HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Foreign Students Pinch University of California Home-State Admissions.

With foreigners enrolling in U.S. schools at record numbers, students such as Noah Hernandez, a freshman at the University of California, San Diego, are getting a global view of the world without leaving their home state. The school has thousands of Chinese students, including Mr. Hernandez’s roommate, who pay three times the in-state tuition.

“If I were running a school, it would make sense” to accept them, said the biology major, as a clutch of Mandarin-speaking students walked by.

Then he began thinking of a childhood friend, who also had a stellar academic record yet didn’t get into UCSD to study engineering. Now, he says he wonders “whether taking so many international students is fair to California students who are going to stay here and benefit the state.”

Mr. Hernandez illustrates the mixed feelings with which students and educators regard the foreign undergraduates flocking to public universities nationwide.

A record 974,926 international students were enrolled at accredited two- and four-year U.S. schools for the 2014-15 school year, a 10% rise over a year earlier, according to the Institute of International Education. About one-third of those students—304,040—are from China.

These rising international admissions are making domestic admissions more competitive across the country, said Allan Goodman, president of the IIE. And he predicts “continuing and substantial growth” in the international student population, which is now 4.8% of students overall.

The growth in international students has contributed to tighter admission standards at many UC campuses. The UC system accepted 62% of in-state applicants in the 2014 school year, down from 84% four years earlier.

Sure, you paid taxes. But they’ll pay full tuition.