<p>Re: #369
To me, the presence of a large number of foreign graduate students in US universities is a HUGE positive thing rather than a negative problem for the US. Welcoming immigrants, especially those among the best and brightest from all corners of the world is an advantage that no other country in the world enjoys, not japan, not china, not any of the european countries. </p>
<p>I am just surprised that a physics professor at a research university exhibited such ignorance of how graduate students are admitted and funded. No department (that I am aware of) does not admit and active recruit qualified US students first before even looking at files of foreign applicants, and generally foreign students have to be clearly much stronger candidates to be admitted ahead of any domestic students. The fact the Caltech, Princeton, MIT, Harvard et al, the very top physics programs that get the 1st picks of all top US applicants, have so many foreign graduate students shows just how strong the foreign applicant pool is. </p>
<p>There are many reasons why departments/professors much prefer domestic students. First, the department does not like to have too many foreign TAs, because undergraduates (and sometime their parents) universally like to blame (justified or not) their poor class performance on foreign TAs. Second, foreign graduate students are generally much, much more expensive for the professors. Through there is no general restriction on PI’s research grants, foreign students are generally supported exclusively by professors’ grants or TAship (which take them away from the lab), while US students can also qualify for many predoctoral research fellowships from NSF, NIH, DOE, DOD etc, which are available to US students only. At public schools, the tuition cost (out of state tuition) is also significantly higher for foreign students, which are generally carried by professors’ research grants.</p>
<p>
The above statement clearly suggests (at least to me) that foreign graduate students are inferior, but it only reveals the poster’s ignorance. At many top programs, most graduate students don’t join a research lab in the 1st year but rather are offered the time and option to choose which professor to study with for their graduate career. Thus, the 1st year students are supported not by individual professors, but by the departments with training grants or TAships. These training grants (from NSF, DOE, DOD, NIH) again exclude foreign students, whose only financial source left is TAship (outside very few private funded scholarships at a few departments). </p>
<p>
This statement is just astounding, especially coming from a physics professor, with its causal relationship so clearly stated.<br>
The lower ranked schools having lower ranks is NOT CAUSED by having too many foreign students, their having mostly foreign graduate students is BECAUSE OF their lower ranks and therefore the inability to attract qualified domestic students. Not for these well qualified foreign students laboring long hours in the labs, many of these departments would have ceased to exist as research programs.</p>