TCW writer Christina Schwartz reports on an admissions trend at one public university that might bode ill for future international students. 

This year’s college admissions race showed record low acceptance rates across the board with more applicants to each school and often fewer offers of admission sent. The reasons for this phenomenon are varied. Sure, the children of the baby boomers are entering college and a number of schools have eliminated early admission programs, which threw more applicants into the regular admission pool. The State of Illinois has chosen, however, to look at causes outside of the U.S.-- the influx of international students-- as another consideration.  

The Chicago Sun Times has reported that the state’s most well-known public school now has the largest number of foreign students of any public university in the U.S. There are well over 5,000 foreign students at the Downstate Urbana-Champaign campus.              

International students from 120 countries make up approximately 13 percent of the 41,000 students enrolled, significantly out numbering the combined number of all racial minorities. This percentage is up from 9 percent of a significantly smaller student body 10 years ago.              Foreign undergraduate students are not eligible for financial aid at the University of Illinois and thus pay significantly more than Illinois residents. Graduate students are eligible for research or teaching-assistant positions, which tend to cover their costs.  However, on the whole, foreign students brought $45 million in funds to the school last academic year through tuition costs.             

The fear that has arisen with the growing number of international students is thatthey are taking the place of qualified Illinois residents. The state system of universities is oriented to provide affordable higher education to residents. This fear that realized especially two years ago when the university initially proposed increasing non-residential enrollment and cut the size of the incoming freshman class.            

This year, the number of freshmen from foreign countries increased 24 percent to 434 and the number of state residents in the class declined by 4.2 percent or 264 students. University admissions director Stacy Kostell said in The Chicago Sun-Times that more state residents were actually accepted this year than in the past two years; however, fewer state residents accepted the offer.            

This matter specifically became contentious when State Senator Ed Maloney (D-Chicago), who chairs the Senate’s Higher Education Committee, proposed setting a cap on the number of international students accepted to and thus enrolling in the University of Illinois.            

The University itself was rather opposed to this proposal, responding that the benefits of having international students and a diverse poplulation far outweigh any issues of perception. Other lawmakers such as Senator Ira Silverstein (D-Chicago) have responded with a proposal to expand the freshman class rather than reduce it in order to accommodate the increasing number of graduates from Illinois high schools in addition to the international interest.              The proposal to limit the number of international students is reminiscent of last summer’s intense debates in Congress about whether or not to lift the cap on H1-B visas. The visas allow foreign workers with a specialized occupation to reside and work in the U.S. The visas are of particular importance to tech companies as they try to recruit the brightest graduates from American universities, whether they are international students or citizens.  

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