While nearly 50 percent of students at Cal State Long Beach may be from Los Angeles County — the remaining half come from a number of places around the globe, including New York, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam.
In fall 2013, the most recent data available, CSULB students hailed from 56 counties throughout California, 43 states and 90 countries, according to data from the CSULB website. More than 17,000 students came from LA County alone, according to the Cal State University website. Orange County ranked second with 7,578 students.
Associate Dean and Executive Director of International Programs Terrence Graham said via email that the student demographic, particularly the international one, largely reflects the demographic of students in the U.S.
Graham said that a large number of Saudi Arabian students, who comprise 17 percent of all international students at CSULB, are supported by scholarships from their home government and administered by the Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission, an organization that provides students with educational opportunities at U.S. institutions.
“The commitment of the Saudi Arabian government to investing in their citizens’ education is remarkable, and we are honored that [Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission] has entrusted us with educating a large number of their students,” Graham said.
Sophomore theatre arts major Amawri Ezayah, who earned a scholarship from the SACM, said apart from low sales taxes and the campus being near the beach, he chose CSULB over six other CSUs because of the Saudi Arabian population.
“When I first moved to Long Beach, there wasn’t that much [of a Saudi Arabian population], but [now] it keeps getting higher,” Ezayah said.
Similarly, many Chinese and Vietnamese international students, ranking second and third respectively, are attracted to the large Chinese- and Vietnamese- American population in the LA region, Graham said.
Junior management major Thu Nguyen, who is from Vietnam, said she chose to attend college here because many of her friends and family live in California.
Nguyen said that before attending CSULB, she entered Google search to compare CSULB’s qualities such as weather and ethnic diversity to California universities.
After narrowing her choices to Cal State Fullerton and CSULB, Nguyen said that she ultimately chose Long Beach because of tuition prices and its large size and attractions like the Earl Burns Miller Japanese Garden.
“It feels like a park,” she said of the garden. “[Also], when I visited the campus, the guy that did the campus tour did a good job,” Nguyen said.
Out of all the research she did on California campuses, she said that her friends played the largest role in persuading her to attend CSULB.
“The best recruitment method is word of mouth and increases in the enrollment of international students at CSULB can be largely attributed to the positive experience their friends have at our university,” Graham said.
Terri Carbaugh, CSULB’s associate vice president for legislative and external relations said that in fall 2013, CSULB received more than 83,000 applications, although no more than 8,000 will be admitted for the fall 2014 semester.
Carbaugh said the increase of non-local students hasn’t affected the Long Beach College Promise, an agreement with Long Beach Unified School District, Long Beach City College and CSULB that helps local students pursue higher education, even though students compete for enrollment at CSULB.
Carbaugh said that balancing the Long Beach College Promise with the number of non-local students is a “formula” the admission department calculates.
“When it comes to admitting local students through the [Long Beach College Promise], the commitment will remain intact,” she said.
Carbaugh said although there may always be underrepresentation of a certain demographic, CSULB has made its campus increasingly diverse through the years.