Two that we want to focus on here in this piece is the idea that for undergraduate study a student will benefit more from a private institution over a public institution. Secondly, is the track record of the university in producing leaders and distinguished alumni.

In PayScale’s 2010 report on tuition pay back or return-on-investment (ROI) you will see that out of the top 100 universities only 31% were state universities. That means 69% were private universities. Out of the 1000 plus universities listed on their report ELI 360 partner universities ranked very high on ROI. Please note that not all colleges and universities were surveyed by PayScale.

Here is the list below.

Look beyond college costs, check your ROI.

Note:

Data Set Characteristics: All data used to produce PayScale’s Return on Investment (ROI) Package were collected from employees who successfully completed PayScale’s employee survey.
Bachelors Only: Only employees who possess a Bachelor’s Degree and no higher degrees are included. This means Bachelor graduates who go on to earn a Master’s degree, MBA, MD, JD, PhD, or other advanced degree are not included.
For some Liberal Arts, Ivy League, and highly selective schools, graduates with degrees higher than a bachelor’s degree can represent a significant fraction of all graduates. Careers that require advanced degrees, such as law or medicine, are not included.
U.S. Only: All reports are for graduates of schools from the United States who work in the United States. This sample does not include U.S. territories, such as Puerto Rico or Guam.
Full-Time Employees Only: Only graduates who are employed full-time and paid with either an hourly wage or an annual salary are included. Self-Employed, project-based, and contract employees are not included. For example, project-based graphic designers and architects, and nearly all small business owners and novelists, are not included.

Return on Investment (ROI) Calculations:

In calculating the return on investment, we must first determine the investment in college and the return from attending college. The investment is the cost of college as determined by the actual cost of attending college. The return (gain) is the additional expected future income stream received for being a college graduate.

Investment in college: This investment in college is the cost of attending college, as calculated by the Weighted Total Cost for a Graduate in 2010 or the Weighted Net Cost for a Graduate in 2010 (for those who get financial aid) as defined above.

Return from attending college: The main financial benefit of attending college is the gain in income received by a college graduate over a high school graduate. However, by choosing to attend college, one is giving up 4-6 years of income one could have received if one went straight to work after high school. Therefore, we calculate the gain in median pay over a high school graduate (Earnings Differential) as the difference between the 30-Year Median Pay for a 2010 Bachelor’s Graduate and Weighted 34-36 Year Median Pay for a High School.

UMHB's Scott & White College of Nursing has a student-faculty ratio under 8:1 and trains over 60 nurses each year.

Most private Christian universities thrive on the generous donations from Christian philanthropists and loyal alumni. These individuals believe in the mission of these excellent institutions of higher education and display their support by contributing to the development of these universities financially.

Two months ago, ELI 360 posted an article regarding the University of Mary-Hardin Baylor’s new $100 million building project which will oversee drastic improvements to their current campus. Part of that project involved the construction of a new facility for UMHB’s nursing program – one of the most well-established programs at the university.

According to the UMHB website, “the new 70,000-square-foot home for the university’s Scott & White College of Nursing will feature state-of-the-art simulation centers where students will practice their clinical nursing skills.  The facility will feature high-tech classrooms designed for best practices in nursing education.  A learning resource center, faculty offices, and a large lecture hall will also be included in the center.”

The new building will allow student-nurses to be trained using state-of-the-art facilities.

This past week, the University of Mary-Hardin Baylor announced on their website that they had received two generous donations that will go towards the cost of constructing their new nursing building. First, the trustees of the Leroy and Merle Weir Charitable Trust approved a grant of $500,000. This was followed by another generous gift of $5 million from the Paul and Jane Meyer Family foundation.

These generous gifts serve as evidence to the firm belief in education held by many Americans. In general, the American society places great value in cultivating educated individuals. At a deeper level, many Christian educators have dedicated their lives to giving time, energy and money to provide quality education for the younger generation, knowing that a congregation of educated individuals will ultimately lead to the success of an entire nation, and a better world.

To read more about these two foundations and their respective gifts, please click on the following links:

Weir Trust gives $500,000 for UMHB nursing building

Meyer Family Foundation Gives $5 Million for UMHB Nursing Building

Interested in the nursing program at UMHB? Click on this link: UMHB Scott & White College of Nursing

The University of Mary-Hardin Baylor is a private Baptist university located in Belton, Texas. UMHB has a student population of nearly 3,000 students representing over 14 foreign countries, and boasts a student/faculty ratio of 14:1.

