APPYING TO US UNIVERSITIES AS AN INTERNATIONAL STUDENT

A question that many students and their parents ask me is: which universities in the United States have the largest number of international students? A university that has an international culture tends to be welcoming to international students. This does not mean, however, that a college or university with a small number of international students cannot provide an excellent academic and social environment for an international student. On the contrary, being one of just a few international students on campus can be an excellent opportunity to stand out! It all depends, therefore, on the expectations and objectives of each student. To answer the question above, the following are the North American universities with the highest gross number of international students (including undergraduate and graduate): New York University - 24,496 Northeastern University - Boston - 20,637 Columbia University – 19,001 University of Southern California - 17,264 University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign - 14,680 Boston University - 13,281 Purdue University-West Lafayette - 11,872 University of California, Berkeley - 11,719 University of California, San Diego - 10,431 Whether or not you want a university with a large number of international students is a personal preference. This factor, in itself, does not determine the quality of the experience that the student will have at college. Source: https://opendoorsdata.org/data/international-students/all-places-of-origin/

IS MY STUDENT AN INTERNATIONAL STUDENT?

As many of our clients are Brazilians who are attending high school in Brazil, the United States, Canada or Europe, another common question parents ask is: will my student be considered an international student? The answer to this question, like so many others, is: it depends.

Firstly, it depends on whether the student also has US citizenship or a Green Card (legal residency). If so, each university defines whether or not the North American student, educated outside the country, will be considered an international student.

If not, for admission purposes you will have to meet the university's requirements for international students.

For the purposes of financial aid, Brazilian students who are not citizens, or do not fit into categories defined by the United States government as capable of being considered as US persons, are not equated to domestic students.

This does not mean that they cannot have the entire cost of higher education covered by the university - although this, in the vast majority of cases, is not a reality.

It's important to remember that the most domestic students also do not have the entire cost of college covered by financial aid!

ARE BRAZILIAN STUDENTS COMPETITIVE FOR UNITED STATES UNIVERSITIES ON THE WORLD SCENARIO?

The answer? Yes! However, they also compete with each other: worldwide, only China and India send more students to the United States than Brazil. 16,025 Brazilian students were at North American universities in the 2022-23 academic year. Brazil is the champion throughout Latin America and the Caribbean in terms of the total number of students at universities in the United States.