Back-to-School: Who is Going and Where

In July I had an interesting encounter with a student currently enrolled at Baruch College, located at Lexington Avenue and 24th Street. I was looking for the nearest Staples store to buy computer paper so I looked around and decided to ask a pretty young lady standing nearby.

“Do you have any idea where the nearest Staples is located,” I said. “Sorry,” she replied, “I’m from China and I’ve only been in New York 15 days.” That got my attention! 

The Forbidden City, China

We started to talk and she told me she was a college junior and would be a student at Baruch for the next two years. “My name is Annie,” she said, “and I come from a city in China that’s near Hong Kong.” She told me the name of her hometown and asked if I recognized it. I said, “no” and then went on to remark on her excellent use of English.

“I started learning English when I was in kindergarten,” she replied. “And when I knew that I was coming to New York I practiced a lot.”

She went on to tell me that she lived with three roommates in Queens, but that one had already moved out because she wanted to have a shorter commute to Baruch. “She’s moved to Chinatown which is very noisy and crowded,” she added

Annie told me she was with a group of 50 students. I told her that I thought she was quite brave embarking on this venture. She replied, “Right now, my cousin is going from China to Russia for one semester.” I told her that sounded like even more of a challenge to me.

We spent almost two hours walking around together. Annie said, “I’ve seen a lot of Queens, now I want to explore Manhattan.” She also offered a few impressions of the city. “I keep wondering why they don’t lower the sound of those sirens,” she said. “They’re very loud. She also asked me why New Yorkers speak so fast. “Even when I ask them to repeat something they say it so fast that I can’t understand it,” she noted.

After we parted I realized I should have given her my email address because she had an interesting tale to tell. Then I remembered that she told me she had just finished taking her chemistry class. So the next day, I went back to Baruch to see if I could locate “an Annie who had a morning chemistry class.” No such luck.

I went to the registrar’s office and explained what I wanted but the official word was “We have to protect our student’s rights.” I said that when I was at Columbia my boyfriend (now my husband) came looking for me and he was told where I was right away. “Everything is different now,” a young lady explained.

Who is studying in the United States?

• China, India and South Korea now represent 50% of all international students in the U.S.

• In 2013-2014 the United States enrolled a record-breaking 886,052 undergraduate and graduate international students in colleges and universities throughout the country

• The overall number of international students in the U.S. has grown 72% since 2000

• At Harvard, foreign students make up 10.3% of the admitted students

• Columbia has the fifth largest number of international students of any college or university in the U.S.

• California and New York draw the most international students

MAY WE SUGGEST… Our wrinkle-free, packable tops are great for travelers who want to arrive in great shape – no matter how long the journey.

Shaun Nelson-Henrick

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