[singfreedom]

My thoughts exactly. WHY are our universities "advertising" for foreign participants in their graduate programs? I never have really understood their reasoning. Perhaps they want the international prestige or maybe just the money.

Maybe it's just late, but this lady's reasoning, particularly, escapes me.

[CatoRenasci]

They want the money, and in the sciences, mathematics and engineering, they want students who are excited, well-prepared, and willing to work hard.

I find it troubling that so many Americans who do graduate work do it in fields that prepare them for government work or service industries rather than the hard sciences or engineering. All the public policy, social work or management training in the world will not suffice if there's nothing being invented here.

[radiohead]

Perhaps they want the international prestige or maybe just the money.

It may be a bit of both. There is a desire to have international influence, which can be partly accomplished by international doctoral students who go back to their home country and tout the wonders of University X and the American way of doing things.

For some foreign students, their government, or for that matter, American programs, will pay for their enrollment. However, at good research universities, the school pays for doctoral students, no matter where they're from.

Having sat on a doctoral admissions committee, I'd say we could have a class full of Koreans and Chinese if we wanted. The Russians are not far behind. We have to take affirmative steps to assure we've got Americans. Maybe getting international students is a problem in the humanities, but my personal experience in tech and tech-related programs is that the foreigners are still coming in in droves. There are visa problems since 9/11 that have reduced the numbers, but plenty of people still manage to get in.