In the past two days, peaceful protests by some American university students have escalated. Current students said that the protest was very orderly and did not affect normal teaching activities, and the students who passed by had already become accustomed to it.
From a historical perspective, America's elite universities have experienced many collisions and changes before and after World War II, and each time in the past has achieved a reflective balance of concern for others and society.
■ 56 years after the 1968 anti-Vietnam War (left) and the 2024 anti-Palestinian-Israeli conflict (right), history seems to repeat itself once again in front of the same library building.
Recently, a large number of international students have sent out first-hand information and feelings on social media, witnessing this history in their own way.
Since 2006, the number of Chinese students studying abroad has exploded, becoming the largest source of international students in the United States, and the number of students studying in the United States has increased from a few thousand to more than 300,000 each year, and has continued to grow for many years until 2020.
Since then, the number of Chinese undergraduate students in the United States has declined slightly each year, according to the Open Doors report, China is still the largest source of students in the last academic year, although the number of undergraduate students has fallen by 8%, and the number of graduate students has increased by 2.3%.
So, what does the latest school year look like, and how many are still committed to the United States, and how many are choosing to move to other countries and regions?
The student visa tracking SEVIS system developed by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) publishes visa data every month, not only student visa data, but also work visa data in the United States.
India has replaced China as the number one source of students
According to the data, as of March 2024, that is, last month, 1.21 million international students from more than 200 countries studied in the United States, an increase of nearly 100,000 compared to the same period last year (1.11 million).
With an annual growth rate of 100,000, the U.S. has returned to the peak of one million students, firmly occupying the hegemony of the world's first destination country for students to study abroad, attracting top elite talents from all over the world.
Who are the strongest fans of studying in the United States?
According to the data, Asia contributes the largest proportion of students, with a total of more than 900,000 students, accounting for more than 70%.
At the same time, from the perspective of the top ten source countries of international students in the United States, Asian countries occupy 6 seats and occupy the top three positions, while China and India account for nearly 50% of the international student quota.
According to the data, there are currently 250,000 Chinese students studying in the United States, accounting for 20%, while India has 350,000 students studying in the United States, which is 100,000 more than China, accounting for nearly 30%!
In addition, South Korea, another country of Asia, is also very fond of studying in the United States, contributing nearly 50,000 students, which is far less than China and India in absolute numbers, but the relative number of people in South Korea is very high.
In addition, Vietnam, Nepal and Bangladesh are also on the list, and as the economy grows, these schools are among the top students of elite American universities in Asia, and are expected to usher in a new wave of study abroad similar to China.
This data confirms our perception: India has overtaken China as the largest source of students for the United States.
When did it happen?
Judging from the visa data, as early as February last year, Indian students surpassed China for the first time with 275695, and began to exceed 300,000 in August, and the number has increased steadily, officially entering the 350,000 mark in 2024.
Further research found that there are great differences in the "portraits of Chinese and Indian students studying in the United States".
From the perspective of academic distribution, Chinese students are more evenly distributed in high school, undergraduate, master's and doctoral levels, while more than 80% of Indian students are master's students who study for a shorter period of time and are more conducive to staying, pursuing high cost performance.
The number of Chinese visitors to the United States has decreased by 120,000 in six years
At a time when India's study in the United States is making rapid progress, China's study in the United States has entered a cooling-off period, and the number of students studying in the United States has remained at about 260,000 in the past year.
Data shows that since 2014, the number of Chinese students studying in the United States has exceeded 270,000, and in August 2018, it reached a peak of 378003.
This figure began to decline after 2020, and the decline has been very significant in recent years, and this year it has returned to the level of a decade ago.
From the perspective of the school period, the largest decline is in the United States.
In 2018, there were 131,000 undergraduate students, accounting for more than 34%, while the latest number of Chinese undergraduates studying in the United States was 82,000, a decrease of 50,000!
In addition, the number of graduate students in 2018 was 122,000, compared to 96,000 in the latest data, and there is also a decrease of more than 20,000.
Second, the number of U.S. high school students going abroad is also declining, from more than 20,000 to less than 10,000 now.
Pulling the timeline closer, there is a trend of upward movement under the overall trend.
For example, compared with the same period last year, there are more than 1,000 people in elementary and middle schools in the United States, and more and more families choose to study abroad at a young age, which also verifies our experience:
High-net-worth families may choose to take their children abroad earlier, while middle-class families will become more rational in their choices.
Compared with the same period last year, the U.S. is still declining rapidly.
This year, there are nearly 10,000 fewer families, and fewer families who choose to go to the United States at the undergraduate level are decreasing, partly because of the increasingly expensive tuition fees that make it less cost-effective, and on the other hand, because it is becoming more difficult to apply to top schools.
Although the number of undergraduate students has decreased by 10,000, the families who remain are indeed the most competitive, and the pursuit of high-quality resources is more intense, and the competition for the head is becoming more and more naked.
Take UCLA as an example, what may have been a guaranteed school for many students ten years ago has now become the dream school for countless cows.
