EIC is certified by the American International Recruitment Council, a Bethesda, Maryland, nonprofit organization that helps colleges vet agents. Founded in 2008, the council has 129 member colleges and reviews agents for legal, financial or ethical problems。

　　Agents are entitled to a share of scholarship money, said the council’s executive director, John Deupree. “When you go to a restaurant, you’re supposed to tip on the full price even if you have a coupon, because the waiter does the same amount of work,” he said。

　　Audrey Li, 19, a Beijing high-school graduate seeking to study art and architecture, agreed to pay her agent more than $3,000, plus 10 percent of any financial aid。

　　‘That’s Robbery’

　　After she was admitted to Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York, the agency missed the Jan. 1 application deadline for a $20,000 merit scholarship. She begged the college for another chance, and was awarded the scholarship, plus $15,000 in additional aid. Because of its mistake, the agency waived its $3,500 share, Li said。

　　“The agent has absolutely no reason to take any amount of any student’s scholarships since the money is supposed to be awarded solely toward the student,” she said. “Some other agents even take 15 percent -- that’s robbery!”

　　U.S. colleges are prohibited from paying incentives to recruit students who qualify for federal financial aid. There’s no such ban on recruiting international students, who are ineligible for federal grants and loans。

　　EIC’s clients include Drexel University in Philadelphia and San Diego State University. The American Language Institute at San Diego State’s College of Extended Studies pays the agency 15 percent of tuition, or commission of $299.25 to $897 a semester, for each student recruited to an English-language program, including five students this term, spokeswoman Gina Jacobs said. The institute doesn’t provide scholarships, she said。

　　$8 a Day

　　Some of the services provided by agents in China violate ethical standards for college admissions in the U.S. About 90 percent of recommendation letters for Chinese students are fake and 70 percent of essays aren’t written by the applicant, according to the Zinch China report. “Many agents in China have folders full of ‘successful’ essays, which they tweak each year,” Zinch China Chairman Tom Melcher wrote. “Others hire recent returnees to write essays。”

　　One former employee of an agency in eastern China was paid $8 a day to craft essays in 2009-2010 for 20 applicants to U.S. colleges, she said, asking not to be identified. All of them were admitted, she said。

　　Most of the applicants planned to major in finance or accounting, so for them she wrote essays describing how the student had been motivated by reading a biography of a famous American businessman such as Bill Gates, she said in a telephone interview. For recommendations, teachers’ names were signed without their knowledge, and extracurricular credentials such as student-union president were made up, said the 23-year-old。

　　‘Pay for Success’

　　U.S. colleges are flocking to use agents that recruit in China. Doing so allows them to boost international revenue while avoiding the up-front expense of sending their own admissions staff。

　　Aiming to increase international enrollment to 32,000 from 18,000, the State University of New York system has accepted bids from agents, including five in China, whom it will pay 10 percent of first-year tuition for every student recruited. International students at the New York system pay tuition of $13,380, more than 2 1/2 times the in-state rate。

　　Because SUNY “doesn’t have a lot of liquidity to invest in recruitment,” it makes sense to “pay for success,” said Mitch Leventhal, vice chancellor for global affairs. SUNY will make sure applicants know that their agents are paid by the university, he said。

　　Tulane, Rutgers

　　At least 80 American schools have signed up with IDP Education since that agency -- half-owned by 38 Australian universities and half by online employment firm Seek Ltd. (SEK) -- began recruiting international students to U.S. colleges in 2009. Schools including Tulane, Rutgers in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida, pay IDP $2,500 for each enrollment。

　　IDP charges some students in China from $3,000 for community colleges to $7,000 for top-30 colleges, and takes 10 percent of any financial aid or scholarship, according to a contract reviewed by Bloomberg News. Because IDP isn’t licensed to operate in China, it forms partnerships with agents there, “and it is really their contract that the students have to sign,” spokesman Matthew Ulmer said in an e-mail. Revamping its China operation is a company priority, he said。

　　Whac-a-Mole

　　Agents’ practices in China have raised alarms at the U.S. State Department and elsewhere. The department’s EducationUSA[微博] wing stopped contracting with institutions in China for college counseling in 2009 after finding that some of its partners were acting as agents or receiving commissions from agents or U.S. universities。

　　Agents “may lead students to choose a college or university that will not meet their needs,” according to an August 2009 policy。

　　Lauryne Massinga, EducationUSA’s regional education advising coordinator for China, said that as soon as it warns one agent to stop using its logo, another starts. “It’s like the game Whac-a-Mole,” she said。

　　The National Association for College Admission Counseling, an Arlington, Virginia, nonprofit group for admissions professionals, issued a statement last week that paying recruiters to increase enrollment isn’t appropriate domestically or internationally, said NACAC Executive Director Joyce Smith. “Some schools are using agents as a quick fix,” she said。

　　Relationship Building

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