Hyunji Lim and Moonhee Cho want to work in America.
The South Korean women are both pursuing their Ph.D. degrees in mass communication and have been studying at UF for six and three years, respectively.
Lim, 30, and Cho, 32, both applied to other American universities but decided on Florida. They said they love Gainesville and really like the weather.
Lim and Cho are among about 5,400 international students studying at UF - a number that has continued to increase in recent years.
Debra Anderson, coordinator of international student services at UF, said the university saw its highest number of new, degree-seeking international students ever this fall.
This year, she said about 1,280 new students were admitted. In 2010 there were 1,161, and in 2009 there were 929.
Open Doors, an annual report released Monday by the Institute of International Education, indicated that this trend is nationwide. A record 723,277 international students were enrolled in American schools during the 2010-11 school year.
Anderson said she attributes this steady increase partly to the economy. Some students aren't able to get jobs, she said, and for many, a U.S. education may be cheaper than one at home.
Countries like China, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have also recently implemented programs that promote and fund studying in America, she said.
In China, for example, the Ministry of Education has established the China Scholarship Council, a nonprofit that gives financial aid to Chinese citizens to study abroad.
About 22 percent of the total international students studying in the U.S. were from China, making it the country with the largest student representation in the U.S.
India had held this spot for the past decade, but for the first time in five years, the enrollment of Indian students decreased in the U.S.
This fall, the number of Chinese students studying at UF exceeded the number of Indian students, Anderson said.
The majority of international students study engineering or other science fields.
In 2010, there were about 5,400 international students at UF, about 2,400 of whom were studying engineering.
The Open Doors report said the trends work both ways. About 10,000 more U.S. students studied abroad last year than in the previous school year.
Kirsten Laufer, assistant director of study abroad services at UF, said she has seen a drastic increase in students' interest in programs in India and China.
UF ran six programs in China this summer, and about 100 students participated, said Laufer.
Laufer said the majority of students are interested in studying the language - an increasingly valuable skill as economic ties with China continue to grow.
For Cho, studying in the U.S. has increased the number of options she has after grad school, she said.
"I'm keeping all my possibilities open," she said.
