Foreign Students Flock to Harvard

Harvard is a national leader in attracting international students, but the university is reluctant to accept the praise.

The Open Doors report, published Monday by the Institute of International Education with support from the State Department, states Harvard’s international enrollment jumped last year, moving it from 15th place to ninth in its rankings.

But Sharon Ladd, the director of Harvard’s International Office, said that the 23-percent increase Open Doors cites is “misleading.”

In previous years, Ladd said, Harvard only counted international students currently enrolled in the statistics it submitted, whereas other schools often include graduates working in the United States under optional practical training visas sponsored by their colleges.

Ladd said Harvard only reported foreign students on campus, believing it to be a more accurate reflection of the presence of international students.

But for the 2006-07 year, the Open Doors study counted all students, including those on optional practical training.

So while the study reported 4,514 foreign students at Harvard during the last academic year, Harvard only recognizes 3,821 of them in its figures. The increase according to these numbers is 4.1 percent, slightly above the national average of three percent, and slightly higher than Harvard’s 2005-06 figure of 3.5 percent.

The president of the Woodbridge International Society also said that she had not noticed a major change in the growth of foreign applications.

“As far as I know, admissions rates for international students have stayed about the same,” said Rebecca R. Gong ’08.

Nationally, the increase in foreign students brings international enrollment back towards the all-time high of 586,323 seen in 2002.

This year, Harvard’s international population is 3,913—its highest ever, according to Ladd.