International Majority?

[AnxiousNerd]

Hi all,

 

I got accepted today into a program I really like, and I was offered funding. The website for this program offers a lot of statistics, which I appreciate. A lot of schools try to keep ratios at around 50/50 for international/domestic students. This program, however, is 80% international students, 20% domestic. Is this a factor that should be considered for any reason? Like, does it matter that I will be in the minority there as a domestic student? I feel like there must be a reason that schools aim to keep the ratio even, which makes me think it should be something I should consider as well, but I am not really sure why...

 

Thank you!

[rising_star]

None of us can tell you if it matters to you if as a domestic student you'd be in the minority. That is very specific and individual. are you able to visit the program to get a feel for it in person?

[Bayesian1701]

I am in a similar situation and it somewhat matters to me.  It’s not a dealbreaker but I feel like a cultural gap might be difficult to connect.  I am factoring it in more as how I liked the current and prospective graduate students at that institution over another rather than the actual numbers.    And I think the 50/50 goal is maybe more about expenses and politics than a real meaningful difference.  Domestic students can be cheaper (in state tuition at public universities) and some would argue that the goal of American public universities is to educate Americans.   If math is anything like stats, international applicants make up the vast majority of the pool and if they didn’t consider it as a factor there would be probably very few domestic graduate students.  

[AnxiousNerd]

2 hours ago, rising_star said:

None of us can tell you if it matters to you if as a domestic student you'd be in the minority. That is very specific and individual. are you able to visit the program to get a feel for it in person?

Right yeah, I know. I’m actually in Europe right now until the end of March, so I’ll visit when I get back. I just didn’t know if there was some fundamental reason that it should matter (better networking with domestic students, easier collaborations, etc)

49 minutes ago, Bayesian1701 said:

I am in a similar situation and it somewhat matters to me.  It’s not a dealbreaker but I feel like a cultural gap might be difficult to connect.  I am factoring it in more as how I liked the current and prospective graduate students at that institution over another rather than the actual numbers.    And I think the 50/50 goal is maybe more about expenses and politics than a real meaningful difference.  Domestic students can be cheaper (in state tuition at public universities) and some would argue that the goal of American public universities is to educate Americans.   If math is anything like stats, international applicants make up the vast majority of the pool and if they didn’t consider it as a factor there would be probably very few domestic graduate students.  

Yeah I think math and stats are similar in that regard. I figured the 50/50 might be a cost thing. Also maybe an image thing? But yeah I guess I won’t really know how I feel about the students until I visit. The 80/20 just seemed sort of unnerving heh.