One such student is 18-year-old Sudie Robinson of Dinthill. She received offers from four US colleges, but chose Ithaca in New York and the US$30,600 per annum it put on the table.

"I heard about Versan through a friend and I saw the ads on TV but I just really wanted to study abroad. I think you get better opportunities there," she told Career & Education.

Shawna Marie Hendricks of the Montego Bay Community College leaves for Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts this fall to take up an annual scholarship of US$35,000.

"I chose Worcester because of its reputation and because it has good engineering facilities. It also has a hands-on programme where we'll get to solve real-world problems in other countries," said the aspiring aerospace engineer.

The overall scholarship awards, according to Bramwell-Riley, range between a high of US$59, 900 and a low of US$22,000.

And diversification of the list of schools from which its scholars have been drafted is not the only good news for Versan this year. It has improved upon the general acceptance figure of 2007, taking it from 89 to 92 per cent. It has also increased the number of acceptances to Ivy League schools.

"We have the highest record in any given year of entry to Ivy League institutions. To have copped two for Harvard, four for MIT, three for Stanford, four for Cornell, one for Dartmouth, two for Duke, one for Princeton and one for Yale while America only accepted seven per cent [of applications from within the US], Jamaica did amazingly well," said the educator. "Performing arts and art schools also saw a record enrolment this year with more students going off to do fashion, animation, jewellery and painting. We had one young lady win a scholarship to the prestigious University of the Arts by merely doing a voice audition."

She added that more than 30 Jamaican students scored above 2,000 out of 2,400 on their college entance exams.

Meanwhile, Bramwell-Riley said she was fearful that the present downturn in the US economy would have negatively affected Versan's efforts to win scholarships this year but that the individualised student consultations and the strength of the essays gave Jamaica the edge this year.

"Versan has received full acknowledgement from the Independent Educational Consultants Association overseas for our achievements this year... We already have posted 300 acceptances with funding and others are still trickling in... We were very proud of our track record this year in raising the scholarship level for our most indigent students."