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Nearly 20 Percent Fewer International Students Traveled to the U.S. in August

nytimes.com

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Re: Nearly 20 Percent Fewer International Students Traveled to the U.S. in August

#51

Post by NickC25 »

symlinkk wrote: post #7
LPisGood wrote: post #2

All those students, along with their talent and money and connections went _somewhere_ so that’s a shame for USA.

99% of those students were not any more talented than the average US citizen

But they pay several multiples of money more to study than the average US citizen, take on no debt, and most of the time are studying for advanced technical degrees.

Most Americans are not.

If we want to have top-tier universities, and produce graduates capable of innovating and taking big risk, we need to have universities who are strong in STEM.

If we want to have universities who are strong in STEM, we need to fill up those seats because otherwise without students, there are no classes.

IDGAF where they come from, to be honest.

Re: Nearly 20 Percent Fewer International Students Traveled to the U.S. in August

#52

Post by churchill »

the_real_cher wrote: post #45
churchill wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry to break it to you, but the average American is quite...let's say, average. That's why they're average, lol. Likewise, the average Chinese. That's why their school system filters out tens of millions of schoolkids from higher education and puts them in trade school early. Same goes for India, Europe, etc. Gifted, driven kids, the kind who will leave their family and everything they've known, to cross an ocean t…

Why not just stay and bring their gifts to their own country?

Some of them actually do that. Like when the US expelled Qian Xuesen, the founder of the Jet Propulsion Lab and he went back and built China's ballistic missile and space program. So, yep. It's happened and will continue to happen to different degrees.

Re: Nearly 20 Percent Fewer International Students Traveled to the U.S. in August

#53

Post by mempko »

the_real_cher wrote: post #31
niek_pas wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The flow of smart and talented people to the United States has historically been incredibly beneficial for the latter. EDIT: further reading here: https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2025/05/28/demand-f...

[flagged]

If you have resources and energy, anything is possible if you have a system to exploit them. The downside is of course draining the resources and destroying the ecology which also happened. There is nothing special in American blood vs anywhere else.

Re: Nearly 20 Percent Fewer International Students Traveled to the U.S. in August

#54

Post by addicted »

the_real_cher wrote: post #45
churchill wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry to break it to you, but the average American is quite...let's say, average. That's why they're average, lol. Likewise, the average Chinese. That's why their school system filters out tens of millions of schoolkids from higher education and puts them in trade school early. Same goes for India, Europe, etc. Gifted, driven kids, the kind who will leave their family and everything they've known, to cross an ocean t…

Why not just stay and bring their gifts to their own country?

Yup, that's what they will do now.

Which is indeed a benefit for their countries.

And is a loss for the US.

The brain drain was real and the US was the beneficiary and that may be ending soon.

Not sure what your point is? Are you happy that the US will be worse off than it was before?

Re: Nearly 20 Percent Fewer International Students Traveled to the U.S. in August

#55

Post by chucksta »

HDThoreaun wrote: post #50
chucksta wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are top performing US students less likely to start companies and create jobs than international?

1. No evidence but imo probably. Immigrants are by their nature entrepunerial go getters, thats how they got here. 2. Top performing US students arent being crowded out by international students anyway.

What about the first US child from a family of immigrants?

Re: Nearly 20 Percent Fewer International Students Traveled to the U.S. in August

#56

Post by HDThoreaun »

chucksta wrote: post #55
HDThoreaun wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. No evidence but imo probably. Immigrants are by their nature entrepunerial go getters, thats how they got here. 2. Top performing US students arent being crowded out by international students anyway.

What about the first US child from a family of immigrants?

What about them? Competent domestic students are not being crowded out by international students. Competent domestic workers are not being crowded out by immigrants. The opposite is happening, immigrants create new opportunities for natives out of thin air. That doesnt mean that natives dont, they both do.

Re: Nearly 20 Percent Fewer International Students Traveled to the U.S. in August

#57

Post by NickC25 »

the_real_cher wrote: post #45
churchill wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry to break it to you, but the average American is quite...let's say, average. That's why they're average, lol. Likewise, the average Chinese. That's why their school system filters out tens of millions of schoolkids from higher education and puts them in trade school early. Same goes for India, Europe, etc. Gifted, driven kids, the kind who will leave their family and everything they've known, to cross an ocean t…

Why not just stay and bring their gifts to their own country?

because the infrastructure in their home countries likely don't exist. some people are just that much smarter and need such an environment.

Or, there's risk to being in their home country where academic freedom might not really be a thing.

it's like why if you show serious promise in soccer at a young age, you go to Europe as soon as you can - you will be better developed there in a more mature environment as opposed to, say, the USA where you can only get decent coaching in a few major cities, and even then the gulf between the coaching at a top Spanish or English club versus an American one is huge. Or if you show promise in tennis at a young age, you get your ass to Florida as soon as you are able to.

Re: Nearly 20 Percent Fewer International Students Traveled to the U.S. in August

#58

Post by toomuchtodo »

sct202 wrote: post #8

It's going to be a rough time for a lot of colleges that have been using foreign students paying full price to fund their operations. Especially now that the incoming college aged population is beginning to shrink and the percentage attending college has peaked, so the domestic population probably won't be able to fill the seats at less competitive colleges.

U.S. colleges poised to close in next decade, expert says - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45171434 - September 2025

Looming 'demographic cliff': Fewer college students and fewer graduate - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42634596 - January 2025

Re: Nearly 20 Percent Fewer International Students Traveled to the U.S. in August

#59

Post by onetimeusename »

churchill wrote: post #34
symlinkk wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

99% of those students were not any more talented than the average US citizen

Sorry to break it to you, but the average American is quite...let's say, average. That's why they're average, lol. Likewise, the average Chinese. That's why their school system filters out tens of millions of schoolkids from higher education and puts them in trade school early. Same goes for India, Europe, etc. Gifted, driven kids, the kind who will leave their family and everything they've known, to cross an ocean t…

There's so few seats at these schools we could fill them with Americans and not notice a difference is my belief. We're talking about single digit acceptance rates where it's probably hard to distinguish students who apply at all.

Also I feel like it's not a good assumption that talented international students that come to top tier universities also have the same western vision of meritocracy and sharing their achievements with the globe.

Re: Nearly 20 Percent Fewer International Students Traveled to the U.S. in August

#60

Post by ahmeneeroe-v2 »

addicted wrote: post #48
ahmeneeroe-v2 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huge win for US high school and college students. Not so good for bloated college administrations.

Student enrollment in the US is declining and the big problem for colleges the past few years has been a worry about not having enough students. So it's not clear why US students were struggling to get a college spot. And if you mean them getting spots in the more prestigious institutions, well, it's not clear whether that will even happen (the few thousand international students admitted to the top universities are…

The "best talent" is a major scam. International students/alumni did not make these universities the best in the world or create that prestige.
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