In other words, at a time when the number of students is decreasing, the time, money, and cognitive costs invested in studying abroad are only a lot more.
In addition to the student visa data, the report also publishes data on work visas.
The first popular is naturally STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), according to statistics, there are 277,270 international students studying STEM majors in the United States, accounting for more than 20%.
■According to the SEVIS 2022 annual report, STEM majors are the main among the 20 most popular majors for international students, and computer science is at the top of the list.
Among them, there are 40,299 STEM students in China, accounting for 14.5% of international students.
The proportion of undergraduate, master's and doctoral degrees is similar, all above 30%. The ratio of men to women is 52.8% and 47.2%, and there is no gap between the two.
In terms of regional distribution, the largest number of Chinese students are distributed in California, New York and Massachusetts, among which California and New York have the largest number of students, both exceeding 40,000. Massachusetts, the top school in the Northeast, attracts more than 20,000 people.
California and New York continue to be leaders in terms of the number of STEM students.
From studying abroad to working
Recently, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and USCIS also announced the addition of 8 new STEM majors, indicating that more students will flock to this track:
Landscape Architecture, Institutional Studies, Mechatronics, Robotics & Automation Engineering Technologist/Technician, Composites Technologist/Technician, Linguistics & Computer Science, Developmental & Adolescent Psychology, Geospatial Intelligence, Demography & Population Research.
This also indicates the rigidity and value of the profession, and there will be prospects in the future job market or development. If you are interested in these majors, you can pay attention to them.
■ STEM list published by USCIS
Perhaps one of the biggest benefits of studying STEM majors is the "preferential treatment" given by the U.S. government.
International students who hold an F-1 visa (for academic programs) and want to work in the United States after graduation must obtain an OPT (Optional Practical Training) internship visa as the first step, which allows them to work in the United States for up to 1 year (12 months).
STEM-OPT is a special internship visa for F-1 students studying STEM courses, which can be used for up to 3 years (36 months).
In two years, the U.S. government has extended the working hours for STEM-OPT twice, and the work location has been further relaxed to allow STEM-OPT visa graduates to work in start-ups if they meet certain conditions, showing a thirst for STEM talent.
■ U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken came to NYU Shanghai two days ago.
There is one more data that is interesting.
According to the USCIS SEVIS report, the U.S. universities with the highest number of STEM-OPT employment authorizations in 2022 were obtained.
The top five are Northeastern University, the University of Texas at Dallas, the University of Southern California, Columbia University, and Arizona State University.
The largest number of people who have received STEM-OPT employment authorization means that schools can give STEM graduates more employment opportunities.
Compared with the comprehensive ranking, STEM students who are interested in future employment opportunities can refer to this ranking.
If we compare the top 20 U.S. universities with the largest number of F-1 international students and the largest number of OPT employment authorizations, there are new findings:
Northeastern, Columbia, USC, and Arizona State University enrollment and employment are directly proportional, and the number of international students and employment are among the top five, which is a school that is friendly to international students' admission and employment, and is worthy of attention.
This year, the Immigration Bureau has urgently restructured the system, changing "one person with multiple draws" to "one person with one draw", and various signs also show that false registration and fraud have been greatly avoided, and the winning rate has also increased to 25%.
But who got the final pass?
As it turns out, compared to the huge number of Indian students who have been granted visas, the share of Chinese students is pitiful.
According to the 2022 data (repeatable registration data before the promulgation of the new policy), the number of Indian students received visas accounted for more than 72.6%, although it was slightly lower than the proportion of 74.1% in 2021, but the number of visas increased by as much as 20,000 to a total of 320,000, while the number of Chinese students received visas remained at 5-55,000 for two years.
■Top 10 H1-B signatories.
Among the types of jobs that have been selected for H-1B lottery, computer-related jobs are far ahead, accounting for 66% of the total, which once again proves the popularity of STEM majors.
However, liberal arts jobs such as management, education, arts, and social sciences have a small selection rate, but they are not completely out of the ordinary, and the first-time H-1B applicants have a higher success rate than STEM jobs.
Let's draw down the key points of this USCIS report:
- There are 250,000 Chinese students in the United States, and India has replaced China as the largest source of students in the United States.
- The number of Chinese students studying abroad has decreased by 120,000 in six years, of which 50,000 have been undergraduate students, of which 20% are studying STEM majors.
- The industry and position where the H1B winning rate is located, technology companies and computer-related positions are the big winners, and it is expected that interdisciplinary disciplines will be more popular in the future.
Why we like to study data, just like someone has made such a metaphor: each of us is standing on the curve of the times, and the fluctuating arc and path of the curve determine the upper and lower limits of our life cycle, and choice may be more important than effort.
It has to be reminded that the data also has great limitations. For every family, big data can only predict some directions, and personalization can never be replaced by wholeness.
To paraphrase a golden sentence, going to the United States to study back to rationality is not so much a downgrade of middle-class consumption, but an upgrade of IQ and choosing what you really want.