New York University is the most popular school in the United States for international students. University of Southern California University is second and Columbia University in New York was third, according to the Institute of International Education (IIE).

For the 2015-2016 academic year, NYU's international student enrollment is 13,178, with 7,314 Asians, or 63.6 percent of the total, according to the Institute of International Education (IIE). Total enrollment is 49,274.

NYU's most recent enrollment statistics show that in 2012 there were 2,258 Chinese, 1,263 from South Korea and 1,119 from India.

Annual tuition at the three schools tops $40,000: $44,848 at NYU; $49,138 at Columbia and $46,298 at USC, according to the College Affordability and Transparency Center of the US Education department.

Minnie Fu, director of NYU Chinese Student Society ( CSS), told China Daily that many of the Chinese students are majoring in economics, business and computer sciences, the most pragmatic subjects for job hunting.

Almost every undergraduate and most graduate students at NYU are self-financed, according to John Beckman, NYU's vice-president for public affairs. "Most of the students are from upper-class families in China with good education background and international horizon and they come to NYU as a global learner," he told China Daily.

"Academic credentials are just part of the admission criteria", said Liao Wenfeng, a former specialist in helping Chinese students with their applications to study abroad. According to Liao, who said he helped more than 40 Chinese students get into NYU, strong financial backing also is needed for admission.

Jackson Zhu, a business undergraduate student, said he chose NYU to escape the harsh competition in China.

"My family was not sure whether I could stand out in the Chinese examination mechanism," said Zhu. "Applying for NYU probably is less riskier than getting admitted to Chinese universities because you can apply to more than one university at one time."

In the QS World University Rankings of 2015/2016, a noted annual publication of university rankings by Quacquarelli Symond, the top three schools are the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University and the University Cambridge in the UK.

NYU ranks 53rd, almost right after 51st-ranked Fudan University in China.

"The two universities ranked almost the same, but getting admissions to Fudan is at least several times harder than NYU," said Li Manli, a professor of higher education studies at China's Tsinghua University. "This makes American universities such as NYU welcomed by better-off Chinese students."

Niki Yu, a 19-year-old freshman majoring in journalism and communications at NYU, said, "I always wanted to explore the world and my father fully supported me." She said that her father owns a movie production company. "Now NYU offers me the chance to experience different cultures within a campus."

Long Yifan in New York contributed to this story.