International Students in NYC

International Students Rate in the U.S.

All of the five leading sending countries experienced increases in enrollment in 2006/07, and these five countries account for almost half (47%) of all international students in the United States.
India remains the largest sending country for the 4th consecutive year with a total of 80,466 students, a modest 1% increase over the previous year's enrollments. China, the second-largest sending country with 62,523 students, had a 1% increase in enrollment, after experiencing a decline of 5% the previous year. The Republic of Korea, which remained the third leading sender for the fourth year in a row, was up by 2% to 53,358. Japan, the fourth leading sender with 42,215 students in the U.S., experienced an increase in enrollment of 3%, reversing a trend in declining enrollments that began three years ago. Enrollments of students from Canada, the only non-Asian country in the top five, increased by 4% to 28,140.

Students from Taiwan (#6 with 25,914) and Mexico (#7 with 13,063) declined by 1% and 2% respectively, while Turkey (#8 with 12,474) experienced the highest rate of growth among the top senders, with an increase of 9%. Despite a decrease of 1% to 8,640, Germany rose in position from #11 last year to #9 in 2004/05, due to larger decreases in students from Thailand and Indonesia. Thailand (#10 with 8,637 students) decreased by 3%. Of the top twenty sending countries, the sharpest decreases were reported from Indonesia (down 13% to 7,760), Kenya (down 9% to 6,728), Pakistan (down 14% to 6,296) and Malaysia (down 5% to 6,142).

Expenses

International students brought $13.3 billion dollars to the U.S. economy last year in money spent on tuition, living expenses, and related costs, according to the NAFSA: Association of International Educators. Open Doors 2006/07 data from campuses indicate that nearly 72% of all international students reported their primary source of funding coming from personal and family sources or other sources outside of the United States.

University of Southern California hosts the largest number of international students. For the fourth consecutive year, the University of Southern California was the leading host institution (6,846). University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign hosted the second highest number of foreign students (5,560). Other campuses hosting the most foreign students were: University of Texas at Austin (5,333), Columbia University (5,278) New York University (5,140), Purdue University (4,921) University of Michigan - Ann Arbor (4,632), Boston University (4,541), UCLA (4,217), and Ohio State University (4,140). In 2006/07, 145 U.S. colleges and universities hosted 1,000 or more international students - with 28 of these campuses hosting more than 3,000 international students each. More than 25% of the foreign students in the United States in 2004/05 were hosted by just 40 universities with the largest number of foreign students.

California is the leading host state for international students (75,032, down 3%), followed by New York (61,944, down 2%), Texas (47,367, up 5%), Massachusetts (27,985, down 2%) and Florida (26,264, up 2%). Of the top 20 leading hosting states, six states saw increases in foreign enrollments: Florida and Texas (as above), Maryland (13,439, up 6%), Georgia (12,111, up 1%), Arizona (10,011, up 1%), and North Carolina (9,029, up 2%), while 14 reported declines.

The most popular fields of study for international students in the U.S. are Business and Management (18% of total), Engineering (16.5%) and Mathematics and Computer Sciences (9%), although this year all three leading fields reported a decline in enrollments compared to last year, down 8%, 2% and 25%, respectively. Fields experiencing growth include the Physical and Life Sciences (up 11%), the Health Professions (up 2%), Intensive English Language (up 8%) and Agriculture (up 3%).