As 2025 begins, the University of Minnesota campus continues welcoming international students matching pre-pandemic numbers.
The number of enrolled international students has risen annually since the pandemic. This year, the total reached over 6,000 actively enrolled international students for the first time since the 2019-20 academic year, according to the University’s Institutional Data and Research (IDR).
Tuition prices continue to climb for the University’s international students. Since the 2020-21 school year, the price of international student tuition rose more than $4,000, while resident student tuition changed by roughly $1,000.
International undergraduate students can expect to pay upwards of $66,000 annually to attend the University, University spokesperson Andria Waclawski said. Although this cost includes housing and healthcare costs, tuition and fees alone can be expected to cost roughly $38,000 for two semesters.
For Minnesota residents, tuition and fees combine to total just over $17,000 for 2024-25, making international undergraduate tuition more than double their resident counterparts. This cost, according to Sanchirmandakh Gankhulug, a student from Mongolia, is the biggest and most common stressor for most international students on campus.
Gankhulug said his cost of attendance totals roughly $50,000 for the year, and even though the Mongolian government pays for a portion of it, there are still many out-of-pocket expenses.
“The cost is a big problem for every international student,” Gankhulug said. “Everyone says it’s too expensive, and the currency exchange costs them even more money.”
Gankhulug is not the only student who feels the burden of the higher tuition. Marciano Lopes Zemecas, an international student from Timor-Leste, said it is not just the tuition that raises costs for international students.
“(Tuition) is definitely the biggest concern for international students, but on top of that, international students need to pay for housing, for food, it’s crazy,” Zemecas said. “International students, they suffer for that.”
Getting admitted in the first place can also be quite pricey, according to Zemecas. Some students pay for months of English classes and exams to demonstrate proficiency.
“It’s expensive, too. In my country, if you want to go over to the U.S., you have to participate in preparation classes,” Zemecas said. “The preparation classes take like five months, and then we have to take the test, which just costs so much.”
To be admitted to the University, international students from non-English speaking countries must pass a Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), or other similar tests, that cost around $220. These exams demonstrate day-to-day proficiency in the English language, but some students say the test does not fully ensure their abilities.
Mural Hashim, a member of the Technology Support Services on campus, said she saw many international students struggling to communicate their issues without the assistance of translation tools.
Hashim said an experience with one student stands out as particularly tough.
“She didn’t know how to communicate with me. I just had to start typing it in (Google Translate), and I would have to write out literally every single thing I was trying to say to her,” Hashim said. “It was just a big-ass paragraph into Google Translate just so that she could understand.”
Situations like these make Hashim worried that these students are not getting the education they are paying for if they struggle to understand professors and peers.
While Hashim said she never had any other conversations quite as difficult as that one, she said international students frequently struggled to communicate with her and other staff. She said she believes these issues come from the University’s sentiment towards students as a whole.
“I think the University, it’s a corporation,” Hashim said. “They’re more concerned with money and looks, and so, I don’t think the University cares at all.”
