International student enrollment at the University of Colorado at Boulder is expected to be up about 10 percent this fall to slightly more than 1,000 students, according to the Office of International Education.
"Our best, optimistic, estimate at the moment is that we'll have about 1,020 international students," said Larry Bell, director of the Office of International Education.
About 30 percent of those students will be enrolled in graduate engineering programs with the next largest "cluster," or about 9 percent, in undergraduate business programs. The split of graduate to undergraduate international students also is expected to stay close to the levels of recent years, Bell said, with 65 percent of CU-Boulder's international students enrolling as graduate students and 35 percent as undergraduates.
"Exactly why more international students are coming is the difficult question to answer," he said. "Among other changes, our office has worked hard with current international students to make sure that they 'talk up CU-Boulder' among their friends and relatives when they return home, which may be helping," Bell said.
"Another reason may be that the U.S. embassies overseas have worked very hard to make sure that visa issuance is less of a problem for bona fide students," he said. "People still value a U.S. education, and the hurdles of the past few years regarding visas have been lowered a bit -- not reduced or eliminated -- but lowered."
The primary feeder countries for international students attending CU-Boulder in 2006 are expected to be consistent with recent years. India will send the most students followed by China, South Korea and Japan.
The fall 2006 freshman class at CU-Boulder is expected to number about 5,500, making it the second-largest freshman class ever, if that number holds. The largest freshman class previously totaled 5,571 in fall 2003.
However, overall campus enrollment will be down by 500 to 1,000 students in fall 2006 compared to last year's total fall enrollment for degree-seeking students of 28,624.
The most encouraging freshmen numbers may be the totals for minority students, which may be at their highest levels in about 15 years, according to Lou McClelland, director of the Office of Planning, Budget and Analysis.
New minority freshmen students could total 850, compared to 737 last year. For all new minority freshmen, increases of 10 percent to 20 percent are expected in each of the categories of African American, Asian American and Hispanic/Latino, with an expected doubling for American Indian freshmen. Overall, minority students are expected to represent about 15 percent of the student body.
This year's freshman class will be about 58 percent resident, or about 3,200 students, and 42 percent nonresident, or about 2,300, well within the ranges allowed by the state of Colorado. Resident freshmen will represent more than 300 Colorado high schools and nonresident freshmen will hail from more than 1,000 high schools.
Total applications for freshman admission to CU-Boulder in 2006 were about 18,100 compared to 17,100 in 2005. The increase is due to a 12 percent increase in applications from nonresidents. Resident applications remained relatively flat compared to 2005.
Freshman academic credentials for fall 2006 are expected to be about the same as last year, as measured by high school grade-point averages and test scores. Academic credentials of new freshmen in fall 2005 were similar or slightly higher than those of freshmen in fall 2004.
About 1,250 transfer students are expected this fall compared to 1,304 in fall 2005 and about 4,500 graduate students are expected to enroll, compared to 4,401 in fall 2005.
Final fall 2006 enrollment numbers for new and continuing students will be available Sept. 21, after the campus census is conducted.
For numbers of new freshmen, transfers and total fall enrollment from 1988 through 2005, go to .