Graduate programs in science and engineering at U.S. colleges enrolled 474,203 students in fall 2003, according to the National Science Foundation. An all-time high, the enrollment figure is a 4 percent increase over the previous year. But while the increase in the number of students who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents was the largest of the past 20 years, the increase in foreign students was less than 1,300, compared with gains of more than 10,000 in each of the previous three years.
