With our Fall 2010 fair already full and on track, I am already getting excited about our March 2010 tour. Its always great to go back to the Middle East, but in the Spring we will be heading into Central Asia as well. Personally, I can’t wait to go back to Almaty, Kazakhstan – but I’m not sure if I will make it on a roller coaster again this time. The students we met last March were amazing, intelligent, and very excited to speak with US colleges and universities.

I received these photos via twitter (thanks @gordon_ryan) and had to share them with you all. You will not believe these amazing shots of Uzbekistan, Dagestan, Bukhara, Russia are 100 years old. The photography is amazing, as is the use of color photography which was so primitive at that time.

http://bit.ly/dkEPPD

Hope you enjoy them & consider visiting some of these countries with us in the Spring!

Amman, Jordan March 27th
Manama, Bahrain March 29th
Kuwait City, Kuwait March 31st
Dubai, UAE April 2nd
Almaty, Kazakhstan April 5th
Baku, Azerbaijan April 7th

Wassan

Finally arrived in Boston for the OACAC BOS10 – Overseas Association for College Admission Counseling Conference. Traffic delays brought me into the city well past midnight, and onto the Northeastern campus at almost 1.30am. I remembered that the last email from the OACAC team had mentioned an iPhone App, since I didn’t have my agenda on me, I quickly downloaded it in the hopes it would actually be, you know, helpful.

Wow, thanks so much to the web development team at Northeaststern for putting the tjme into developing the rockin’ OACAC BOS10 conference app for the iPhone. A simple to use interface allows even the frazzled traveler to stay organized. The interface and nice and simple:

Screenshot - OACAC BOS10 App

The agenda is easy to access, each session is listed on there, and all the pretty social media icons are easy to access (facebook, twitter, flickr).  Be sure to properly tag the conference if you will be tweeting with the #BOS10 hashtag (however, I think lots of people will just use the #OACAC10 hashtag as well).

Screenshot - Sessions

The *only* item I would have added would have been a campus map – or maybe that was only needed while searching for the housing dorm at 1.30am after arriving on that much delayed flight.

NAFSA better not have ANY excuses for not having an app available for next year’s conference!

If you didn’t already download it, what are you waiting for?! See you all in a few hours!

The PR office at NYU Abu Dhabi must have been working overtime this weekend, articles in both the New York Times & Inside Higher Ed this morning talk about the mix of students making up the inaugural class. US Educational Group is proud to have been part of the recruitment effort!

N.Y.U. Abu Dhabi Scours Globe for Top Students

The Worlds Honor College?

NYU Abu Dhabi recruiting with US Educational Group

NYU Abu Dhabi - working on those High School students!

US Educational Group announces the Middle East Fall 2010 Tour, you can find more details & register on the USEG Tours website

You might be a little surprised to see that we’re heading to Iraq at the end of the tour – don’t be – the fair in Iraq last January was very successful. More than 17 universities from the US & UK attended the mini-fair in Baghdad and Irbil, and reported intense interest from the students they saw in both cities. With the Iraq Education Initiative pilot program in full swing this is the perfect time for your university to show its commitment to the program and the students it will be sending!

Beirut, Lebanon - October 11th
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia - October 13th
Kuwait City, Kuwait - October 16th
Manama, Bahrain - October 18th
Doha, Qatar - October 20th
Dubai, UAE – October 23rd
Amman, Jordan - October 25th
Baghdad, Iraq (Free*) - October 28th
Erbil, Iraq (Free*) - October 30th

There is a visa requirement for US Citizens to Saudi Arabia, Qatar (this is new!) and Iraq. So we REALLY encourage you to make the decisions on your fall travel as early as possible this year!