Since being elected as student trustee of Cornell, I have been thinking about two questions in particular: (1) “How can we improve Cornell’s ranking?” and (2) “How can we increase Cornell’s endowment?” I have several thoughts on these two issues, and I’d like to focus this time on how to relate these priorities to our international initiatives. As a native of China, I will use my country as an example in most cases, but I firmly believe similar opportunities can be found in other countries, as well.
Two critical ways to improve Cornell’s ranking are to increase the number of applications and to increase the yield rate of admitted students. To achieve this goal, no one can overlook the fact that international applications to all U.S. institutions have recently increased at a very fast pace. For Cornell, the applications from China increased by 42.9 percent in 2005 and 47.5 percent in 2006. We also saw a 40 percent increase in applications from India last year. By my estimation, if international applications continue to grow at the current rate, in 10 years there will be more than 10,000 foreign applications received by the Cornell admissions office. Therefore, good performance in the international market will have a significant positive impact on our ranking in U.S. News and World Report.
How might we get more international students to apply? It’s actually very easy. We can have different versions of application materials, each in various students’ native languages, highlighting Cornell’s achievements in that country and addressing the specific concerns of students from that country. I checked the price and realized we do not need more than $500 to translate the whole application package into Chinese. If we focus translation on the crucial information for Chinese applicants, the cost is as low as $50. Comparatively, this is lower than the cost of recruiting one undergraduate student to a university, which costs an average of $1,700 per student, based on the calculations of Prof. Ronald Ehrenburg, industrial and labor relations. Staff, students, parents and Cornell as a whole will all benefit greatly from this plan.
First of all, staff will be freed from the tedious, time-consuming work of responding to e-mails and telephone calls from international applicants if we can provide a country-specific FAQ section.
Moreover, students would be able to find financial aid information more easily. Detailed instructions about how to apply for outside financial aid could be provided. Therefore, we could save our limited resources and attract more students here.
Clearly, parents of international students would also benefit from such document translations. Students coming to Cornell should speak fluent English, but their parents sometimes do not. If we can provide information in their native languages, parents will be more likely to encourage their children to apply to Cornell, and if accepted, to attend.
Cornell would stand to be the biggest winner as a result of implementing my plan. In addition to the benefits I mentioned above, we can attract more applicants by highlighting the University’s achievements in applicants’ respective countries. I personally convinced several admitted students to attend Cornell by telling them their heroes were once students here. But I think the most effective way to inform applicants is through the application materials. For example, the Indian version of the application could mention Trustee Ratan Tata ’61 and Trustee Narayana Murthy, two of India’s top entrepreneurs. President Skorton’s successful visit to India could also add great value to the Indian version.
Our biggest constraint to bringing the best international students here, however, is limited financial aid. Therefore, we need to supplement our international admissions with international fundraising.
International fundraising seems difficult, but we need to begin immediately because our peer schools have already received major international gifts. Last July, one of my friends donated $4 million in financial aid to Stanford. Two months later, he donated $20 million to Zhejiang University, but this time he brought in one of his friends, who also donated $20 million. The president of Columbia University also met about 10 potential donors during his recent visit to China. Before that, Columbia had received a $30 million gift from the Tan family in Hong Kong. It looks like our capital campaign needs to become more global.
International Cornellians can always contribute thoughts and information to this campaign, even though it is the development office’s obligation to solicit gifts. I delved into the archives and found that a major company provided huge financial support to Cornell in the past. Currently, its Chinese office is providing financial aid to Chinese students who want to study abroad. But I discovered that this office now knows little about its historic connection as a financial contributor to Cornell. I recently found that it is interested in continuing its relationship with the University now, and I immediately forwarded this information to Cornell’s development office to deal with.
By finding local resources to support local students, we can attract the best students, while achieving our goal of increasing our endowment and ranking, as well as our ultimate goal: to teach the next generation of global leaders.
Globalization provides opportunities, as well as challenges, for all U.S. universities. A good performance will help us to lead the U.S. in higher education for another 100 years. I certainly agree that international development without a clear goal may spread us too thin over a number of initiatives. However, a properly structured development strategy will immediately have a positive impact on our domestic goals such as fundraising and improving our ranking.
In the long run, this will undoubtedly help us achieve our mission of being a land grant university for the whole world and fulfilling the dream of our founder, Ezra Cornell: “I would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any study.”
Mao Ye is a student-elected trustee. He can be contacted at my87@cornell.edu. Trustee Viewpoint appears alternate Tuesdays.