Miami Student

Issue date: 2/15/08 Section: Campus

Clawson Hall, located on Western, serves as the international residence hall.

Miami University Provost Jeffrey Herbst announced Monday at the university senate meeting that international applicants to Miami have doubled this year.

"The increase has really been big this year, though it's been going on for the past five years," said Aaron Bixler, associate director for international recruitment and evaluation.

Bixler has traveled to Asia three times in the past three years to help recruit international students.

"We're going to a number of countries in East Asia right now," Bixler said. "That's where most of the international students in the U.S. come from. There's an interest there and a large chunk of the population that can economically afford it."

Many students choose the United States for college because they think of English as the universal language for business and other professions, and that it would then be best to obtain schooling in an English-speaking country.

For the current spring semester, 452 international students are enrolled at Miami-138 of which are from China, 50 from India and 26 from South Korea. The exact numbers for next year's applicants have not been finalized, as Miami is still accepting some international applications.

The recruitment process is somewhat the same internationally as it is nationally, according to Bixler. He said that there are mailings to prospective students and college fairs, though there are certain issues that resinate more with international students.

"It goes over pretty well that we've been here a while," Bixler said, about Miami. "We've been here almost 200 years."

Another thing that can attract students is the quality of on-campus housing and relative safety issues, according to Bixler.

"There are certain things we try to highlight," Bixler said. "We talk about international student services, ranging from assistance with visa-type issues to getting them at the airport."

Bixler continued to say that all

international students are eligible to be considered for the same merit scholarships as other applicants, but are in addition to that, qualified for other scholarships.

"We do have a small scholarship available solely to international students," Bixler said. "It's about $530,000 total and all renewable, so they'll give out that much money each year, a quarter of it available to new students."

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