Ipek Yosmaoglu, a Turkish citizen, applied to the University's graduate school before Sept. 11, 2001. She was accepted into the Department of Near Eastern Studies and procured a U.S. student visa without any hassle.
Yosmaoglu soon gained permanent resident status — and it's a good thing she did.
"If I hadn't . . . I would have had to leave the country because my student visa would have expired," she explained.
Just a couple of years earlier, Yosmaoglu would have encountered no such problem. But after Sept. 11, 2001, new security policies made it exceptionally difficult for foreign students to remain in the United States and to procure visas in the first place.
The result has been a marked decrease in international graduate school admissions. Other issues have compounded the situation. Security concerns have dissuaded some foreign students from applying. Others were unable to take the graduate exam within hundreds of miles of home, and still more have begun considering the increasing number of respected graduate programs in countries other than the United States.
Seven Agir, a Turkish citizen like Yosmaoglu, applied to the University's Near Eastern Studies graduate program in the fall of 2002. His visa application fee was twice that of Yosmaoglu. Moreover, in order to secure his visa, Agir endured a complicated, lengthy process that included a longer application form, an interview and documentation to convince the U.S. consulate that he did not intend to immigrate.
Even after the process was completed, there was only a very small window of time in which Agir was allowed to arrive in the United States. Delays in the process could easily have prevented him from arriving at the University in time to start classes. And if Agir were from Iraq, Cuba, Syria or another country of concern to the United States, the process would have been even more drawn out.
A study cosponsored by the Council of Graduate Schools found that after Sept. 11, all 19 major research universities participating in the survey saw declines in international graduate school applications.
Fifteen saw declines of greater than 10 percent.
Visa difficulties are part of the problem, but other factors like the selectivity of U.S. graduate programs may have contributed to the decrease in international applicants as well.
After Sept. 11, Agir explained, "there was a belief among [international] students that the schools [would] be less willing to open their doors for international grad students," and in particular to students from the Middle East.
Graduate School Dean William Russel attributed the decline to slightly different factors.
He thought international students simply realized that it was very difficult to get in to the University program.
Russel added that the number of East Asian applicants dropped last year by half because students in the region could not take the GRE electronically.
The trend may also be attributed to increased competition from new and improved graduate programs around the world, Russel said.
With the seemingly unwelcoming environment in the United States, he added, students are tempted to stay at home or head to Canada, Australia or Europe. In Asia, new graduate programs are cropping up particularly quickly.
A recent National Science Foundation study found that China has actually surpassed the United States to become the nation granting the most doctoral degrees.
Thirty-eight percent of the University's graduate students hail from abroad, and other universities have only slightly lower percentages. President Tilghman and colleagues at other academic institutions have therefore spearheaded an effort to make the admissions process less problematic for international graduate students, Russel explained. They are working closely with government agencies to reform visa policies.
And the efforts have begun to show results.
According to Russel, only one student was delayed in arriving at Princeton this year due to visa issues.
Russel also noted that the Middle East was the one region in which the number of applications had increased in the past year — though he cited Israel as the main contributor to the trend.
He hopes the improvements will continue.
"We do value international students," Russel said, "and we want to make sure they are welcome."
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