The Adjustment Experience of First-Year International Undergraduate Students in Engineering

To compare the challenges that domestic and international students experience in adjusting to college, we conducted a mixed-methods study of first-year undergraduate engineering students at a large public university in the Midwest. We administered a survey to all first-year engineering students. We conducted separate focus groups of domestic and international first-year students. While the domestic and international students identified similar adjustment issues, international students had more difficulty with making American friends, understanding cultural references, adapting to American food, and becoming acquainted with unfamiliar teaching methods and assignments.