The topic of “College” caught my eyes right away
when I was trying to register for a writing course during the Spring semester.
The reason is blunt and simple: it reminds me of my own experience as one of
the many international students chasing “American Dreams” at Rutgers. In case
you have not yet noticed the change in the geography of students in the U.S.
higher education, just think about how many times in a day that you encounter
people with faces other than White when wandering around Rutgers’ campuses. According
to Neil G. Ruiz, the number of foreign students on F-1 visas in U.S. colleges
and universities grew dramatically from 110,000 in 2001 to 524,000 in 2012. The
sharpest increases occurred among students from emerging economies such as
China and Saudi Arabia. [1] About two thirds of these
international students pursue a bachelor’s or higher degrees are in science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) or business, which directly leads to a disproportionately distributed major selection mechanism. The effect of this rapid growth of international students is profound and substantial: during the year of 2014. International students contributed
over $27 billion to the US economy resulted in an increase of $3 billion from
the prior year. [2] The fact
that there is a booming trend of admitting international student into the U.S.
higher educational institutions is not only beneficial to the U.S. government
financially, but also helps promote the idea of “cosmopolitanism. Nevertheless,
admitting more international students to American's higher educational institutions also brings
negative effects. On the one hand, international students compete fiercely with
American students academically and that further reinforces college stress; on the other
hand, since most international students are from upper-middle class, they do
not need to worry about paying off student loans because their parents are more
than willing to pay for their education. Consequently, it is obvious that
international students play a crucial role in driving up college tuition. I personally
as an international student have great interests in exploring how international
students define themselves in the U.S. higher education system. I would
like to interview international students from different countries in terms of
their college experiences in the U.S. as well as how the experiences change
them and in what ways.
[1] Neil G. Ruiz, “Immigration Facts on Foreign Students,” Washington: Brookings Institution, 2013. Available atwww.brookings.edu/metro/foreignstudents; Institute of International Education, Open Doors: Report on International Educational Exchange, New York: Institute of International Education, 2013.
[2] Open Doors Report, the Institute of International Education and the
State Department,
2014.
As I noted in our email exchange early in the semester, this is a great topic and you are uniquely well equipped to take it on. There is no question that we are seeing a huge rise in international students -- driven in part by the forces of privatization, which have forced flagship state schools (such as Rutgers) to actively recruit international students as a way to make up for declining state support.
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