The overall growth of applications from international graduate students has steadily declined over the last three years, according to a report released April 18 by the Council of Graduate Schools.
Despite overall national decrease, 62 percent of the schools surveyed - including Penn - reported an average increase of 9 percent.
With a national growth of 12 percent in the 2005-2006 school year, international student applications increased by 9 percent last school year and only 3 percent in 2007-2008, the report said.
Additionally, there was no growth in applicants from India - which remained constant at 12 percent last year and this year - and a decrease in growth in applicants from China, from 19 percent last year to 12 percent this year. Those two countries have typically contributed the highest numbers of graduate school applications.
The report cited competition from institutions in Australia, Europe and New Zealand and the stricter United States visa restrictions as the prime reasons for this decrease.
American universities "should be very concerned about the growth in [global] competition," said Stuart Heiser, Public Affairs manager from the Council.
But over the past two years, Wharton has seen over a 100 percent increase in the number of applications for MBA admissions, said Director of MBA Admissions and Financial Aid Thomas Caleel.
Similarly, international student applications to the Medical school increased by 6.5 percent in 2006-2007 and by 10.1 percent in 2007-2008.
The School of Design has also witnessed an increase in the growth of international applicants. Joan Weston, director of admissions for PennDesign attributed this increase to the school's initiatives to set up institutions around the world such as the TC Chan Center in China.
Mark Eyerly, associate dean for Communications at the Law School said the stringent visa restrictions imposed immediately after Sept. 11 affected the number of applications, but that the school has seen overall growth in the last five years.
Penn has also not suffered the national trend of decreasing applicants from China and India, the two countries that attract the maximum number of international applications.
Leo Charney, spokesman for the Provost's office, wrote in an e-mail that applications from China are up 6.5 percent from last year and up almost 30 percent from three years ago. Applications from India, while down slightly from last year, are also up across that three-year period.
The Law School has seen a cumulative rise in Chinese applications by 148 percent and Indian applications by 161 percent over the last three years.
Chinese applications to the School of Arts and Sciences also increased from 33 percent last year to 39 percent this year.
"Institutions like Penn will probably not be affected because of our phenomenal graduate programs," said Graduate and Professional Student Assembly chairman Dan Grabell.
