This study examined how the method of instructional delivery, face-to-face or online, affected withdrawal and persistence/completion the rates of students who matriculated in either the campus-based or online track of the same Master’s of Business Administration program. A quantitative investigation was conducted to analyze the academic and demographic characteristics of degree-seeking students at a large university in the United States. Demographic variables included age and gender. Academic-related variables included program delivery mode, undergraduate grade point average, admission test scores, and grade point average at time of withdrawal or completion.

The purpose of this paper was to determine what institutional, program, and recruitment characteristics influenced international students to attend institutions in the United States. Two hundred sixteen international students at a Southern public research university responded to the survey (53% response rate) from 56 countries representing 8 regions. An empirical analysis using t-tests and analysis of variance was conducted to determine what characteristics international students found to be most important when selecting an institution. Regardless of degree level, all students ranked faculty/student ratio as an important program characteristic. Second, students ranked both the admission process and time to degree as important characteristics. Third, doctoral, master’s, and bachelor’s students respectively ranked funding as an important characteristic in their decision making process. There are three basic implications for recruitment officers. First, as size matters, international students need to feel connected to faculty and staff.

In 2011-2012, international students and their families contributed almost 22 billion dollars to the U.S. economy and to higher education. Although there were a record number of international students (764,495), they represent only 4% of the 20.6 million students enrolled in higher education. Are institutions capitalizing on this market and how specifically does it benefit the institution and state economy as well? In order to answer this question, the financial implications of recruiting international students to North Carolina, particularly the University of North Carolina (UNC) System were explored. In North Carolina, the net contribution of foreign students and their families was USD$338,418 million and specifically within the UNC System, USD$174,326.9 million (51.51%). Of the 14 institutions examined, six relatively smaller institutions had the most significant overall increase in enrollment during 2009-2011, and masters’ institutions in particular reported a 23.10% positive change, followed by doctoral/research institutions with a 21.93% change.