From the Princeton Weekly Bulletin October 13, 1997
Graduate student body is almost
half international
By Sally
Freedman
Forty-two percent of this year's incoming graduate students are
international. That represents a rise of five or six percentage
points over the last few years, according to David Redman, associate
dean for academic affairs. About 35 percent of the Graduate School as
a whole is international--625 out of 1760 students, as compared to
six percent of the undergraduate student body.
"The majority of the international
graduate students are still in engineering and the natural sciences,"
says Redman. "The pattern of distribution by department or division
hasn't changed much. But Electrical Engineering enrolled more
international students than usual, especially from the People's
Republic of China.
"In Economics, 14 of the 18 entering
graduate students were international, mostly European. An especially
large contingent came from Italy.
"Why is that? Look at the junior
faculty in the department. There's a great international network out
there. In general, we've found that the presence of faculty from
certain countries draws applicants from those countries; they're good
applicants, we admit them, and they come. In Chemical Engineering,
for example, we have professors Christodoulous Floudas and Sankaran
Sundaresan, and not coincidentally we have a number of Greek and
Indian graduate students."
More than half this year's 31 entering
students in Architecture were international--from Spain and Germany,
India and Japan, Singapore and Australia, notes Ralph Lerner, dean of
the Architecture School. "Architecture is an international culture,"
he notes, "and this spread of students confirms for me that we are a
major player in that culture."
ESL program for teachers
English proficiency is a requirement for admission to Princeton,
but "It's hard to get an accurate assessment of an applicant's spoken
English from overseas," says Redman. All incoming non-native speakers
who have been appointed as assistants in instruction (AIs) come to
Princeton in August to take a screening test of English as a Second
Language (ESL). If the test shows they need it, they are either
required or recommended to enroll in a three-week course in spoken
English before regular classes begin.
This year, enrollment in the August
class was 43, about 20 percent of incoming international graduate
students.
"They don't mind taking the course,"
says Miki Mendelsohn, ESL teacher and program coordinator. "Most of
them are glad to have the chance to improve their skills. We not only
meet in classes, we go to movies, make visits around town and
generally provide orientation."
At the end of the August course, some
of the students are either required or recommended to take a
follow-up course in the fall. "And there's a further follow-up in the
spring," Mendelsohn says, "for those who still need more."
The term-time courses are less popular,
she points out, because they must be fitted into a rigorous schedule
of full-time graduate work. "The new graduate students have to plunge
right into their departmental work; there's no space in the
curriculum for extra English classes." Nevertheless, 18 of this
summer's students were mandated to continue with the fall class.
In any given semester, about 16 percent
of international graduate students serve as AIs (compared to 30
percent of graduate students overall).
Assisting in instruction is not a
requirement of the Graduate School. "Only 15 of our 36 graduate
programs have a teaching requirement," says Redman. "Whether to
require teaching for the PhD is a departmental decision." But since
AIs are paid, appointment as an AI may be part of a graduate
student's support package.
Support for international graduate
students is just the same as for U.S. graduate students, Redman says.
"Most graduate students receive support, either from the University
or from non-Princeton sources." The only area, he says, in which a
significant number of graduate students generally pay some or most of
their own way is Architecture. A number of international graduate
students are paid for by sponsoring companies or government agencies
in their country of origin, "such as Mitsubishi or the Brazilian
National Research Council."
Richer social, intellectual life
Despite the challenge of studying in a foreign language,
international graduate students perform at the same level as the
domestic variety. "In fact," says Redman, "the graduation rate for
international students is a little higher than the average, and the
time-to-degree is a little shorter. But international graduate
students tend to concentrate in the sciences and engineering, areas
in which those two measurements are better than average for all
graduate students."
"In a larger framework," says Dean of
the Graduate School John Wilson, "there are at least two salient
points to make about the importance of international graduate
students to Princeton.
"On the one hand, the American graduate
program represents one of the 'industries' in which the United States
is unrivaled for high quality. These programs, and particularly ours
at Princeton, compete exceptionally well in the global
marketplace.
"On the other hand," Wilson continues,
"having highly talented international graduate students at Princeton
greatly enriches the University's social and intellectual life. And
our experience suggests that inter-national students, when they
become alumni, are extremely loyal and often serve as effective
ambassadors for Princeton abroad."
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