New York University has the most number of international students among all American tertiary education institutions with 13,851, a distinction it embraces dearly as other universities across the country also see an increase in foreign enrollees. An increase of 6.2 percent in international student enrollment was seen among all universities in the country when compared to the figures last March 2015.

Another New York school, Columbia University, placed 4th in the list with 10,810. University of Southern California (13,080), Northeastern University (11, 381) and University of Illinois complete the top five, according to the 'SEVIS by the Numbers' report compiled by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).  

The schools mentioned are either in or near a big metropolitan area as USC's main campus is in Los Angeles, Northeastern is in Boston and UI is an hour-drive away from Chicago. 

Seventy seven percent of international students are from Asia with Chinese, Indian and South Korean students registering the most. Other countries with a high number of international students are Saudi Arabia, Canada, Vietnam, Japan, Taiwan, Brazil and Mexico, according to India West. 

There are a total of 1.2 million international students with F (academic) or M (vocational) status in the United States. 
Forty percent (more or less 479,000) of the international students are enrolled in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) courses. In fact, India leads the list with 82 percent of its 194,438 students studying STEM. China follows closely with 69 percent studying mathematics or statistics coursework. 

J-1 exchange visitors are also common in the country, with a little more than 200,000 students availing of this visa classification. 
The 'SEVIS by the Numbers' report is released by the Student and Exchange Visitor Program of the ICE's Homeland Security Investigations every quarter. You may view the most recent report in full PDF form here.