Visit UMHB’s website.

In the last 30 days ELI 360 corporate has been in Indonesia two times. with the leadership from Fentje Palit, founder of Fawnridge Christian Academy a K-12 school in Indonesia, we have secured an office in The Park Royal Tower 3 in downtown Jakarta. This office will serve all our efforts in Indonesia for the two service groups ELI 360 Guidance and Admission 360.

Front doors of new office in Jakarta

The amazing part is not opening a third office but rather that the development of this effort has been carried on the wings of favor. Mr. Palit joined ELI 360 a little over one year ago as our representative in Indonesia. Since his time with ELI 360 he has gained great favor among many of his past relationships to promote Admission 360 our university placement service. One such relationship is a college friend Helen Ongko who is a founder of the homeschooling center and has made it possible to open this new ELI 360 office in a building they are moving into. Currently the office space is under construction and we anticipate it opening in June and become fully operational by July. During this last week I traveled to several cities in Indonesia based on Fentje’s work to open doors among several private high schools.

In Surabaya we anticipate having several new partnerships with high schools who embrace a holistic education.  Two such schools are new and have a commitment to helping their students not only gain a great education but develop in character. Fentje and I met with the school’s board or management group and had very positive discussions on how we can partner together in service students and parents. Of our meetings in Surabaya we had a school that agreed to meet with us because one of the parents of the school is an alum from one of our partner universities and friends with my parents who founded ELI 360. FAVOR again.

Maria Megawati has been in touch with my mother for more than 15 years since she finished her bachelors in the college of business at ACU. Today she is working for her father’s company and has two children attending Cita Hati School Below I’m attaching random pictures from my travels. Overall we were able to accomplish the activities this week because of the great favor ELI 360 has gained in Indonesia. Our new office in Jakarta will be a major strategic step forward for 2011.

Parents listening to a presentation

Long time ELI 360 Friend Maria

Ms Munandar and Ms Nugraha with VITA School

Chairman Dr. Liliek and Mr Kriswanto of PETRA

While I was in KL I visited with our associate Lawrence to discuss our ability to deliver one of our service products, ELI 360 Guidance, to a network of home schooling centers that have already worked with us to provide families university placement services. Ps. Kevin who is the director of the home schooling program believes this service will fit well with their new eLearning initiative. Together we hope to be able to offer ELI 360 Guidance to high school students starting sometime mid year 2011.

All students who participate in the program will be well prepared for their professional career and have a solid idea of what their personal blueprint is.

During my visit in KL I interviewed several applicants and spoke with very interested parents who wanted to personally learn more about the university partners we work with. This coming January we will receive one of those applicants who has already gained his F-1 visa. Additionally, I had an opportunity to visit with a new partner, ImmaginUSA,  whose director herself studied in the U.S. to finish her MBA.

After completing interviews, providing seminars to students and parents, meeting with home schooling center directors and discussing strategy with our new partner I headed to Penang.

While in Penang I visited with two exceptional private schools and Dr. Seow, the founder of one of them, who now runs edugate. Both private schools were K-12 and have a long track record of high quality education and whole person development. Fairview International provides an International Baccalaureate (IB for short) that is well suited as a pathway for U.S. university study. Our associate and I discussed with Ms. Lin and Mr. Lee how our Admissions 360 service would benefit the parents of their school. Both were very enthusiastic and asked in Jin Koe could return and speak directly with parents.

While in Penang I had an appointment set to complete our agreement with a local college called DISTED. We were warmly greeted by Dr. Koo, President and CEO of the college and Ms Lyn. During our visit we discussed the completion of an articulation agreement with Hardin-Simmons (HSU now listed on their web site) and a plan to further build pathways for DISTED students to enter US higher education. Dr. Koo was very pleased to learn of the other high quality private universities we work with that have interest in articulating with DISTED. As a college their mission is very much in line with those of our partners to equip students with well rounded skills, knowledge and values for their future success – a whole person education philosophy.

The time in Malaysia was well spent with students, families and institutions who have a real sense of the international climate we now live in regardless of place. This coming fall ELI 360 should see a number of new students from Malaysia on our partner’s campuses. More importantly I believe that new relationships were forged on the trip that will benefit both sides of the world for many years to come.

