According to a survey conducted by the Council of Graduate Schools, which represents more than 450 universities, the number of international students applying to graduate schools in American universities overall has increased by 11 percent this academic year.
At N.C. State, the increase was 26 percent, according to Rick Liston, graduate school assistant dean for operations and fiscal affairs.
“N.C. State has experienced a dramatic increase in the number of applicants from foreign countries,” Liston said. “It doesn’t mean we’ll increase that much [in regards to admittance], but we can safely say we have experienced a dramatic increase.”
Despite this increase, the survey shows numbers are still lower than in the years before 2003, when the previous study was done, and in the aftermath of Sept. 11.
“After 9-11, we did see a drop that was typical of what we heard from our colleague institutions,” Liston said. “We’re probably back where we were in 9-11.”
Both Liston and Michael Bustle, director of international student services, affirmed the fact that in the few years after Sept. 11, the amount of applicants was in decline and that the increase only occurred this academic year.
“The number of international applicants — nationwide and at N.C. State — is rising again,” Bustle said. “Not yet at the numbers we saw before 9-11, but each year now it is getting better.”
But as Bustle points out, the enrollment of international students is more than just a game of figures.
“We are not just concerned about numbers — although a larger pool of applicants can generally yield a greater number of highly-qualified applicants — but we are concerned about reaching our enrollment targets and building a globally diverse group of students who can contribute to all aspects of our student-scholar community here,” Bustle said.
Liston says that it is still too early to pinpoint what exactly was done to encourage more applicants, especially since an in-depth analysis about the cause of this has not been conducted within N.C. State.
“We were more focused in the admissions season on helping choose graduate students to grant admission,” Liston said.
Liston said that the graduate program does not have to focus a lot of special attention in attracting international students to the program because the University’s programs, like that of science and engineering, are “interesting enough for international scholars that there’s enough of a demand.”
The survey showed an increase in the number of students India and China have been sending to graduate programs at American universities, with a 23 percent increase from students in India and a 21 percent increase from students in China.
Liston said that of all the international applicants for graduate school, the most were coming from India and China.
Rohan Desai is one of these graduate students from India.
“NCSU has a good rank and it is well known for the electrical department, which is my department,” Desai said. “Among the schools I had applied for, it was the best.”
Desai said he had the option of choosing between the University of Colorado at Boulder and NCSU, but chose NCSU because many of his friends had attended.
The Council of Graduate Schools have suggested that the cause of this increase of international students attending American universities is that Homeland Security is making it easier for them to obtain visas.
“The quality of graduate education that we get in most of the American graduate universities is really good, as the practicality implied over here really makes you use your brains,” Supreet Bakshi, another graduate student from India, said. “Although India and China have some of the best graduate schools, there are only a handful of them.”
