Recently, we conducted a web survey called Rate My Agent for Chinese students who are currently studying in America. In order to find out students’ opinions about overseas education agencies they used, we set up general questions about how their agencies performed. Based on answers we collected, the research generally showed that agencies helped students apply to popular but not extraordinary comprehensive universities with high success rate.

60 percent of answers were contributed by graduate school students, while only 20 percent of those came from undergraduate students. Most of the students came from 1st-tier cities in China, and more than 80 percent of them used famous local agencies. Sufficient application experience, mature consulting skills and a good relationship with the schools were three pivotal factors that the local-based agencies used to help their clients (students) enroll into decent universities. Also, the result revealed that comprehensive universities from Purdue to UIUC level were popular among students.

For consulting and facilitating fees charged by agencies, the cost for undergraduates ranged from 10,000 to 25,000 USD and 25,000 to 50,000 USD for graduates. Sometimes the charge was related to the admission result—better college, higher fee. Even though the service fee was high, there were only around 10 percent of students who were not satisfied with their agencies’ service. Nearly 50 percent of agency users were likely to recommend their agencies to their friends.

Overseas Education Agencies are consulting firms in a service-based industry. Because large agencies often have experienced consultants with personal overseas educational experience and connections with foreign universities, they have strong capabilities to help students get into decent universities. However, it is likely that students with strong academic abilities can have a higher probability of being admitted by better-fit universities at lower costs using introamerica.com / introamerica.com.