By Christiana SchmitzThe Daily Northwestern
International student enrollment at U.S. universities has finally leveled after years of decline following Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to a report by the Institute of International Education.
While international student enrollment dropped at Northwestern as well after Sept. 11, Senior Associate Director of Admissions Sheppard Shanley said international student enrollment at NU has since stabilized.
“We dropped in 2002,” he said. “But then we came back.”
IIE’s Open Doors Report 2006 ranks NU 43rd among U.S. institutions enrolling at least 1,000 international students, above Duke, Georgetown and Yale universities, as well as Washington University in St. Louis.
It lists the University of Southern California as the school with the highest number of international students followed by Columbia and Purdue universities at second and third, respectively.
International Student Adviser Nick Seamons reports NU as home to 2,040 international students, or 11 percent of the university’s total student population. The most common places of origin for these students are China, South Korea and India.
NU’s International Office is an important resource for international students, Seamons said.
“They need people like us to kind of dig through the red tape,” he said. “But also part of what we do is to try to integrate (the students to the U.S.).”
Weinberg junior Natalia Maksimenko, an international student from Russia, said she transferred to NU as a sophomore in 2005 because of its location and its quality of education.
“What is difficult is the culture and the people, because it’s totally different,” she said. “You have to expand and make friends.”
By taking advantage of a peer mentoring program offered through the Community Council for International Students, Maksimenko said she was able to more easily transition.
“It was helpful,” said Maksimenko. “I got in touch with a student from Greece before I even came here.”
In addition to peer mentoring, CCIS, which was founded in 1971, offers English language classes, conversation programs, and access to host families in Evanston.
Students have also used the program to make long friendships with people of similar backgrounds.
“(My peer mentor) picked me up from the airport and helped me to solve some Northwestern problems the first few days of classes,” Maksimenko said. “We’re still friends.”
Kellogg Graduate School of Management student Franz Wohlgezogen agrees that the university helps international students’ transitions.
“The university is used to dealing with international students,” Wohlgezogen said. “My impression is that my being here is not challenging for them at all.”
Wohlgezogen, who was born in Germany and received his undergraduate degree as an international student in Switzerland, is one of the 70 percent of international students on campus pursuing a graduate degree.
Wohlgezogen said being an international undergraduate student is significantly more difficult than being an international graduate student.
“In the Ph.D. program, it’s not as difficult (as the undergraduate program),” he said. “My experience is definitely framed by my small Ph.D. classes … (and) that becomes kind of your family here.”
International adviser Seamons said NU’s support network could be one reason why the university’s international student enrollment has bounced back after Sept. 11 – a conclusion backed by the admissions office.
“At the end of October, we counted 106 (international undergraduate students) for the freshman class this year,” said Shanley, the senior associate director of admissions. “For last year, we counted 88.”
These numbers reflect trends published by IIE, which reported that “international enrollments have stabilized and are poised to rebound.”
“The international experience is totally different,” Maksimenko said. “And that’s what makes it exciting.”
Reach Christiana Schmitz at [email protected].
