Foreign enrollment skyrockets for UW

Record numbers of international students enrolled in Washington state universities and community colleges this fall, and the trend is especially pronounced at the UW, where freshmen students from foreign countries outnumber out-of-state freshmen for the first time.

Nearly 18 percent of the UW's freshman class is from another country, and more than half of those students are from China. It's a dramatic increase from six years ago, when only 2 percent of the school's freshmen came from other countries.

Last spring, 41 percent of international applicants said "yes" to the UW's acceptance letter — a percentage that was well above historical trends and caught the UW by surprise, said admissions director Phil Ballinger.