They have recruited more heavily at home and on the Mainland to counteract the decline and have continued to recruit internationally to build for the future. Hawai'i schools have felt somewhat insulated from the effects of increased government scrutiny simply because foreign students in the 50th state are more likely to come from countries not regarded as high risk.

"Short of some other terrible catastrophe, I think things will rebound and I think we'll see that this fall," said Nancy Ellis, vice president for Student Support Services at Hawai'i Pacific University where there have been substantially fewer foreign students since the Sept. 11 attacks.

With the highest number of foreign students of all Hawai'i schools, HPU has watched international enrollments erode from 1,939 in 2001 to 1,517 last year.

But Ellis is expecting an upsurge, noting that applications by foreign graduate students alone are up 17 percent this fall, with applications from foreign undergraduates up 8 percent. To stall further erosion, HPU has made it a point to keep in touch with foreign students "in the pipeline," said Ellis, and continue to encourage them to come to Hawai'i.

At the University of Hawai'i-Manoa, which comes a close second in foreign student admissions to HPU, the numbers are looking flat this year.

"My sense of it is we have not experienced either an increase or a decrease in international enrollment," said Linda Duckworth, UH director of international student services. Last fall the number of international students stood at 1,566 at UH-Manoa, down from 1,613 in fall of 2002.

With foreign students expecting anywhere from a one- to four-month wait for student visas, compared with a few days or a couple of weeks before 9/11, plus new fees as well as additional costs to travel to a U.S. consulate for a personal interview, the negative impact on American colleges is expected to continue.

A February survey by NAFSA, the Association of International Educators, "identified the alarming extent to which international students are apparently voting with their feet by not submitting applications to U.S. higher education institutions for this fall," according to a NAFSA press statement.

Concerns mounted, according to NAFSA, when the problem was especially acute at the 25 top doctoral and research institutions that enroll the most international students.

Students in the system, such as 29-year-old Karen Michael Mikel from Borneo in Malaysia, are having to put up with more bureaucracy and juggle schedules to accommodate the new requirements. And they're finding that costs are rising.

Mikel, whose student visa to study at UH-Manoa is set to expire, has decided to cancel her trip home in December to visit family for fear she can't finish the new visa paperwork in time for the spring semester.

"I wanted to go home in December, but after I looked at my options I don't think I can do it in time," Mikel said. "And I really don't want to have any problem coming in again. The risk is if I have any family emergency, the visa would be invalid and I'd have to take time off from school."

Mikel will return home for the summer, giving herself three months to reapply for the visa. Even then, she'll need to fly twice to the capital, Kuala Lumpur — once for the application process; again for her interview.

"One-way it's about $100 U.S.," she said, "and you have to spend more money to find a place to stay or fly back for the interview."

Jeff Bunker, director of admissions at Brigham Young University-Hawai'i, said the school is often insulated from these trends because of its small size and major financial support for its foreign students. However, in general, U.S. colleges are losing out because foreign students will stop coming.

"There are some formidable challenges for foreign students," he said, "and it's becoming more difficult for them all the time." Because of their isolation, Pacific islanders often have to spend hundreds of dollars to fly to another island country for the face-to-face visa interviews required, and still aren't assured of being accepted in a timely manner.

Keith Roberts, vice president for academics at BYUH, notes that students from Asian countries have a much easier time going to Australia or New Zealand.

Over the past four years, Roberts said, BYUH increased its percentage of foreign students from 40 percent to 46 percent of the student body and that has continued. But the school has had to make adjustments to keep the numbers there, accepting more students just to make up for any drop-off.

BYUH has kept a fairly steady international student base that has fluctuated little since 2001. That year 1,051 students came from other countries compared with 1,076 expected this fall.