<p>Colleges annually publish their admission data usually as “Statistics” or “Common Data”. At highly selective graduate schools in engineering/physics/comp science, materials science, international students typically make of 40% of graduates in a program. Though this is a lot, these students are chosen from throughout the world- in our doctoral program in applied physics there are students from Russia, Poland, Turkey, Greece, France, Germany, UK, Canada, Mexico, China, Singapore, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa. I’m sure there are others I have forgotten. Since there are usually only one or two students from many of these countries you have to be in the top percentage of students among all universities in your country to gain admission, so the 40% admission rate perhaps makes it seem easier to gain admission than it is. Selective programs rarely take more than one or two students from one university whether it is a US college or international. Don’t send generic applications to all programs, but know why a program is unique and why this is the perfect match for you. You app’s success depends on the details in your application. Funding was mentioned above- a college will give funding details on their website- total for the college and often by department and professor- and you can look at government funding summaries at the National Science Foundation website. There are clear money trails- in engineering, for example, you can see lots of money goes to the commonly mentioned top schools, but there are some surprises like U Washington, U Colorado and others.</p>