The number of international students applying to Penn is rapidly declining and University officials blame the bad reputation of the United States overseas.
Overall, the number of international graduate and undergraduate students at Penn has remained relatively stable over the past four years. However, various departments across the University have seen big drop-offs in application rates following post-Sept. 11 security measures that made getting visas more difficult for students who wanted to study in the United States.
The implications for Penn and other American schools are serious -- fewer of the top international students and researchers are opting to study in the United States, and a shrinking applicant pool can lead to decreased selectivity.
There is no University-wide data available, but departments like Biomedical Graduate Studies, for example, have seen a 49 percent decrease in the number of international applications since 2002, according to program director Susan Ross.
Schools across the nation are seeing similar drops. A study released Monday by the Council of Graduate Schools revealed that graduate-student applications from abroad have seen a 5 percent decline nationwide during the last academic year.
"In a post-9/11 world, the driving force has been national security. ... Sometimes one overlooks the long-term implications of well-intentioned policies," Office of International Programs Director JoAnn McCarthy said.
McCarthy added that the University is feeling the long-term effects of State Department policies intended to keep out terrorists. Though she said that the government is taking steps to increase access to U.S. schools, the idea that the United States is unfriendly to foreign students has been harder to combat.
"What we can't quantify is the chilling effect of the rumor mill ... [that] gave rise to this feeling that the U.S. was unwelcoming," she said.
Ross agreed, calling it "a perception issue."
Some students may not pursue education in this country "if they can get into graduate school easier in other places so they don't have to go through all this big scrutiny," she said.
However, some Penn officials believe that recent improvements in the visa-acquisition process will help reverse the trend.
For example, interviews at American embassies abroad to obtain a visa used to take up to six weeks to schedule, according to James Fine, interim director of International Student and Scholar Services at Penn. But recent improvements have reduced that time to about two to three days on average.
"Those practical obstacles have been greatly diminished or removed," Fine said. "What will be crucial will be the overall attractiveness of studying or conducting research in the U.S."
University President Amy Gutmann -- recently appointed to the FBI's National Security Higher Education Advisory Board, which will advise the federal government on policy affecting higher education -- plans to make international-student access one of her highest priorities.
"I think [the government] is already beginning to listen," Gutmann said. "We want to be competitive on a global scale, and to be competitive we want the best and the brightest researchers and students at American universities."
"We don't want to send those people to Canada or to Europe," she added. "That resonates" with the government.
While international graduate-student applications have shown a decline, the number of international students who have enrolled in graduate school nationwide increased by 1 percent for the first time in several years.
"The slowdown is definitely abating," International Student and Scholar Services adviser Lisa Felix said, adding that this will hopefully signal a reversal in past trends.
Penn had 1,060 students from abroad enrolling in graduate school in 2005, but the Office of International Programs could not confirm the numbers from the two previous years due to a change in government calculation methods.
The office could not precisely count the number of students from 2004, but Felix did confirm that the number was very similar to that of 2005.
"This is probably due to the fact that students can obtain visas much faster and much easier than in years past," Felix said.
For now, Felix and fellow administrators are taking the increase in enrollment as a sign that application numbers will soon begin improving.
International impact - Graduate-student applications from abroad have dropped 5% nationwide over the past academic year - At Penn, the overall decline is not calculated, but some departments are reporting drops of about 50% - Officials are hoping improved visa processes will help combat the trend
