India is currently the top place of origin of international students studying at U.S. colleges and universities. Over the past decade, the number of Indian students in the U.S. has increased more than 175 percent, from just under 37,500 students in 1998/99 to over 103,000 in 2008/09. India has, in fact, been the leading place of origin since 2001/02, when it surpassed China. Since 2007/08, students from India have comprised over 15% of all international students in the United States.
This IIE Briefing Paper examines the attitudes and perceptions of the U.S. of prospective international students from India, and is the second report in a series of attitudinal surveys of students from key sending countries. Students were surveyed on their preferred study abroad destinations, their reasons for studying abroad, the major obstacles they faced and their main sources of information on study abroad as well as their opinions of the U.S. as a potential study abroad destination compared to five other key host destinations.