Oklahoma State University enjoys impressive international graduate student enrollment growth

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

(Stillwater, OK   November 11, 2009) -- Oklahoma State University is experiencing a higher enrollment of international graduate students this fall compared to the national average, according to reports released by the Council of Graduate Schools in Washington, D.C.

Nationwide, offers of admission for international applicants to U.S. graduate schools decreased slightly from 2008, the first decline since 2004. The number of new international graduate student enrollments stayed roughly the same, however, causing the first-time enrollment to flat-line across the country.

At OSU, however, the trend was much more positive. According to Dr. Gordon Emslie, dean of the OSU Graduate College, although offers of admission to OSU were lower in 2009, the first-time enrollment of international graduate students actually jumped nearly 12 percent, from 305 students to 341 students. This brought the total international graduate student enrollment to 1,341 students this fall, representing an increase of 8.58 percent over last year.

“International graduate student enrollment is at a six-year high for OSU,” Emslie said. “While the number of admission offers is a good indication of the strength of an applicant pool, it is the number of new enrollments that provides the best indicator of the attractiveness of an institution’s programs to prospective students.”

Enrollment of new international students at OSU was up in almost all fields of study, including the humanities, engineering, physical sciences and life sciences.

“This is strong evidence that OSU has become the university of choice for more and more international students,” Emslie said.

He noted that positive experiences of other students from their home countries have a profound impact on international students when they choose their graduate programs.

Emslie believes graduate enrollment is up in part because OSU has made a concerted effort over the last five years to increase awareness of OSU’s graduate programs, and he cited not only the increase in numbers but also the quality of the graduate students who enroll.

“Because of OSU’s highly competitive financial packages for graduate teaching and research assistants, plus the quality of our faculty, programs and facilities, about 90 percent of our first-choice applicants do become OSU graduate students,” said Emslie.                     

At OSU, first-time enrollment of students from China, the Middle East and Turkey rose significantly. First-time enrollees from China jumped from 39 to 58, an increase of 49 percent, and from 15 to 23 from the Middle East and Turkey, a jump of 53 percent.

India has the most international graduate students on the OSU campus, comprising 521 of the 1,341 international graduate students.

“New enrollments are by far the best indicator of future graduate enrollment trends,” Emslie said.

OSU’s international students, both undergraduate and graduate, represent 114 countries; the largest number of international students on campus since 2003.