Applications are up at Temple and other local colleges. A big bump comes from international students.

Temple University received 2,740 applications from international students as of March 14, a 36% increase over last year.

Overall, the North Philadelphia university got more than 38,000 applications, its largest number ever and a 5% increase over last year. That includes a 24% jump in first-generation applicants, a 9% increase in applications from students of color, and a jump in out-of-state applicants, said Shawn Abbott, vice provost for admissions, financial aid, and enrollment management.

“It does appear that we would be on deck to welcome the most diverse first-year class that we’ve ever enrolled, but it’s hard to make that prediction six months out,” he said. “If applications translate to who ultimately chooses to come to Temple after May 1, we are in a good position to see that.”

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Several other local universities, including West Chester, Pennsylvania State University, and Drexel, also reported higher application numbers overall and from international students, a promising sign as coronavirus restrictions ease and campus life begins to feel even more normal. For the first time since the pandemic, Temple is welcoming admitted students onto campus for in-person visits. At one session earlier this month, nearly 1,000 attended, Abbott said.

“We have more than 1,100 students registered for our first in-person Accepted Student Day in two years,” said West Chester spokesperson Nancy Santos Gainer. “This is a 12% increase over 2019 registrants. In addition, our in-person tours are completely full and we have even had to add more tours.”

At West Chester, the largest university in Pennsylvania’s state system, international applications have risen 58.8%. At Penn State, they are up 17%, and at Drexel 23%.

International students, most of whom pay full price to attend, pump about $39 billion into the U.S. economy annually. A total of 914,095 international students were enrolled at U.S. colleges in 2020-21. This academic year, enrollment is up 4% increase overall. That includes a 68% increase in new international students studying in the United State for the first time, according to the Institute of International Education.

The institute had noted last June that 43% of colleges had reported an increase in international student applications for the 2021-22 academic year, almost double the increases reported by the schools a year before that. The institute doesn’t yet have application numbers for the current cycle but said anecdotal evidence suggests numbers are climbing again.

“Part of it I think is due to the pandemic, improving conditions,” said Sarah Ilchman, co-president of the institute. “Over the last 103 years that [Institute of International Education] has been around, we have been through 12 pandemics, and after each pandemic there has been a surge or an increase in international education. People want to get back.”

She also noted that U.S. colleges are largely open again, compared with some other countries that are still virtual or hybrid. That’s attractive to students, she said.

International enrollment at Temple has been falling for the last few years from a high of more than 3,000 students, so an uptick would be welcome, Abbott said. Temple currently enrolls 1,838 international students.

Temple also has seen an increase in students who want to go abroad and study at its campus in Rome, Abbott said. The university last year had 175 applications for that campus. This year, there are 421.

Temple Japan has also seen a 20% increase in applications from overseas applicants and a 24% increase in Japanese applicants, the university said.

Abbott said the numbers suggest a potential willingness among students to travel again for their education, both in terms of leaving and coming to the United States.

“At least, it seems as if there is a resurgence in appetite for students in both directions,” he said.

More than half of Temple’s applicant pool is students of color, the university said. Applications from Black students increased 12%, while applications from Latinx students rose 7%, the school said.

» READ MORE: A million miles away: Temple, Philadelphia’s ‘diversity university,’ has seen a plummeting share of Black students over the last 25 years, even as it rapidly expanded enrollment.

Temple last fall welcomed one of its most diverse classes in the school’s history. Seventeen percent of first-years are Black, and more than 45% are students of color, up from 31% five years ago. The Inquirer reported in January that the share of Black students at Temple has dropped over time. A quarter century ago, Black students were 28.4% of Temple’s undergraduates, federal data show. By 2016-17, the African American share had bottomed out at 12.6%. But since Abbott was hired, Temple has taken steps to diversify the admissions staff, increase outreach to Philadelphia public schools, and add programs to enroll more students from the surrounding neighborhood.

At Penn State, applications from students of color have increased 13% from last year and 36% from March 2020, said Lisa Powers, Penn State spokesperson. Overall, Penn State, as of March 15, received 115,212 applications for first-year, fall 2022 enrollment, up 9.5% from the same time last year and up 25.7% from 2020, she said.

Applications from first-generation students are up 22% from last year and 34% from 2020, she said.

At West Chester, overall first-year applications have risen 6.1%, while applications from out of state are up 3.4%.

At Drexel, which has received nearly 37,000 applications, up from just over 34,000 last year, applications from first-generation students are up 18% and those from students of color 9%, said Niki Gianakaris, a university spokesperson.

Rutgers University said it was on its way to a “record-sized first-year class” but didn’t yet have numbers it wanted to share. Rowan University, also in New Jersey, reported “double-digit increases in many categories over” the same time last year, but spokesperson Joe Cardona said it was still too early to know whether those increases would hold or flatten out.

The University of Pennsylvania declined to provide numbers. Like other Ivy League universities, Penn is scheduled to release its admissions decisions in early April.