Now, more students from foreign countries are coming to East Lansing.

This year, MSU’s incoming freshman class of 7,200 students includes a 35 percent spike in international students from last year.

“There’s a concentration in Asia,” said Rosemary Max, assistant director in the Office for International Students and Scholars.

“In some of the booming economies like China and India, people are having disposable incomes so that they can fund undergraduate education and they’re able to afford a U.S. education.”

The official numbers are expected to be released in the next few weeks, Max said. According to a university press release, MSU received more than 300 undergraduate applications from Chinese students alone.

Mingyo Kim, a Korean exchange student, has been in East Lansing since spring learning English as a second language.

“Michigan State is very famous in Korea – very popular,” he said. “Lots of (MSU) graduate students get jobs in Korea.”

Sandy Tupper, a study abroad program coordinator said MSU’s active recruiting in those countries is the reason so many students come to East Lansing.

Officials in the admissions office have recruiting strategies that focus on particular countries, where they take tours and activate contacts, Max said.

“MSU is well known and it just appeared in the paper again for study abroad, so they do know that Michigan State is an international university,” she said. “Depending on the field of study, they are pretty recognized worldwide.”

Jim Cotter, MSU’s acting director of admissions, has the task of overseeing applications from prospective MSU students throughout the world.

One method of communicating with international students that Cotter has utilized is videoconferencing. In May, a panel of MSU students and Provost Kim Wilcox spoke with 100 people in Beijing about MSU.

“With technology, the world continues to shrink,” Cotter said. “The relationship-building is the key component.”

MSU’s study abroad program sends students to more than 60 countries through more than 200 programs.

Max said that MSU has routinely been in the top 25 universities in the country for international students, but this year’s increase in admissions could mean a bump up a few spots.

“International students have generally been more in the graduate level,” she said. “So this increase in the undergrad is good for the university’s mission to increase its undergraduate program globally.”