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Should international PhD students even consider U.S. Ph.D. programs at this point?

Brian Leiter

New international student enrollment at American universities fell 17% this fall, which is hardly surprising given what has been going on.

But how should prospective international students think about the prospect of studying in the U.S. given that Trump is in power for at least three more years? International students ought to watch this video of the ordeal suffered by a Canadian woman, a Peruvian woman, and an Egyptian man, who were all in the U.S. legally, but were detained for weeks in grotesque conditions by the ICE gangsters. As the last victim says, ICE is operating without due process protections for its victims, which means no one knows who is next.

Of course, none of these people were here on student visas–but does that matter if ICE is not following due process? If I were a parent outside the U.S., I would not let my children study in the U.S. right now, sad to say. It seems too risky, given the lawless behavior by the people with guns and the lack of significant political resistance to what is going on.

I am interested to hear from international parents and students, as well as international faculty advising students. How does the U.S. situation look to you? If not to the U.S., where are you going and/or sending your students? Please use a valid email address (which will not appear), even if you would prefer (for understandable reasons) not to use your name.

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8 responses to “Should international PhD students even consider U.S. Ph.D. programs at this point?”

  1. Master Chief

    I work at a European university. I know some students (especially from Latin American countries) who have turned down offers from high-ranking US programs and opted to do their PhDs in Europe instead. This has seemed sensible to me.

    Reply
  2. Charles Anthony Bakker

    When I was applying for PhD programs, Trump was serving his first term. Given America’s reputation for gun violence and the lack of access to equitable health care, I felt that the political volatility of a Trump administration was too much to warrant moving my family to the States.

    Needless to say, Trump’s second term is exponentially worse, somehow. ICE is literally a terrorist organization. Schools are either being defunded or turned into ideology factories. Top tier researchers are leaving the States to find positions elsewhere. Publicly accessible health care is under attack. The courts have been corrupted and Congress is powerless to do anything. The American economy is tanking, and will continue to do so as other nations seek to buffer themselves. And quite honestly, America seems to be headed towards a civil war.

    Suffice to say, I would strongly advise prospective graduate students to avoid studying in the U.S.A.

    Reply
    1. Brian Leiter

      I do not think the courts are “corrupted,” indeed, the opposite. The courts have been holding the line on authoritarian maneuvers and corruption, unlike the executive and legislative branches. The partial exception is the Supreme Court, but “corruption” is not the problem: it is in the nature of the highest court that it exercises, more than others, a quasi-legislative power, and the problem with the U.S. Supreme Court is the majority of the legislators are a mix of conservatives and reactionaries.

      Reply
  3. Former international grad, current international faculty

    Given the uncertainty regarding OPTs, J1s, and H1Bs (the main ways an international student can get a job in the US after graduation), I would only come to the US for graduate work if it improves my chances to (1) get a job in my home country or (2) find a job elsewhere. The prospects of (1) and (2) should be strong enough to outweigh the constant fear of being deported or stopped at the borders/ports of entry.

    Reply
  4. AG Tanyi

    I think I would still advise students to go to the US if this was good for their career. I will not say that the concerns are exaggerated but they are disproportionately relevant for a certain group of students (coming from certain countries, speaking a certain language, looking a certain a way) whether we like or not (and yes, I don’t like it but it is a fact). I think the visa issues are the real obstacles now, but I suppose this depends on the particular place and student, so they are not insurmountable. The US still has the top programmes and they tend to be in blue states in cosmopolitan cities. But I would certainly advise the student to consider their choice well and do not look at the US without concern. And to take special care in informing themselves about their place of choice taking into account non-academic considerations as well.

    Reply
  5. Diffident about using my real name

    Firstly I work in New Zealand have done so for 39 years. Secondly, my children are now middle-aged and the only one of them who is academically inclined has got her PhD already. So I don’t qualify as an ‘international parent’. However I do have students to advise and nowadays I suggest that those who want (and have the talent) to go on to further study elsewhere should NOT go to the US but to one of the top philosophy programmes in Australia such as Monash or the ANU. They will get an as-good (or maybe better) education, will probably have less debt and won’t have to put up with the hassle of what looks like a slow-moving fascist takeover bid that may or may not be defeated a) by popular resistance and b) by a set of anti-tyrannical institutions that have proved to be a lot less effective than perhaps the founders supposed. Given that American academics have been sacked, pressured into resigning or otherwise sanctioned for expressing quite mildly radical opinions, I think the foreign students would be at a real risk especially as most of mine are of at least a moderately leftish persuasion. Then there is the indignation thing. If I were in America I would be in a perpetual stew of indignation which is not a state that is conducive to either study or intellectual achievement. For a foreign student this is likely to be compounded by a feelings of impotence and even fear, especially given the vicious xenophobia of the Trump regime and its ICE stormtroopers. And although most of my top students are white (at least in terms of their appearance) this isn’t true of all them and I am beginning to think that those that are not would be at extra risk. So nowadays ‘No, don’t go’ is my advice.

    Should anyone care about my opinion? Well perhaps. Many of my former top students are now professors, some of them pretty prominent. So if I am warning away my best students from the US I am probably warning away at least a trickle of top talent.

    Reply
  6. Anon Canadian PhD

    Here’s an international PhD student perspective. Canadian so obviously it’s a limited perspective.

    do not plan to work in the US until you know for sure that Newsom will win the election and that Trump will cede office.

    for now, it is fine if you shut up and stick your head in a book. don’t speak up, especially on public social media, and just remember your position of relative worthlessness within the system as an international student. do what you came to do which is write a dissertation. be real, if you are out organizing, you’re procrastinating on your next deadline. volunteer with the homeless, as the brunt of every political blow lands on them. just save the activism for when you get home and get your free speech rights back, assuming you had them to begin with.

    If you didn’t have rights to begin with, get your big fat American degree and use it to get a job somewhere that gives them to you. For many internationals, a good American degree offers a wider latitude of choice later in life, in terms of where to live and other life-shaping decisions, compared to where we came from. A lot of people forget that when advising students from nations that have shabby career outcomes for domestic PhD graduates, or nations that sanction as bad if not worse human rights abuses than the US. Some parents let their kids study abroad in risky places because they have a comparative or global perspective on risk. If you find a better program in a happier place than America, take it. If the academic or general life outlooks are already bad where you are, the risks might be worth it.

    If you look white just have your papers in order at the border and make sure you aren’t overdue on taxes. If you do not look white, do those things and do your research. Be realistic about how a maga would profile you and the kinds of mistreatment you can expect to endure.

    If you’re a woman, you have probably made an astute assessment of your personal risks already, just plan your access to an emergency abortion even if you are sure you won’t need it.

    I advise strongly against coming to the US if you don’t have quick access to your own or someone else’s savings to buy a very expensive flight home in case of sudden unrest as a herd of expats will try to leave at once.

    Reply
  7. But UK is terrible

    I think people who are white enough are interested in less sensitive topics should still consider the US over the UK. Apart from very prestigious UK institutions, the quality of research and teaching will foreseeably go down significantly. It is unlikely that one will get funding in the UK. The UK version of Trump will most likely rule from the next election, and if one doesn’t already have UK citizenship, life in the UK will not be comfortable. Average voters, as I see it, want to punish the “them” even at the cost is mutual destruction.

    (I’m a person of colour in the UK)

    Reply

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