In 1987, a study was conducted at Miami-Dade Community College (MDCC) to examine the demographic characteristics and academic performance of the 15,784 non-United States citizens enrolled at MDCC in fall 1987. The study also drew comparisons with national data originating from the Institute of International Education's annual census survey of approximately 3,000 accredited colleges. Study findings included the following: (1) since 1984, MDCC has had the greatest number of foreign students of all U.S. institutions of higher education; (2) Florida has the nation's second largest number of foreign students enrolled in two-year colleges; (3) the programs of greatest interest to foreign students both at the national level and at MDCC were engineering, business and management, and computer science; (4) at MDCC, over 85% of the foreign students came from Latin America, whereas nationally, the majority of foriegn students were from the Far East; (5) foreign enrollments at MDCC increased from 1,419 in 1965 to 15,784 in fall 1987; (6) among specific citizenship categories (i.e., visa, refugee/asylee, parolee, and resident alien), resident alien students experienced the greatest growth in enrollments, while visa enrollments experienced the greatest decline; (7) among resident aliens, the largest percentage (41%) were from Cuba; (8) 46% of the refugee/asylee/parolee students were from Nicaragua, and an additional 31% were from Cuba; (9) nearly 71% of the resident alien students graduated from high school in the United States; and (10) skills assessment results showed that 70% of the refugee/asylee students and 72% of the resident alien students were academically underprepared for college, compared with 65% of the U.S. citizens. (ALB)