Exploring the Adjustment Problems among International Graduate Students in Hawaii

Due to the advance of technology, the American society has become more diverse. A huge population of international students in the U.S. faces unique issues. According to the existing literature, the top-rated anxieties international student faces are generally caused by language anxiety, cultural adjustments, and learning differences and barriers. In the university campus that is being studied in Hawaii, the highest population of students is Asian. As a matter of fact, Hawaii is the only state in USA that does not have a majority of white population. This research study examined anxiety levels as international graduate students living in Hawaii, U.S. This study emphasizes on the wide variety of factors and whether it has an influence on the predicators of anxiety. Learning difficulties and life challenges for international graduate students in Hawaii were also examined. "Communication ability", "interactions with professors", "limited course options", and "course content difficulty" were the most experienced learning difficulties. "Financial crisis", "quality of accommodation", "relationship with people", and "language" were the most experienced life challenges. Understanding the experiences of the international graduate students is important on creating supporting programs to help them personally and academically to fit in the environment.