This year I left in August for ELI 360’s first destination which was India. We had an exceptional time working with EYL visiting high schools, junior colleges, the Bangalore Rotary Club and a few other civic organizations. My time there was very productive. In fact I hope that in time we will see Ebenezer International School graduates enter our partner universities.

This high school has been established with the leadership of Dr. Ebenezer who has been in education for much of his career leading exceptional institutions like Bishop Cotton’s Boys School another private school in Bangalore. At the school we introduced our partner universities and had the opportunity to begin working with some of the students.

Sam Balachander, Director EYL, at Ebenezer Int'l Schools

Two weeks ago Steven went to China to work with Bowen on several projects to include an articulation agreement with Tsinghua. Today as I travel to Malaysia I am looking forward to the multiple student interviews that have been set up by our local Associates. Additionally, I will be meeting with DISTED in Penang to wrap up an articulation agreement.

This new partnership will benefit several different groups of students looking for transfer credit into our partner universities Hardin-Simmons, a university ranked 32 in the southwest region and Dallas Baptist University.

Mr. Ted Presley teaches the speaking section of the ESL Program.

This past Spring ELI 360 and Hardin-Simmons University designed an ESL program to offer non-English speaking students the opportunity to gain admission into the university through an intensive English study environment. This offers many international students an improved way to gain an F1 visa and begin their education career in the U.S.

What I’ve been so pleased with is the unique approach that the ESL program has taken. While there are many valid approaches to teaching intensive English at the university level the one that ELI 360 has taken is one of practicum. Part of the method was adopted from our partner English Now! which focuses on friendly, daily life intensive English. Our mutual HSU students have sat in regular classrooms, have toured Abilene for different cultural elements and have interviewed business managers who themselves have learned English. The dynamic these ESL students find themselves in has motivated them to connect the practical learning to their ambition for finishing a degree at HSU. In other words, we find that this classroom slash real world practice drives home the content of their studies.

I myself having lived in foreign countries at two different stages in my life have learned that my ability to stay motivated to learn a new language is tied to how relevant I find the studies.

Additionally this fall we launched ELI 360 Guidance with a local private high school that has an excellent track record in teaching so that over 90% of each year’s graduates go on to university study. The new service was designed to assist high school students from 9th grade to 12th learn to understand what we call their “blueprint” in order to better develop their personal education and career plan. We are very enthused about what we will be able to accomplish through this service. In fact this coming November I will be visiting with high schools in Malaysia and UAE to discuss the possibility of offering ELI 360 Guidance on their campuses. With the job market much more competitive it is crucial to assist young people in learning what will be their best career track and industry or “mountain of society.”

I’m excited about 2010 a complete number, an even number year. This year is exciting on so many fronts personally and professionally.

Last month I celebrated with my wife the birth of our fourth son, Nathanael James Presley, pictured here with his family.

President's Family 2010

Each of our sons are gifts to us from the Father. When we look into our little son’s face we see our other boys as well. It’s amazing how we all resemble each other physically. At the same time as our boys grow and mature they take on their own personality, talents and character. “Nate” will follow like us to grow into a wonderful young boy and then a man one day. These days he’s completely dependent on us and has a fresh start in life. The future is bright, clear and full of opportunities.

China Office

This month we have a new member of our team operating out of Shanghai, China. Mr. Bowen Shen joins ELI 360 as the China Market Manager replacing Ms. Qing Gao who has moved into her new role in China as the Operations Manager. Bowen was a student at one of our partner universities and since finishing his masters he has been helping young Chinese students gain admission into U.S. universities. During the last four years he has been instrumental in helping specific programs become the success they are today.

His addition to the team marks a greater commitment by ELI 360 to meet the needs of the market in China and to ELI 360’s partner universities . I believe this year we will have a much stronger sales network in the number two (2) country of origin for exchange students. His responsibilities will focus on market and brand development. As with Nate, ELI 360 has great opportunities ahead in China. Welcome to the Team Bowen!

ELI 360 Launches an ESL Program

In cooperation with a local university partner, Hardin-Simmons (HSU),

HSU Students

ELI 360 will be able to offer an intensive English program to increase the number of exchange students who need a semester or year of English before matriculating into the university’s programs. With our company increasing our presence in markets like China and India it is becoming more essential to have an ESL program that can offer students F1 visas. Through our partnership HSU will now be able to serve a much larger market with university placement desires.

