opportunities. Centers are staffed by professional advisers, many of whom have first-hand experience having studied in the United States themselves, and/or having received State Department-approved training about United States higher education and the advising process. EducationUSA staff in Washington, DC and at diplomatic missions abroad assist advisers in their mission.

Programs

EducationUSA's main program is advising international students on U.S. higher education opportunities. Roughly half a million international students enroll in a U.S. institution of higher learning last year. Many sought advice from a regional EducationUSA advisor before, during, and after the application process. Advisors are located in about 150 countries and provide information to 25 million prospective students each year. Advisers reach out to students, professors, local institutions, and other groups and individuals through individual advising, admissions visits, college fairs, and virtual consulting.

EducationUSA funds the Benjamin Gilman International Scholarship Program, run through the Institute of International Education. The Gilman Scholarship offers grants for U.S. citizen undergraduate students of limited financial means to pursue academic studies abroad. Such international study is intended to better prepare U.S. students to assume significant roles in an increasingly global economy and interdependent world. Participants must be receiving a Pell grant.

The Open Doors Report, published through the Institute of International Education, is an annual census of international students in the U.S. and U.S. students abroad. EducationUSA funds this and other research on study abroad.

External links

* [http://educationusa.state.gov/ EducationUSA]
* [http://exchanges.state.gov/ Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs, U.S. Department of State]
* [http://www.iie.org//programs/gilman/index.html Gilman Scholarship]
* [http://opendoors.iienetwork.org/ Open Doors Report]