USC again has most foreign students, followed by NYU [Updated]

For the eighth consecutive year, USC enrolled the highest number of foreign students of any U.S. university last year, a new report shows. USC, which recruits strongly in Asia, hosted 7,482 international students in the 2008-09 school year, according to the study by the Institute of International Education with support from the State Department. [Updated at 2:16 p.m.: In all, USC enrolls about 34,000 undergraduate and graduate students.]

New York University, with 6,761, had the second-largest international contingent and Columbia University, with 6,685, ranked third. UCLA was in eighth place, with 5,590. California had the most foreign students, followed by New York and Texas.

The "Open Doors" survey, released today, showed that the number of international students at about 3,000 U.S. colleges and universities rose 8% last year to a new high of 671,616. Big increases in students from China helped fuel the rise. As in other recent years, India once again sent the most students to the U.S., followed by China, South Korea, Canada and Japan.

But there are indications that the growth might have slowed this fall semester because of economic conditions and concerns about the H1N1 virus. A related but separate survey of 700 schools by the institute and seven other education organizations showed that 45% of those campuses reported an increase in foreign students this fall, compared to 56% last year.

-- Larry Gordon

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Comments

[bill]

It would help if the article listed the total number of students at USC compared to the total number of foreign students.

[troyisfalling]

USC has about 33,000 students total, undergrad and graduate.

[DSL]

It would be great if USC actually focused on educating qualified Americans instead of everyone from around the world.

[hijk]

It'd be nice if we could get a link to the top 25 school listing. I'd like to see the other schools on the list too.
---
Editor's note: Good idea. We've added a link.

[foolme]

This article is based on a report released by "Institute of International Education". Link to the report on Institute's page is availabe in article. All the information is available for interested readers.

[kathy]

I do not believe this is correct. I think that the New School University, located in Manhattan, has a greater percentage of foreigners. I saw this info once, but curiously, it is a little hard to come by. Perhaps the editor can make a phone call & ask about the numbers......