The nation has seen a rise in international graduate students attending American university graduate programs, according to a report by the Council of Graduate Schools.

The report stated that of all graduate students in the United States, 14.2 percent are international students, who have had a 9 percent increase in offers of admission since last year.

According to Terrence Grus, director of graduate admissions and records, MU took part in the survey and its results were similar to the rest of the survey’s findings.

“We experienced a 6.8 percent increase in international student overall enrollment and a 17 percent increase in first-time enrollment for international students from fall 2010 to fall 2011,” Grus said in an email.

The largest proportion of first-time enrollment graduate students is enrolled in the engineering and life sciences majors, Grus said. Both the business and life sciences programs saw the largest increases at MU in first-time enrollment for international students from fall 2010 to fall 2011.

“International students add to the overall diversity of the student body,” Grus said. “They offer our domestic students a greater world perspective. As a whole, international students are very qualified academically and play a major role in teaching and research on campus. They also add to the City of Columbia’s diversity and are significant contributors to the local economy.”

Shraddha Sankhe, an international graduate student from Mumbai, India, echoed some of those sentiments.

“It’s a good thing to have more international graduate students,” Sankhe said via email. “It keeps the U.S. economy afloat (a bit) and makes the student experience cultures of not just U.S. but even other nations.”

Sankhe said being an international graduate student made her parents proud and gave her some culture shock and plenty of Facebook photos.

She said all jokes aside, the experience has been “a real bubble-burster” with the crazy schedules, assignments and adjustments, such as independence that might not be as easily found in China or India.

Camille Maestracci, a French graduate student from the Sciences Po School of Journalism in Paris, said in an email that she doesn’t meet up with too many international graduate students and would like to do so. She said people in Columbia are friendly to her and always interested when she says she is from France.

Maestracci said she didn’t face any cultural barriers upon coming to the U.S.

“It is different,” Maestracci said. “The campus, the Rec Center — I mean, damn, the Rec Center is awesome. Maybe it is hard to get used to the food, it’s good but very bad at the same time! Otherwise you just discover new things and understand that there is actually a gap between America and Europe as far as culture, on a daily basis. But there are no ‘barriers.’”

Maestracci cited her journalism major as a main reason for her enrollment at MU.

“(I chose MU) because I’m studying journalism and it’s one of the best schools in the country,” Maestracci said. “Also because I’ve been wanting to go to the U.S. for so long, and I figured it was the only chance for me to experience the ‘American college student life’, on-campus, since I’ll be done with school in about six months.”

Also a journalism major, Sankhe is in the same situation.

“I’m from Mumbai,” Sankhe said. “Mizzou’s campus setting was one thing universities in (my) hometown lack. Also, Mizzou’s rank in journalism is awesome. There can be a million reasons why one would not study journalism elsewhere.”