Why recruit international students?

Applying to College
1

<p>I continue to be perplexed by the interest that top US colleges and universities have in recruiting and admitting international students into their undergraduate programs. </p>

<p>I am aware that many private preparatory schools got the ball rolling years ago in an attempt, highly successfully, to increase the pool of price insentitive buyers and ventured to places like Japan and Korea. And similarly motivated Boston University, as a specific example, has feasted for years on well-to-do full-paying Middle Eastern and Asian students. So clearly money has been a motivating factor in the past. </p>

<p>Is making one self available to an ever larger pool of price insensitive buyers still the motivation? Is this also a doffing of the cap, yet again, to the idea of "diversity"? If so, aren't there myriad first-generation Americans from every conceivable place on the planet worthy of our attention that meet these diversity requirements? </p>

<p>If, we believe, that education is a scarce good, should we not be satifying the demands of American students first, and not be educating people who will return to their home countries, thus denying us the productivity that results from this education. Shouldn't we be reserving all our financial aid for economically-deserving Americans?</p>

<p>I don't mean to be jingoistic about this, but I have a few questions? Does anyone else?</p>

2

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/international-students/416687-ny-times-study-foreign-students-added-economy.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/international-students/416687-ny-times-study-foreign-students-added-economy.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

3

<p>It's good for the economy, America's growing and we need more trained workers. What's better than to train those workers here in the U.S.? That way they can meet our standards and be a better contribution.</p>

<p>If you don't like that, at least their better than illegal immigrants.</p>

4

<p>I don't buy that completely. We can fill all the entry spots in the undergraduate programs at our top schools with highly qualified American students. Graduate programs in certain of the sciences and in technology, unfortunately, are another story. </p>

<p>The big story appears to be that many mid-level colleges and universities are looking for a ready and steady supply of (decently?) qualified, price insensitive buyers who view this as a way in to the US.</p>

5

<p>You'll find that you get a much better education by being among classmates from all over the world than you get by being with classmates from just one town. I was very glad to go to a college with a lot of international students; they added enormously to my education.</p>