Both HSU and ELI 360 are very excited to be offering this program starting August of this year. Again, there are great opportunities for the company but even more importantly to the international student market that needs increased English proficiency before entering regular university classes.

New Markets

ELI 360 is also moving into additional markets this year with a growth in our network. Recently completed was a discovery trip to Dubai where we will certainly work to develop a strong presence for our university partners. After several months of research I personally went to meet with high schools, administration and local families. The opportunities are so great that I will be returning to launch an intentional effort on behalf of our Global Advance partners. This will include setting up a local representative office.

Burj Dubai

Over the last year we have been developing a solid partnership with Emerging Young Leaders and through this organization we are now able to connect with more families around the world. Sam Balachander, from Bangalore, is the director and has made it possible to go on this trip to Dubai.  I am looking forward to visiting with families and high schools to introduce our Alliance of Universities. In the last few years they have continued to gain recognition in the United States for their superior academic programs. What makes them so appealing is their environment and cost.

ELI 360 universities listed here are in the top 100 of their respective regions. That’s a great accomplishment! Yet, even I who studied at one of the universities find that its the environment that is so great. While I studied at one of our partner universities I found that my professors were often willing to mentor me as I went through each year. Additionally, I was able to participate in many student functions which boosted my resume before entering the working world.

All the universities that work with ELI 360 are in safe residential environments and have a welcoming community. Most often we hear students and visitors say how surprised they were to find the university’s campus  so friendly and esthetically inviting. While I’m in Dubai I will share this message about our partners. Not only do they offer the best in academic programs but they do it in a safe and friendly environment.

Here in the U.S. once a year most Americans especially males sit around a television to watch the national championship football game. During this sports event companies of all sizes broadcast their own advertisements to convince viewers to purchase their products or services.

In this video watch how Google a major Internet company known worldwide chose study abroad as it’s example for what it is capable of in helping customers find what they want. The student exchange industry is a major economic player. For a company like Google to use study abroad as its example should make young people seriously consider completing some or all of their studies in an overseas experience. In this advertisement it changed the young person’s life. A little humorous indeed but a good ad.

Enjoy. . .

Tianamen Square

Tianamen Square and the Forbidden City, where the recent 60th anniversary festivities took place in Beijing, was packed with people and offered any tourist an enjoyable time. Yet, for me what was most exciting were the new friends and partnerships that were developed during my trip.

In Beijing we were able to work with our local representative and ELI 360’s China office to develop new opportunities with great individuals like Ms. Gao who has been helping families go to Canada for years. Now together we will be able to give families opportunities to go to the U.S. for their higher education pursuits. We found that together there is great synergy and a cooperative spirit. I know that developments like this will lend well to our efforts in China specifically because so much of the success is dependent on relationships. Ms. Gao and her office are not only professional but take their clients’ interests “to heart”.

Ms. Gao and Strong Union

During our visit I was impressed with the sense that this new partner looks out for the best interest in those she serves. For us at ELI 360 this is a key value because we work with people not numbers. I believe we will see many new students on the campuses of our partner universities because of the collaborative efforts between our China office and Ms. Gao. To our team in China with my tea cup in hand raised I say “to much success.”

I too was in Dalian, a coastal city, investigating opportunities to  develop new partnerships. As ELI 360 considers the environment of higher education many institutions are increasingly seeking out partnerships with counterparts in other countries like China to enhance academic collaboration, expand curricular offerings, participate in joint research and offer students international experiences and cross-cultural training. However, many institutions face significant challenges in understanding education systems in other countries, identifying appropriate partners and developing effective institutional partnership strategies. Yet for our partners’ ambitious initiative like those listed above they will be navigated with much ease.

From this particular trip ELI 360 has been able to find the right partnership in China, specifically in Dalian where there is a major technology industry, to begin assessing and developing projects that will benefit institutions on both sides of the ocean. Our team which will soon be made up of individuals in both nations who will interpret and convey to all engaged parties the material at hand in a way that is clear.  For our partners they will have a reduced level of effort, culture confusion and will gain reduced risk of failure.

Site survey of a university in Dalian