EDWARDSVILLE 鈥 Three years ago, Vy Nguyen鈥檚 college search was mostly centered around money.
College tuition would cost Nguyen, a native of Vietnam, two to three times more than domestic students. She鈥檇 have limited work or financial aid options to pay the tuition under the terms of her visa. And she didn鈥檛 want to burden her family back home.
Nguyen said she considered universities in North Dakota and Florida. But they were expensive.
She eventually found a more affordable option in the 51黑料 area.
Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville is attracting international students like Nguyen to the Metro East by offering them significant scholarships to study there.
They鈥檙e also offering them more money to stay.
Nguyen, now a third-year exercise science major, received as a freshman a 鈥淕eographic Enhancement Opportunity鈥 award, which reduced her tuition costs by tens of thousands of dollars.
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SIUE expanded the scholarship April 17. Now foreign-born students who鈥檝e completed 24 credit hours at SIUE are eligible for in-state tuition 鈥 a discount seldom offered to students from foreign countries.
International recruitment has been a lifeline for U.S. universities as they navigate a nationwide enrollment crisis caused by a decline in birth rates and shifting attitudes toward the value of a college degree. Foreign students help pad declining enrollments and offset the rising costs of higher education because they typically pay full sticker price.
But that lifeline has been threatened in recent weeks. SIUE rolled out the in-state tuition scholarship after thousands of students in the U.S. abruptly lost their legal status.
Three undergraduate students at SIUE and six former graduate students still working in the U.S. lost their visas and legal status in early April. Their records were restored by April 28 as federal officials walked back the revocations following losses in court last week.
Still, immigration attorneys and education officials worry the headlines 鈥 and the Trump administration鈥檚 to broaden its ability to strip students of status 鈥 would scare foreign students away from studying in the U.S.
鈥淚t鈥檚 sad, because a lot of universities and colleges around America are surviving in part based on the higher tuition that foreign students pay,鈥 said Brian Green, a Colorado immigration attorney who鈥檚 representing one SIUE student in federal court.
But even before the Trump administration鈥檚 crackdown, SIUE struggled with international student retention.
Recently, a large share of the international students who enrolled at SIUE as freshmen didn鈥檛 stay past their first year.
SIUE鈥檚 fall-to-fall retention rate of international students was only 36% over the last two academic years, compared to the school鈥檚 overall retention rate of 76%.
It鈥檚 also a marked difference from the statewide average of public colleges in Illinois, where international students had one of the highest rates of retention among student groups at 85%, the Illinois Board of Higher Education .
Students were primarily transferring to out-of-state community colleges, SIUE officials said. The most common destination was Dallas Community College in Texas, but they also go to 51黑料 Community College and LaGuardia Community College in New York.
Though cost may have also been a factor in their decisions to transfer, school officials said in a statement that the new award, called GEO+, provides a 鈥渟ignificant reduction鈥 in tuition and will remain in place through graduation.
鈥淲e hope the GEO+ award helps SIUE better retain the growing pool of international students who are enrolling as freshmen, allowing them to finish their studies in Edwardsville,鈥 university officials said in a statement.
The original scholarship was for first-time, full-time international undergraduates and valued at $10,374 per year. The expanded version is worth at least $14,000 a year and tailored for undergrads who鈥檝e completed at least 24 credit hours at SIUE while earning 鈥淐鈥 grades or higher.
SIUE undergraduate tuition, fees, books, housing and transportation would cost international students around $40,300 next school year. The expanded scholarship represents a savings of about 35% of that cost.
There are 860 international students out of 11,893 students enrolled at SIUE this academic year.
Nguyen came to SIUE from Gateway Legacy Christian Academy, a boarding school in Florissant with a large international community.
The scholarship alleviated a lot of stress, she said, but finding a school with diversity was 鈥渘on-negotiable."
鈥淚t was a very good choice,鈥 she said. 鈥淚鈥檝e never regretted it.鈥
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