ASU is home-sweet-home (away from home) for students from India

More than 8,000 miles separate Arizona State University’s Tempe campus from New Delhi, the capital of India.

But that geographical chasm hasn’t kept ASU from becoming a destination university for Indian students. 

From 2014 to 2024, ASU graduated 14,619 alumni from India. During the fall 2024 semester, 6,641 Indian students were enrolled at ASU. That’s more than one-third of the university’s entire international student population.

Why the pipeline from India to ASU? Several reasons, including the university’s strong academic reputation, a supportive community, diverse programs and an active alumni network.

“The administrative support is definitely great, the international orientations, providing housing support … all of that is very well laid out,” said Tanvi Raorane, who received a Master of Science from the W. P. Carey School of Business in 2022 and is currently president of ASU’s Indian Alumni Chapter. “And no matter what the political conditions, the school still continues to provide the same support.

“There is no bias there, no political and no anti-immigrant inclination. ASU remains neutral and focuses on what it can do best for international students.”

Three former Sun Devils from India talked to ASU News about how their time here helped shape their careers and why they would recommend the university to any prospective students and their families.

Raorane had been working in the banking industry in India for seven years when she decided to move to Arizona in 2019. Her plan: Get her master’s degree, preferably from ASU, where her husband had his degree from.

But Raorane wasn’t willing to commit to ASU without doing her homework. She studied programs at other universities. She even applied at other programs and received multiple admits. But in the end, she chose the W. P. Carey School of Business for a simple reason: It’s considered one of the best business schools in the country, ranked among the top 30 by several publications.

“It was the best fit,” said Raorane, now vice president with JPMorganChase in Palo Alto, California.

Raorane said Indian students are attracted to ASU because of its academic reputation — particularly at W. P. Carey and the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering — and an affordable tuition compared to other West Coast schools.

“The cost of living compared to, say, California is a big factor, and the weather is favorable to the East Coast,” Raorane said. “So, with all those positives, ASU becomes a pick.”

Raorane also pointed out that ASU has prioritized its relationship with India. Earlier this year, university President Michael Crow and other officials, including Kyle Squires, dean of the engineering schools, traveled to India to meet with government officials, education leaders and Fulton Schools alumni.

“Many of our Fulton Schools students are from India, and several have gone on to become successful leaders in their fields both there and in the U.S.,” Squires said. “India is important to our strategy to assist learners around the world (with) gaining access to our programs and many opportunities at the university that’s No. 1 in innovation.”

As president of ASU’s Indian Alumni Chapter, Raorane said that in conversations with prospective students, she ensures them that ASU will do everything it can to support them — academically, emotionally and socially.

“Every international student coming here needs not less, but more support in a time like this,” Raorane said. “The university continuously meets with alumni, they chat with us and ask for our help. And ASU is making a strong effort to push their students into the job market.

“I would strongly vouch for ASU.”

Srivastava (pictured above in graduation regalia) had two priorities when he decided in 2014 to pursue a master’s degree in industrial engineering somewhere in the United States.

What university would best serve his academic needs and make his transition from India as seamless as possible?

ASU quickly became the obvious choice.

“I found out that ASU has one of the best industrial engineering programs in the United States,” said Srivastava, who received his master’s degree in 2016, and now lives in New Delhi and is a deputy general manager for VFS Global, a company that provides visa, passport government and tourism services. “It also had a very good presence in terms of the number of Indian students.

“That wasn’t the primary criteria, but it’s always good to have people around from a similar culture. It makes you feel more comfortable.”

Even before stepping foot on campus, Srivastava said he was blown away by ASU’s efforts to ease his move from India. The Indian Students Association connected him with several Facebook groups that provided answers about food, transportation and where to live. There were Zoom calls almost every other day where Srivastava met other incoming students. And when his plane landed at Sky Harbor Airport, ASU did everything but roll out a red carpet.

“There was somebody to pick me up from the airport, and they even had three days of accommodations already set up,” he said. “They took us to an apartment where one of the students lived, and I was able to stay there for three days until my accommodations were settled. By the time I finally got to campus, I already knew 30 to 35 people.”

Srivastava said the education he received at ASU — including being taught newer technologies like artificial intelligence — was the ideal training ground for his current career path.

“A lot of people struggle with getting the basic concepts of statistics right,” he said. “I never had that issue because of my master’s at ASU. So, it helped a lot.” 

Kanwar’s route from India — where he was born and lived throughout his early years — to ASU was anything but a straight line.

He received his undergraduate degree in computer science from the Moscow Power Engineering Institute, and then the New Delhi company that hired him relocated him to New York for a job on a technical sales team.

It was in New York that Kanwar, then looking into graduate colleges, ran into several students from ASU’s Thunderbird School of Global Management. When they told him that the Thunderbird School emphasizes international business, he was hooked.

“A lot of U.S.-based colleges would either have East Coast- or West Coast-centric kind of theories,” said Kanwar, now a senior vice president for NEXT Biometrics in New Delhi. “Whereas in Thunderbird, there was a global mindset. How do you actually end up doing business in different parts of the world? How do you deal with import and export laws? ... That was more interesting for me.”

Since receiving his master’s degree from Thunderbird in 2011, Kanwar’s career is a direct reflection of his global business concentration at ASU. He worked for a Norwegian biometric semiconductor company. He worked for Interra Systems, a U.S.-based company that provides software and services for the digital media industry and put Kanwar in charge of services in 17 different countries.

“I believe, obviously, that my education played a part in this,” he said. “A lot of managers are trying to fill a box, and a box might say, ‘This person has to have some kind of international experience.’ I have team members from all around the world now, and I have to make sure that we are all working like well-oiled organization. ASU did a lot for me that way.”

Kanwar’s belief system in the Thunderbird School is so great that he serves as a school chapter leader in north India, selling prospective students — particularly those interested in the semiconductor field — on ASU’s merits.

“You have companies like Honeywell and TSMC right around the corner from campus,” he said. “So, it’s a good place to get a job. It’s a good place to get a solid education. If you’re going to be an engineer, if you’re going to be coding stuff, if you’re going to be making microprocessors, you need to have that good degree behind you.”