Arizona State University, USA

The Institute of International Education has ranked ASU the #1 public university in the US for international students for three consecutive years (2015-17)

FOUNDED IN 1886, ARIZONA STATE University (ASU) is a top-ranked public research varsity spread across five campuses in Phoenix, the administrative capital of this southern state of USA. The U.S. News & World Report consistently ranks ASU among the Top 120 universities of America and has ranked it the country’s most ‘innovative school’ for three years in a row (2016-2018). Moreover, it ranks 40 of ASU’s study programmes — including engineering, business, science, public affairs, law and education — among the Top 25 nationwide. More pertinently, America’s Institute of International Education has ranked ASU the #1 public university for international students for three consecutive years (2015-17), and Times Higher Education ranks it among the Top 10 in the US for graduate employability. 

Currently, the 3,400-strong ASU faculty includes five Nobel laureates, three MacArthur Fellows, six Pulitzer prize winners and 163 Fulbright scholars. A research-intensive varsity, ASU’s $528 million research expenditure in 2017 was greater than of Caltech, Carnegie Mellon and Princeton universities. In 2017, ASU joined an elite group of universities — Harvard, Stanford and Chicago — whose students were awarded Rhodes, Marshall and Churchill scholarships. 

Founded as the Territorial Normal School, Arizona’s first higher education institution, ASU began operations with 33 students in a four-classrooms building in Tempe. Currently, it offers over 250 undergraduate and 100-plus graduate programmes to 72,000 students on its five campuses.

Phoenix. Arizona’s most populous and vibrant city (pop.1.6 million), Phoenix, aka Valley of the Sun because it receives more sunshine than any other metro countrywide, is defined by its sleek, ultramodern office buildings, a thriving jobs market, relatively low cost of living and cultural attractions that have earned it a spot in U.S. News and World Report’s list of Top 50 places to live in the US. Major industries include real estate, manufacturing, health and financial services. City landmarks include the Pueblo Grande Museum, Archaeological Park and the Arizona Science Center. Sports stadiums, museums, shopping complexes and restaurants offer numerous entertainment and dining options. Greater Phoenix also offers great hiking and biking trails, making it a haven for outdoor leisure and fitness enthusiasts. 

Phoenix has a hot desert climate, with long, hot summers (average temperature 30oC) and mild to warm winters (17oC). Rainfall is scant.

Campus facilities. ASU is spread across five campuses in the Phoenix metropolitan area — Downtown Phoenix, Polytechnic, Tempe, Lake Havasu and West. The historic 661-acre Tempe campus hosts the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, School for the Future of Innovation in Society, and School of Sustainability. 

Approximately 40 km south-east of Tempe is the Polytechnic campus which offers study programmes in interdisciplinary sciences, engineering, business management, technology and education. This modern campus provides advanced laboratory spaces with hi-tech equipment such as flight simulators, centres for semiconductor fabrication and on-demand digital manufacturing. The campus also incorporates a major regional airport and desert arboretum.

ASU’s Downtown Phoenix and West campuses host the colleges of health solutions, integrative arts and sciences, nursing, public service, journalism and mass communication, and business and law schools. The Lake Havasu campus offers four-year undergraduate degrees in technology, psychology, health and environmental sciences, criminal justice, organisation leadership and political science at substantially lower tuition fees than ASU’s other campuses. The university’s popular Thunderbird School of Global Management is sited on the grounds of Thunderbird Field No. 1, a World War II-era pilots-training base in Glendale, Arizona. 

ASU’s nine libraries on five campuses, offer access to millions of book titles, world-class collections, outstanding study spaces and research centres. Inevitably in the great American tradition, sports facilities are mind boggling. They include the 65,000-seats Sun Devil Stadium for American football; Wells Fargo Arena for basketball, volleyball, gymnastics and wrestling; the 2,000-seats Mona Plummer Aquatics Center, comprising three Olympic size pools; the 18-holes Karsten Golf course; 1,000-seats Sun Devil Soccer Stadium; $20 million Weatherup Center with a 30,000 sq. ft practice facility for basketball; Oceanside Ice Arena for ice hockey; Sun Angel Stadium and Joe Selleh Track for track and field and cross country programmes; Whiteman Tennis Center with eight courts and the John Spini Gymnastics Center. In addition, students also have the option of membership of 1,100-plus student clubs and organisations. 

Admission. The minimum eligibility requirements for admission into ASU’s undergraduate programmes are successful completion of Plus Two and acceptable ACT/SAT test scores. Foreign students must also provide proof of proficiency in the English language — high TOEFL/IELTS/PTE (Pearson Test of English) scores.
The completed online application form (www.asu.edu) together with SAT/ACT test scores, official transcripts of secondary school exam reports, letters of recommendation and a non-refundable application fee of $85 must be submitted by November 1 for admission into the spring term, and May 1 for the fall term. Indian applicants also have the option of mailing their official transcripts to the ASU Enrolment Advisor, Bandra Kurla Complex, Kalina, Mumbai 400098. Tel: +91 22 67078700; +91 9999 4210 89.
For graduate admissions, eligibility criteria are qualifications equivalent to a four-year US bachelor’s degree and minimum TOEFL score of 550/80 or IELTS score of 6.5 or 60 in PTE. 
For further information, contact ASU International Admissions, Student Services Building PO Box 870112, Tempe, AZ 85287-0112; Ph: 001 480-965-2437; Fax: 001 480-727-6453; email: [email protected]; website: www.asu.edu.

Accommodation. The university guarantees residential accommodation to all first year students. Housing options include traditional halls of residence and apartments. All residential halls are co-ed (suites, apartments and rooms are single gender), fully furnished, air-conditioned and offer cable TV, laundry facilities and Internet connectivity.

Degree programmes. ASU offers over 250 undergrad and 100 graduate programmes through its 16 colleges. (see box)

SRUTHY SUSAN ULLAS