Doing Economics

7.4 Advising Foreign Students
Given the preponderance of economists in the policy apparatus of most if
not all countries, graduate programs in economics and related disciplines
tend to attract students from all over the world. Given that, it is useful to be
aware of the specific issues that may arise when advising foreign students.
First and foremost, not everyone is a native speaker of English. Although
most graduate programs tend to screen students on the basis of their score
on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or some similar
exam, it is possible to prep enough to get an acceptable score on the TOEFL
even with less-than-adequate English language skills, and I have heard
rumors over the years of cheating on the TOEFL and other standardized
tests being rampant in some countries. To make matters worse, although
most graduate programs insist on a perfect or near perfect score on the
quantitative portion of the Graduate Records Examinations (GRE), rarely
do graduate programs treat the GRE verbal as anything more than an
afterthought. In this job, however, the quality of one’s written (and, to a
somewhat lesser extent, spoken) English can be a major determinant of
one’s success.
5
When advising foreign students who wish to have a career in the English-
speaking world, the first thing to make sure of is that they understand the
importance of being able to express themselves well in English, both when
writing papers and presenting them in seminars. At the same time, it is not
necessarily your job to teach them proper English grammar and vocabulary,
and even if you wanted to do so, you may not have the requisite knowledge
or the time to do so.
The good news is that most institutions of higher learning in the US have
a writing center which foreign students are welcome to consult. Time and
again, I have been surprised by how much the foreign students I have
referred to my institution’s writing center have benefited from it. If your

---

institution has such a center, it is well worth sending your students to
consult with it.
If a foreign student asks you for advice about how to improve their
English, one thing that worked for me when I wanted to learn Italian when I
moved to Rome was to make friends who spoke neither French (my native
language) nor English (my second language) and to spend time with them.
Though it was certainly comforting at the time to spend time with people
who hailed from francophone or anglophone countries, nothing beat having
to spend time speaking Italian over drinks or a meal, or at parties, which
brought me to near-fluency in a matter of months.
To improve their written English, foreign students should make a point of
reading in English. Whether that means reading The Economist, English
translations of their favorite novels, or other printed materials, the important
thing is to go beyond textbooks and the papers assigned in graduate classes,
and the key is simply to read things that are competently written in English
about things one is interested in.
Finally, as an advisor, you should be mindful of cultural differences.
Even if you grew up in a community that lacked diversity and did not get to
interact with foreigners until you went to graduate school, you can still be
respectful of those differences, and you can still err on the side of cultural
relativism. As much as our microeconomic theory training would have us
believe that different individuals would (or should) behave the exact same
way when facing the exact same situations, Fisman and Miguel (2007) have
shown that cultural norms die hard, and that people’s cultural upbringing
often takes precedence over changing external incentives. In some cultures,
the levels of shame and embarrassment one suffers when failing out
graduate school can lead to serious depression. Likewise, the gender norms
in some cultures may cause talented women to have to follow the lead of
their significantly less-talented husbands. As in all things, even though you
might be disappointed that cultural differences might lead one of your
advisees to make a sub-optimal decision (from your point of view, that is),
do try to be understanding and show empathy, and beyond providing
advice, keep your opinions to yourself unless you are directly asked for
them.

---

Notes
1
. See 
https://carnegieclassifications.iu.edu/lookup/standard.php
.
2
. Alternatively, a colleague who teaches at a liberal arts college notes: “When students are in debt, I
assuage some of these fears by telling students that the first job they get out of college with that
fancy economics degree is likely not the one that will become their career, and is just a job that
will help pay down their college debt.”
3
. Another liberal arts college colleague notes: “Advising and mentoring . . . is often emotional
work. It is way more emotionally draining than one would expect. At [my institution], professors
are a ‘first line of defense’ for all sorts of student issues, including mental health issues. If a
student is not in class a few times in a row, we are told to contact the Dean of Students so they can
check in on them.”
4
. In the interest of brevity, I cannot discuss specific types of master’s degrees, namely Master of
Arts in Economics, Master of Science in Economics, Master of Public Policy, Master of Public
Administration, Master of Business Administration, and so on.
5
. This has nothing to do with whether one has an accent or not. Having grown up in Quebec
speaking French, I retain a hint of a French Canadian accent even after 20 years in the US. But I
did make a conscious investment in learning proper English grammar and vocabulary early on,
which has served me well in this profession.

---