International students create diversity at U.S. colleges and
universities—both culturally and academically. The University of
Southern California in Los Angeles drew the highest number of
international students—6,647—for the 2003–2004 academic year, which saw
572,509 international students pursuing higher education in the United
States. This was USC's third straight year at the top of the list
compiled by the Institute of International Education (IIE). After USC, the schools drawing the largest number of international students are:
2. Columbia University, New York City, New York: 5,362
3. Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana: 5,094
4. New York University, New York City, New York: 5,070
5. University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas: 4,827
6. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, Illinois: 4,769
7. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan: 4,583
8. Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts: 4,518
9. University of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California: 4,320
10. The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio: 4,263
Of the more than 500,000 international students in the United States, the largest number—79,736, or 13.9 percent—come from India. Indian students have topped the list for the past three years, and the 2003–2004 number of 79,736 marks a six percent increase over the previous year. The other top 10 nations sending students to the United States, according to IIE, are:
2. China: 61,765
3. Republic of Korea: 52,484
4. Japan: 40,835
5. Canada: 27,017
6. Taiwan: 26,178
7. Mexico: 13,329
8. Turkey: 11,398
9. Thailand: 8,937
10. Indonesia: 8,880
More
men than women come to the United States from abroad to pursue an
education. The 2003–2004 numbers from IIE report that 55.8 percent of
international students are men, while 44.2 percent are women. This is
slightly different from the U.S. student population, which tends have a
higher number of female students than male students (55 percent female
and 45 percent male, according a 2000 report of the National Center for
Education Statistics). Still, international students have come closer
to gender equality over the past ten years; in the 1993–1994 reporting
year, IIE found that 62.1 percent of international students were male
and only 37.9 percent were female.
IIE found that international students in the United States most often choose business and management as their major; in the 2003–2004 academic year, 19.1 percent of international students were enrolled in business programs. After business, students often choose to study engineering (16.6 percent), mathematics and computer sciences (11.8 percent), social sciences (9.4 percent), and physical and life sciences (7.8 percent).
