More international undergraduate students are attending Iowa State this year, and some of these students said it’s because of Iowa State’s reputation.

Patricia Parker, assistant director of admissions, said 135 new international undergraduate students enrolled for the fall, up 25 percent from last year’s 108.

She said that this number includes freshman and transfer students.

Parker said international students come to Iowa State because the tuition for international students is not quite as expensive compared to other public universities.

She also said the fact that Iowa State has a long history of having international students can attract international students.

“Because of that, we get a lot of referrals from friends and relatives,” she said.

Parker said Iowa State attracts students who are more serious about school.

“There are not mountains and oceans. We are in the middle of the country, so they can focus on their studies here,” she said.

Parker said many international students at Iowa State come from China, Korea, India, Indonesia and Malaysia, and those international students are typically interested in a set of subjects.

“The majority of our students like to major in sciences and technology, which is what we are known for,” she said.

Yeonho Jo, freshman in mechanical engineering from South Korea, said he decided to come to Iowa State because he knew Iowa State has a good mechanical engineering program.

“I put in eight applications across the United States, and I got accepted into five universities — Penn State, Arizona State, Michigan State, University of Iowa and Iowa State,” he said. “I weighed in on every university with my father and the counselor at high school before I made the decision.”

Jo said many students from South Korea usually consult with studying-abroad agencies before they come to study overseas.

“They have every bit of information on which school is better than the others, how much the tuition is and which school has a great program for which major,” he said.

Jo said he can focus on academics easier at Iowa State because there aren’t many distractions in Ames.

Seong Chow Lim, sophomore in economics, is a new transfer student from Malaysia. He said he got some help from the Malaysian American Commission for Educational Exchange when he searched universities in America.

“I did lots of research on American universities and made the decision to come to Iowa State because it has good academic rankings and reputation and has a relatively low tuition compared to other universities within the same academic ranking tier,” he said.

“I applied for University of Iowa, Iowa State, Ohio State and University of Wisconsin at Madison. Of these four, Iowa State was the best choice.”

Lim said students wanting to study abroad in Malaysia usually get help from the commission or go online for information.

Parker said Ann Gogerty, senior international admission counselor, will be sent out this month to several countries, including Japan, Korea, India and Kuwait, to speak about Iowa State.

“This year, we’ve traveled to the Middle East. We occasionally travel to Latin America,” Parker said. “We do quite a bit of a recruiting”