From being immersed in an unfamiliar culture to being thousands of miles away from friends and family, moving across the world can be daunting, especially at 18-years-old. DU’s website provides that in 2020, the school was home to nearly 700 international students, with 351 of those students participating in graduate programs and 289 in undergraduate ones. Additionally, 27 international students were part of the English Language Center and 24 were enrolled in the law school.
Laura Buhs, the assistant director of DU’s International Student & Scholar Services, a program that offers support to international students, works directly with students from countries all over the world. Buhs shared that “a lot of international students look at international rankings; there are several rankings internationally that are well known and so they’ll look at that.”
For finance major Ruchita Raghunandan, the prestigious reputation of Daniel’s College of Business was an influential factor in her decision to attend DU. Raghunandan was born in New Delhi, India, but also has family in Colorado. She knew she wanted to attend school somewhere in Colorado to be near family and that she wanted to study finance. Thus, after weighing her options and learning about the business programs at each school, she decided that DU was the right fit for her.
Two years later, Raghunandan is still confident in her choice to attend DU.
“Let’s face it, it was a good program… I think after choosing DU I realized I made a good decision,” she said.
Though she has enjoyed her time at DU, it has not always been easy. One difficulty she has experienced is getting used to slang used by students.
“I have always been good at English so I understand when I speak with students, but it is more of the casual and informal stuff between friends [that is difficult],” Raghunandan said.
On top of adjusting to new vernacular, Raghunandan has found it challenging to find her place in the culture, both at DU and in the U.S.
“To be able to really adapt to understanding culture [has been difficult]. As in, not that I don’t understand how culture is…in [the] U.S. and Denver, I know it, but to be able to be like [a native], that’s difficult,” she shared.
Traveling thousands of miles home can be difficult enough, but COVID-19 has added an additional challenge for international students. Raghunandan has not traveled back to New Delhi since before she started her freshman year. The pandemic has caused many countries to instate travel restrictions, but she hopes that she will be able to go back to New Delhi in the near future.
In addition to making it difficult for international students to travel home, COVID-19 has also caused a decrease in the number of students traveling to the U.S. for college, Buhs explained that, “depending on what is happening in the student’s home countries, there may be restrictions on leaving.” She added that, “some countries are shut down, so they are restricting who leaves and who comes in.”
COVID-19 is not solely responsible for the decreasing number of international students, however; the decline began in 2016. A study done by the Institute for International Education found that in 2016, 300,743 new international students came to study in the U.S. Ever since, that number has slowly dropped with 2020 seeing only 267,712 new international students.
Buhs credits this decrease to a number of factors. For one, she said that the political situation in the U.S. during and after 2016 was discouraging people from coming, as it was not an overwhelmingly welcoming environment for immigrants.
Another reason she noted was that there was becoming more competition from other English-speaking countries around the world. So, the US was losing a number of students that otherwise would have studied there.
Though the number continues to decrease, the value of having international students on campus remains the same.
“They add a layer to a university education that we don’t get otherwise. Having people from different countries, different backgrounds, it provides an international experience for students without leaving the campus,” Buhs said.
