Graduate School attracts more international students, admissions more competitive

Nearly 49 percent of the Cornell Graduate School's 1,995 new students this year are international -- a 4 percent increase from fall 2011, when 45 percent of incoming graduate students were from countries outside the United States.

Graduate students from China make up 23 percent of admissions in 2012, followed by students from India (6 percent), South Korea (3 percent), Canada and Taiwan (both at 2 percent). Cornell's new graduate students come from more than 80 countries.

"Our incoming students are increasingly international and well-funded, with 96 percent of our doctoral students receiving merit-based funding packages," said Barbara A. Knuth, vice provost and dean of the Graduate School.

The merit-based funding consists of internal and external fellowships, assistantships or research grants that cover tuition, health insurance and a stipend for living expenses.

"In 2012-13, Cornell will award a total of $169 million in merit-based graduate student funding from university and external sources, with $88 million allocated toward fellowships and graduate and teaching assistantships," Knuth said. "External sources provide significant financial support for graduate students."

Matriculations into both the doctoral and professional master's programs increased by 6 percent since 2011, she said, with 618 incoming Ph.D. students and 1,203 professional master's students. The Ph.D. programs with the most incoming students are chemistry and chemical biology, with 40 new students; and physics, with 32. Electrical and computer engineering has 30 new Ph.D. students, and economics has 29.

Matriculating doctoral students are 59 percent male, 41 percent female, compared with 57 percent male, 43 percent female last year. Among matriculating professional master's students, gender percentages remain the same as in 2011 (58 percent male, 42 percent female).

Incoming students came from hundreds of undergraduate institutions, with Cornell sending the most, followed by Yale University, the University of Wisconsin, the University of California-Berkeley and the University of Toronto.

"Cornell has remarkable strength in a wide range of research disciplines that, together with a rich tradition of teamwork with few disciplinary boundaries, creates a strong attraction to students from around the globe to our graduate programs," said Andrew Bass, professor of neurobiology and behavior and associate vice provost for research.

Graduate School admission at Cornell became more competitive, with a 5 percent increase in applications this year -- particularly from international students. The Graduate School received 19,030 applications for admission in 2012 -- the most ever, and a 5 percent increase over the previous year's 18,091 applications.

Graduate fields in the physical sciences and engineering disciplines received the greatest number of applications at 46 percent (a 2 percent increase from 2011), followed by the social sciences at 29 percent, the humanities at 15 percent and the life sciences at 10 percent.

"We're seeing strong interest in professional programs," said Jason Kahabka, assistant dean of student services and admissions in the Graduate School. "With the Cornell NYC Tech application cycle just opening, we expect to see continuing interest in Cornell programs geared toward helping graduates enter a highly competitive job market."

 

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