By Karin Fischer

Rasheed Alanazi's ambition was to study in the United States.

Standing in the way of the Saudi Arabian student's dream was the reality that his English skills weren't strong enough to allow him to keep pace in an American college classroom. In fact, Mr. Alanazi, 21, had had just two months of English instruction before he came to the United States, in February.

But he was able to win admission to Plymouth State University, in New Hampshire—with the stipulation that he raise his language proficiency before starting classes. Already, Mr. Alanazi, who has a scholarship from the Saudi government, has moved from a beginner to an intermediate level of English-language instruction and hopes to begin studying for a business degree next year.

"America is the best country is the world for studying," he says, in clear and careful English. "The best universities are here."

No firm statistics exist for the number of foreign students who, like Mr. Alanazi, are offered conditional admission to an American college even though their English-language skills might not meet entrance standards. With a provisional offer in hand, students then polish their English at the college or at an approved language school before taking an English-proficiency exam.

Still, international-admission counselors, overseas recruiters, and English-language instructors say the practice is growing in popularity. Some colleges, like Plymouth State, have embraced conditional admission as a way to expand foreign-student numbers.

And institutions with longstanding provisional-acceptance programs say interest is increasing sharply. At Iowa State University, which has offered conditional admission for three decades, intensive-English enrollments have tripled in recent years, says Patricia J. Parker, assistant director of admissions.

"It's the wave of the future," says Robert (Bert) Barry, director of international services at Saint Louis University, which expects to enroll as many as 200 conditionally admitted students in its intensive-English program this fall.

Much of the demand is being driven by the record number of Chinese undergraduates pouring into American colleges. Some of these students need extra English instruction, while others simply do not have time to sit for the English test as well as their high-school exit exam and China's rigorous national university-entrance exam.

The practice also appeals to students who think a conditional-admission offer will help them get an American visa more easily than if they applied to go to the United States for language study only.

Studying in America "is a huge investment in these economic times," says Tara Kelley, director of the ELS Language Center, on the Clemson University campus. "Students want a guarantee."

For U.S. colleges, conditional admission is gaining acceptance as yet another recruiting tool in an increasingly competitive global marketplace for top foreign students. American institutions "used to be prepared to let students enter only on our own terms," says Mitch Leventhal, vice chancellor for global affairs at the State University of New York.

Now a growing number of colleges see conditional admission as "part of a comprehensive recruiting strategy," Mr. Leventhal says. "If you don't do it, you could cut off a substantial part of your market."

Learning the Language

International educators emphasize that conditionally admitted students meet all other university entrance requirements.

"Our conditional admits are not because we think there's any academic deficiency," says Sara Allaei, assistant dean for international affairs at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis, who notes that the institution's international students, on average, earn higher grades than their domestic counterparts. "They've definitely met our level of academic performance."

IUPUI may provisionally admit a student who does not meet the university's required scores on the Toefl or its competitor test, the International English Language Testing System, better known by its acronym, Ielts, Ms. Allaei says.

Like many other institutions that give conditional admissions, IUPUI honors the offer for a year. Some students require a full year to become proficient, while others need just a semester or a summer to hone their skills.

Historically, only those institutions with homegrown intensive-English programs, like Iowa State and IUPUI, were able to issue provisional acceptances.

Today an increasing number of colleges have formed partnerships with independent providers. ELS Educational Services Inc., one of the largest, has some 55 centers nationwide, most on college campuses, and has admission agreements with hundreds more.

The University of La Verne, in California, signed on with ELS four years ago. Jeffrey L. Nonemaker, director of international-student recruitment and admissions, says going with the private company allowed La Verne to more rapidly expand its international enrollment without taking on new administrative burdens.

While students apply for admission to both the university and the language center, ELS staff members deal with much of the paperwork and issue entry documents, known as I-20 forms, to students.

ELS also handles the English-language instruction. Students in its program, which has 12 levels, from beginner to advanced, take classes 30 hours a week, for four-week sessions each. Students learn vocabulary and grammar, get practice speaking, listening, and writing, and are tutored in American culture and customs, the company's Ms. Kelley says. At upper levels, they use typical college texts.

