Saudi students' distribution in the US and the determining their concentrations

This paper explores the spatial patterns and analyzes the overcrowding problem of Saudi students in the US through a spatial analysis using geographic information systems (GISs). Since 2005, the King Abdullah Scholarship Program (KASP) has sponsored approximately 70,000 Saudi students seeking bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in American universities and 150,000 in universities worldwide (Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission, 2012). One objectives of this paper is seeks to determine the factors and reasons that led to the overcrowding problem and its impact on Saudi students in the US by questionnaire method. Based on the results, the five largest states accumulation of Saudi students were California (9,067 students), Texas (5,077 students), Ohio (4,696 students), Florida (4,396 students), and Colorado (3,117 students). In addition, the study found that 51.23% of students had faced the accumulation problem during their studies at language institutes or universities, and this also caused them problems, such as difficulty in learning the English language and therefore difficulty in obtaining university admission. Finally, the study proposed that GIS can contribute to student information management by building a geographic database and analysis of the spatial distribution via digital maps.