Augustana recruits applicants from different countries every year, and has had the largest amount of international students coming to the college as of to date.
This year, the college continues to recruit international students with different strategies.
“When I first started this job, I travelled all over the place, especially those that have students with high interest. This year, we travel less but more we are trying to be more strategic,” said Liz Nino, director of International Admissions.
Liz also said that she is going to China this week to meet with some current Augustana students who are doing the Asia study abroad term and will hopefully have the chance to have them come with her and answer questions as well as share many insights about the school to prospective students.
In 2012, there were 10 students. In 2013, it grew to 21 and in 2016, we have 44 international students in total. Right now the number of international students is 5% of the student body. The college is expecting to have 10% of international students by 2020.
The application goes live in August, and students begin applying until March. Based on the number from the previous years, Vietnam is the strongest market among the international students pool. China came second. There are also many Moroccans last year, too.
“There are 14 Vietnamese this year, and 12 Moroccans. For next year, we are expecting to recruit more Moroccans. The international student body is growing each year. Last May we graduated 9 international students. This May, around 15. With the upcoming year, there will be more,” said Danny Kim, Assistant Director of International Student Life.