Many students throughout the world sought out Sacramento State to pursue their academic goals.

Of a total CSUS student population of 28,500, 2,600 were born outside of the U.S., and there are 743 students from over 80 countries attending Sac State on a student visa.

“CSUS is a metropolitan campus with a wide variety of programs,” said Coordinator of International Students/Programs, Eric D. Merchant.

Merchant said California universities are attractive to international students due to their cultural and ethnic diversity as well as California’s climate.

Sacramento is also reasonably priced as far as the cost of living as opposed to what it would cost for students to attend Bay Area universities, he said. He added that Sacramento is also seen as a relatively safe city to reside in compared to larger, more populated cites, such as Los Angeles.

“The universities in my country are equally competitive as they are here,” said electrical engineering student and library assistant, Dzifa Duose.

In Duose’s home country of Ghana, in West Africa, high school graduates have to wait two years before they are allowed to enroll in college, she said.

Through the English Language Institute, international students can develop their English skills in an intensive English language curriculum.

The ELI is managed by the Regional and Continuing Education Office

“In India, they do not offer a masters program in Very Large Scale Integration,” said electronics major Chirayu Upadhyaya.

Sac State was one of four universities Upadhyaya applied to.Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the U.S. State Department has done additional background checks on students from certain countries.

Students from certain Middle East countries have had their registration delayed due to prolonged background checks.

“The schools are more formal here,” said Mark Maloney, a construction management major from New South Wales, Australia.

Maloney attended the University of Technology of Sydney. Of all the California universities that UTS was partnered with, Sac State was the only school that provided a degree in his major.

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