The proportion of international students at U.S. universities, after a surge between 2009 and 2016, has gradually moderated from 2017 to the present.
This situation is not entirely due to Trump's presidency. In recent years, international students' options for studying abroad have broadened, and the U.S. is no longer their only choice.
Taking tuition as an example, the U.S., as the second most expensive study-abroad destination (the UK is the most expensive), has always had only a minority of schools offering generous financial aid to international students.
The average tuition at U.S. public universities is around $8,000, while that of private universities is around $21,000. Compared to the U.S., German universities generally waive tuition for international students, and studying in countries like France or China is much more cost-effective. The diversion of international student sources, therefore, began several years ago.
However, for Chinese students, the U.S. remains the top study-abroad destination. In the U.S., China also remains the number one country of origin for international students.
Setting aside external factors, reputable U.S. universities have also been doing increasingly well in helping international students earn their degrees. Between 2007 and 2017, the average graduation rate for international undergraduate students in the U.S. increased by nearly 6%, reaching 76.8%, surpassing the overall U.S. undergraduate graduation rate of 75%.
In any case, the strength of the U.S. in study-abroad is still evident. For international students, the focus now should be more on how to better utilize university resources to help themselves secure jobs in the U.S. and other such issues.
Forbes also recently released the 2019 Top 50 Best U.S. Colleges for International Students.
The ranking is based on a comprehensive evaluation of factors including school quality, 6-year graduation rates for international students, aid policies for international students, the proportion of international students enrolled in popular majors (such as engineering, business, mathematics, etc.), and the size of international student communities at the schools.
Below is the full list:
Forbes' 2019 Top Schools for International Students
1. Princeton University
2. Yale University
3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
4. Harvard University
5. Columbia University
6. California Institute of Technology
7. Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art
8. Amherst College
9. Stanford University
10. Babson College
11. University of Pennsylvania
12. Claremont McKenna College
13. Georgetown University
14. Brown University
15. New York University
16. Pomona College
17. Cornell University
18. Johns Hopkins University
19. Lafayette College
20. University of Chicago
21. Dartmouth College
22. University of California-Los Angeles
23. University of Notre Dame
24. Harvey Mudd College
25. Barnard College
26. Northwestern University
27. Carnegie Mellon University
28. Rice University
29. Swarthmore College
30. Tufts University
31. Williams College
32. Vassar College
33. University of Southern California
34. Vanderbilt University
35. Bowdoin College
36. Haverford College
37. Pitzer College
38. Washington University in St Louis
39. Bates College
40. Wesleyan University
41. Wellesley College
42. University of California-Berkeley
43. Boston College
44. Middlebury College
45. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
46. Carleton College
47. University of Maryland-College Park
48. Grinnell College
49. Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus
50. Colgate University