For college admission, students must typically complete the ELS course work, retake and pass an English-proficiency exam, and, at some institutions, sit for a university-specific placement test.

Some colleges develop their own curricula. Saint Louis, for example, requires its intensive-English students to do community-based service-learning projects to give them speaking experience, outside the classroom and pairs them with honors students for additional one-on-one conversation practice, Mr. Barry says. More-proficient students are also able to enroll in some regular academic courses at the private college even before they have completed the language program.

Percy Ho, vice president for overseas development at Aoji Education Group, a Chinese recruiting company, says American college administrators have told him they think conditional admission can be useful for students whose English-language skills mainly need fine tuning.

"Studying English in a classroom is different than when a student has to learn and live in a total-immersion environment," Mr. Ho says, adding that intensive-English programs frequently prepare international students for American academic culture, teaching them study skills and basic research methods. "These students often perform better."

Appealing to Students

This spring Aoji and ELS jointly sponsored a recruitment fair in Beijing, one of several the English-instruction company organized for its partner colleges. ELS gives little-known colleges access to its agent network, advice on recruiting overseas, and exposure to students, parents, and schools, says Susan Kassab, the company's director of university admission services.

Plymouth State, which participated in the Beijing fair, had struggled to recruit internationally, says Dick Hage, who recently stepped down as vice president for student affairs. "We're just not a household name."

After signing with ELS last September, Plymouth State received 58 international applications by the end of 2009. The college typically enrolls only about 70 overseas students in total.

Like Plymouth State, other U.S. colleges are under pressure to attract more international students as a way to globalize at home and, in an increasingly tight budget environment, to bolster their bottom lines. Some institutions see conditional admission as a method to tap a new group of foreign students. George daPonte, director of international admissions at the University of Tampa, says several colleagues in recent months have asked for a copy of his conditional-admission letter to use as a model for programs at their own institutions.

Mr. Nonemaker, of La Verne, says he also gets inquiries about conditional admission from international students. "They have friends who got a conditional letter, and they're interested, too," he says.

One of the main reasons for overseas demand, he says, is that students believe a university acceptance, even provisional, will help them get an American visa. (For their part, U.S. State Department officials have said they do not discriminate against students seeking language study only.)

Most of the colleges contacted by The Chronicle said Chinese students were by far the largest group of provisionally admitted students. "Our bread and butter," says Ms. Parker of Iowa State, who adds many are bright students who did not want to "dilute" their studies for the national university entrance exam by preparing for the English-language test at the same time.

Other sending countries include Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Thailand, Turkey, and Vietnam—nations with an expanding middle class or with large government-sponsored scholarship programs for overseas study, Ms. Kassab says. Interest, she says, tends to drop off as English proficiency improves in a country and as students and their parents gain greater sophistication about overseas study. The number of Korean students, for one, has fallen off as that market has "matured," she says.

A Viable Option

But turning a conditional-admission offer into a full-fledged acceptance doesn't come cheaply for students. While less expensive than regular undergraduate tuition, English-language programs are costly. Intensive-English students at Saint Louis, for example, pay $11,010 in tuition for a nine-month program, with fees rising to around $25,000 with living expenses factored in. The expense means that conditional admission may not be a viable option for many international students.

Offering provisional acceptances also works far better for undergraduate than graduate students, as most upper-level students must already have greater English proficiency to do well on the GRE. In addition, graduate programs, particularly on the doctoral level, tend to take on just a handful of students each year and therefore can be choosier.

At least one university that previously offered conditional admission has backed away from the practice. Golden Gate University's conditional-admission program was a moneymaker, says Karen McRobie, director of the San Francisco institution's Preparation for Language and University Studies, or PLUS, program, but it was halted in 2003 out of concern that it "wasn't integrated well enough into the university's mission."

The conditional-admission students were "free agents," Ms. McRobie says; as a result, few eventually enrolled at the university. By contrast, the PLUS program—which pairs regular course work with English-language instruction and intensive academic support—has a 90-percent retention rate, she says.

International-admissions officials at other colleges dismiss such concerns. At Saint Louis, more than 80 percent of the students offered conditional admission enroll at the university, Mr. Barry says.

"The message we give is," he says, "if students are likely to succeed, we don't want English to be a barrier."