According to the State Department, India is the leading country in terms of the number of students from the country who are attending school in the United States. In fact, the number of Indian students attending school in the United States increased b 9% when compared to last year, which represents an increase by 103,260 students. Still, despite the fact that India is hanging onto the lead, China is rapidly catching up with a 21% increase over last year. Furthermore, enrollment of students from the Middle East continues to climb, while the number of Japanese students enrolling in colleges in the United States continues to decline.

“I think we’re going to be seeing 100,000 students from each for years to come, with an increasing share of them being undergraduates,” said Peggy Blumenthal, who is the executive vice president of the Institute of International Education, in the New York Times article.

Of course, the number of college attendees has seen an overall increase in the United States as well. During the 2008-2009 school year, attendance reached an all time high when it increased by 8%. The increase in the number of international students, however, is particularly important, as it has certainly had an impact on the American economy.

“International education is domestic economic development,” said Allen E. Goodman, who is the president of the Institute of International Education. “International students shop at the local Wal-Mart, rent rooms and buy food. Foreign students bring $17.8 billion to this country. A lot of campuses this year are increasing their international recruitment, trying to keep their programs whole by recruiting international students to fill their spaces.”

The increased number of international students has really seen an impressive increase over the last several years. The 2002-2003 school year was previously the year with the highest international enrollment. During the 2008-2009 school year, however, enrollment was 14.5% greater than the 2002-2003 school year. The greatest increase was seen in undergraduate enrollment, which increased by 11%. Comparing the number of students enrolled last year to those enrolled five years earlier is also quite impressive, with only 8,034 undergraduate students enrolling in 2002-2003 compared to 26,275 last year. Graduate students also increased from 50,976 five years ago to 57,451 a year ago. Furthermore, unlike previous years, many international students are enrolling in programs other than science-related programs.

“It used to be that they were all in the graduate science departments, but now, with the one-child policy, more and more Chinese parents are taking their considerable wealth and investing it in that one child getting an American college education,” said Blumenthal. “There’s a book getting huge play in China right now explaining liberal arts education.”

Until the book, entitled “A True Liberal Arts Education,” reached China, most in the country were relatively unaware of this degree option. Thanks to the book, however, a growing number of Chinese are deciding to send their children to the United States to pursue a liberal arts degree. Similarly, many colleges in the United States are gearing up to place more emphasis upon attracting international students – particularly students from China.

“There’s growing disposable income in China, and not enough good universities to meet the demand,” said Mitch Leventhl, who is the recently-appointed vice chancellor for global affairs at the State University of New York. “And in China, especially, studying in the United States is a great differentiator, because when students get home, they speak English”