NIU’s international population continues to grow with 888 students enrolled this year who moved from their native lands such as India, Japan and Mexico.

Thecla Cooler, director of the International Student and Faculty Office, said international students come for the same reason domestic students come to NIU.

“We have good programs and quality offerings,” she said. “Research shows that it’s usually word of mouth that leads them to come here. However, we are represented in the major guides to U.S. universities such as Peterson’s, and we have graduated thousands of students who have been very successful in their home countries. They, in turn, will bring NIU to the attention of local students.”

Krishnakanth Kuchhalakanti, an electrical engineering graduate student from India, said he heard about NIU by word of mouth.

“The location was a major point, and the alumni from NIU who were from India that came back had really positive feedback,” he said.

April Gonzalez, an instructional technology graduate student from the Philippines, said she heard about NIU through the Internet, professors and relatives.

“They had a good academic reputation, and I think that’s a good reason to go anywhere,” she said.

Though NIU’s international population has increased by 46 students in the past two years, Cooler said that has not been the trend nationally.

“The number of international students within the United States has fallen a little,” she said. “There are multiple reasons for this, among which are financial exigencies, increased opportunities at home, strong competition from Australia and New Zealand and, finally, the more rigorous and sometimes adversarial nature of the current U.S. immigration policy.”

Kuchhalakanti said he didn’t encounter any such problems and that his move to NIU was not a big adjustment.

“The cultural shock was not a big deal because we had satellite television in the ’90s and we very much knew what it was like to be in the United States,” he said.