Foreign applications to American graduate schools increased last year, but still fell short of reaching numbers before Sept. 11, 2001, according to a study released last week by the Council of Graduate Schools.
The study said the 12 percent increase in international applications in 2005-06 — the first increase in international applications since 2002 — still leaves application numbers far below those of the late 1990s.
Judith Kornblatt, senior associate dean for graduate education at the University of Wisconsin, said UW did not match the national trend and saw a 1.82 percent decline in international applications for 2005-06. Kornblatt said application numbers usually hold steady, and small changes from year to year are not significant.
"There are cycles — up and down — and there is not a lot of change that happens, so a lot of the small changes are really not so significant," Kornblatt said.
Kornblatt also said UW has yet to match the number of international student applications from before Sept. 11, 2001.
"The total enrolled in 2001 — students who applied before Sept. 11 — was 2,350 [students]," Kornblatt said. "In the fall of 2006, we have 2,114 students."
Kornblatt added she does not find the difference between any two years to be a significant change.
In addition to international security, Kornblatt said, an increase in foreign graduate programs may be to blame for the decrease in applications to UW.
"Another trend that we're seeing is the creation of more graduate programs overseas," Kornblatt said. "Foreign graduate schools are being created, so some [international] students who may in the past have applied to our university may instead be going to their home countries' university."
Kornblatt added international programs will most likely keep expanding, affecting foreign student applications to all American graduate programs.
"Students from all over the world would have a broader choice, which would affect applications to our university," Kornblatt said.
According to the study, 73 percent of international graduate students apply to programs in the physical and life sciences, as well as programs in business, engineering and social sciences.
Kornblatt said UW's international graduate enrollment agrees with the results of the study, citing computer science, math, chemistry and physics as the most popular programs for foreign students.
"By far the most number of international students are in engineering and the other physical sciences," Kornblatt said. "There are also a fair number in the life sciences."
UW sees the least number of international students, Kornblatt said, in education and humanities programs.
Kornblatt said despite the slow drop in international applications, UW remains a highly regarded graduate school on the international level.
"We are still one of the largest draws for international graduate students in the country," Kornblatt said.
Sara Thurston-González, interim director of international student services at the office of the dean of students said in an e-mail to The Badger Herald that international students are extremely important to UW.
"International graduate students … bring a diverse perspective to campus whether they are interacting with American students, faculty, staff or other international students," Thurston- González said.
