Despite tighter regulations for international students to attend American universities since Sept. 11, applications have been streaming into ASU from over 200 nations worldwide.
According to Zohreh Sotoodeh, assistant director for international admissions at ASU, there has been a 20 percent increase in applications for international admissions since last fall. There were also more applications from Brazil, Japan, Korea and Kenya this year than any other year.
"I have been in my position at ASU for 22 years and this is the busiest year I have ever seen," Sotoodeh said. "There are students in 243 nations all over the world that would like to study at ASU."
According to Sotoodeh, beginning this summer, students can no longer study at ASU on a visitor visa, because now it is only valid for 30 days rather than six months.
Sotoodeh said delays for prospective international students to obtain F-1 student visas will effect how many internationals will be able to attend ASU this fall. She said it takes about 30 days for students to receive their visas from the U.S. Embassy.
"We don't know how many will be here for the fall yet," Sotoodeh said.
"International students have to be admitted at least 45 days before school starts," she said. "It puts a lot of pressure on us for admissions to try to get as many students as we can."
Sotoodeh said she normally receives 3- 4,000 applications a year from international students.
"An American degree is so prestigious," Sotoodeh said. "We have such a diversity of students at ASU."
ASU currently has about 3,600 international students.
Prashant Nair, a telecommunication masters candidate from India, said ASU provides a great learning experience with top quality professors.
"Arizona climate is like India climate," Nair said. "We have a large community of Indian students here - we have found our own small India."
Yunjung Yang, of Korea, who is pursuing a Ph.D. in education at ASU, said ASU's low tuition was one reason she chose the University.
"I support myself, and the tuition fee is pretty reasonable here," Yang said. "I also like the weather and the people here."
Right now, there are close to 11 million international students in the country, Sotoodeh said. "There are lots of learning exchanges - it is very beautiful that we have a chance for them to come to USA."
Sotoodeh said the quality of overseas students is extremely high.
"Some of them have SAT scores over 1400, perfect GPAs and strong academic backgrounds," Sotoodeh said.
Janet Burke, associate dean of the Barrett Honors College, said the honors college began actively recruiting international students directly from Sotoodeh's office last year.
"We have wanted to increase our foreign national population in the college for some time, it occurred to us that we have a tremendous resource in Dr. Sotoodeh," Burke said. "Foreign nationals bring a different perspective to class deliberations."
Reach the reporter at erin.hawksworth@asu.edu.
