Business School attracts 60 percent of Chinese international students

Contributed by the China Business Program

Miami University isn't just an American university anymore. To see this, all you have to do is look at the diverse mix of international students walking between classes or studying around campus.

Just a few years ago, Miami set a goal for itself: to attract more international students to the great education-and even more, the unique campus experience-that it has to offer. From the traditional brick-building atmosphere to the nationally-ranked business school, administrators at Miami realized they had something special and it was time to share.

David Keitges, the director of International Education at Miami, believes Miami really started moving in a new direction a few years ago. "Miami’s headed towards two major themes," Keitges said. "They’re improving Miami’s interdisciplinary aspect-people learning multiple studies-and they’re working hard on the international dimension of the campus."

Keitges says you just have to point to the numbers to realize the amazing success that Miami has had in integrating international students in just these past few years. There were about 1,000 international student applications for the 2009-2010 academic school year. Of the international applications for next year, over 80% of them were from China. Ann Rahmat, Miami’s Assistant Director of International Recruitment says Chinese students are attracted to Miami by its American college ranking and especially the business school."Of the over 800 Chinese students who applied for Miami, 60% of them were applying for business," Rahmat said. "In China, they look a lot at rankings. Since the Farmer School of Business tends to rank in the top ten percent, we think there will only be more who will be drawn to apply."

Lian Jie is one of those Chinese students who were attracted to Miami by its undergraduate business program. She is a sophomore transfer student from Hong Kong Baptist University who’s currently studying pre-business."I looked online at the top 100 Business Schools in America and found Miami," she said. "I also read about Oxford and wanted to come here because I heard it was a small town and I thought it would be a good study environment." Lian Jie says her study abroad experience at Miami is also helping her get a greater perspective of the world and different cultures. She plans to finish her degree at Miami then return to Shanghai to work in finance and investment.

Ye Xiang, a junior accounting major, is another Chinese student who chose Miami. She began her freshman year at Miami in 2006 and remembers being impressed. "When I applied to Miami, I heard back from them super-fast! It was so much more efficient than the other schools that I applied to. There was one form that I forgot to send in but [the Miami Admissions department] told me I could just fax it, and I heard back from them again in just 1 or 2 days." Ye admits that there weren’t a lot of other Chinese students at Miami her freshman year, but she says that isn’t the case anymore.

Whatever their career plans may be, college students all over the world are finding studying abroad to be a vital part of a well-rounded education. David Keitges agrees that it’s important for students to learn about cultures other than their own. He also believes students are doing exchanges and studying abroad because they can learn to speak a language like a native-a good career choice, especially for a business career.

Aaron Bixler, Miami’s Director of International Admissions for five years, now Director of International Graduate Admissions, has also traveled to China to recruit students for the past five years. He believes the number of international students at Miami will continue to increase at a steady rate. "As Miami’s reputation grows, our affiliation with international exchange at Miami grows," he said. "As long as students continue to be happy here, we will continue enrolling them."

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