Three years ago, 32 students from China were enrolled at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. By this fall, the number had more than tripled to 106.
It's a modest sum compared with the 1,638 Chinese students attending Penn State, up 38 percent
in just one year, or enrollments of 789 and 782 Chinese students, respectively, at Pitt and
Carnegie Mellon University. Both Pittsburgh schools saw double-digit gains this year.
Experts say the flow of students from that country is permeating not only the major cities and
campuses with the highest profiles abroad, but a much wider swath of schools.
Naionwide, the number of Chinese college students in this country jumped by 30 percent to
127,628 in 2009-10, pushing past India, which had been the top sender for nearly a decade,
according to the annual "Open Doors" report from the Institute of International Education.
So sharp was the rise in Chinese enrollment that the U.S. saw a 3 percent overall gain in
international students to 690,923 students, even though more than half of the top 25 sending
countries saw declines. (Source: Bill Schackner Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Nov 26, 2010).