U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia, Mr. Robert O. Blake, officially opened the Spring 2014 EducationUSA Fair in Jakarta on Sunday, February 23, 2014. He cut the ribbon at Sasono Mulyo Ballroom at the Le Meridien Hotel at 1:45 p.m. and delivered his welcoming remarks to an audience of students and their accompanying parents. Forty universities and colleges whose representatives came directly from the U.S. met with more than 900 prospective students during the four hours Fair that afternoon.

The EducationUSA Fair targeting U.S. higher education students is coordinated by AMINEF/EducationUSA and supported by the U.S. Embassy. The Fair which is annually held in Spring is in response to the needs of the public for accurate and impartial information on studying in the United States. Many of the participating universities and colleges also participated in the Fair in Medan on February 21, Semarang on February 25 and the tour will end in Surabaya on February 27.

The Fair is part of the U.S. Government’s larger initiative to contribute to the goals set forth in the Comprehensive Partnership agreement between President Obama and President Yudhoyono in 2010 to double the number of Indonesians studying in the U.S. in the next five years.

During the Fairs in all four cities, representatives of the U.S. Embassy, American Fulbright Senior Scholar and English Teaching Assistants, as well as EducationUSA Advisers provided detailed information about visa application process, how to select schools in the U.S., how to write winning application essay, and scholarship opportunities. In 2013, 98 percent of student visa applicants were granted a visa. The large number of potential students and their parents visited the Fairs in Jakarta and the other three cities clearly indicated the strong interest in American education here. The attendees were satisfied with the information they got about the thousands of possibilities of majors, programs, scholarships, and assistantship opportunities available in the United States.