NYU dropped to fourth place in a study measuring how many international students study at American universities. In last year’s report, conducted by the Institute of International Education, NYU ranked third overall.
The Nov. 11 study measured the amount of students who matriculated to the United States during the time period of fall 2012 to spring 2013.
Despite the drop in ranking, the number of foreign students at NYU increased from 8,660 students to 9,362 from 2012 to 2013.
The same universities from the 2012 report topped the rankings this year — the University of Southern California, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Purdue University. Purdue now occupies the third slot.
The research is compiled as part of the Open Doors project, which is a resource for information on international students studying in the United States. Rajika Bhandari, IIE’s deputy vice president for Research and Evaluation, said these rankings are useful for explaining the extent of the international presence in U.S. schools.
“The goal of the Open Doors project is to help policy makers and educators better understand the full scope of international student mobility to the U.S.,” Bhandari said.
Joe Potts, the associate dean of International Programs at Purdue, said international students are attracted to the university because of positive reviews from students and alumni.
“Surveys indicate that referrals from current and former students are the primary factor in students choosing to study at Purdue,” Potts said. “Positive experiences here for students who now attend will affect future enrollment.”
CAS sophomore and U.K. native Katie Moore said she made her decision to attend NYU only after visiting during Weekend on the Square.
“I actually had never heard of NYU when I applied, but my adviser suggested I should,” Moore said. “Unless it’s an Ivy League, [students in the United Kingdom] probably haven’t heard of it, similar to Americans having only really heard of the traditional, top schools in the [United Kingdom] … despite there being many amazing universities across the country.”
Racha El-Khalil, a CAS sophomore from Lebanon, said NYU represented a contrast to the homogeneity of institutions of higher learning in Lebanon.
“I come from a country that’s a little restricted in that sense, so I’m especially attracted to institutions with more freedom,” El-Khalil said.
The IIE report also looked at how many American students studied abroad in the 2011-2012 academic year, which is the most recent data available to the institute based on the number of students who received credit for the courses they took abroad. NYU ranked first in this list, with a 15-percent increase from 3,799 to 4,378 students.
“In the years to come, a college degree will come to be seen as incomplete if it does not include a global experience,” NYU President John Sexton said in a press release addressing the report. “We have built a global presence to match that interest, and … [enable faculty and students] to pursue their scholarship and their degrees in major idea capitals across the world.”
For a look at how NYU’s diversity has increased the most of 60 liberal arts colleges via the Chronicle of Higher Education, read our story here.
A version of this article appeared in the Thursday, Nov. 14 print edition. Additional reporting by Emily Bell. Michael Domanico is a news editor. Email him at [email protected].
