The American dream is fading for many Asian students

Mike Yu, from Shanghai, said his daughter once dreamed of attending a U.S. university but has now shifted her plans to Japan. The decision means spending an extra year learning Japanese, but Yu says the lower costs and proximity to home make the choice feel safer, according to the South China Morning Post.

In India, Brijesh Patel, a 50-year-old textile trader, has stopped pursuing a U.S. student visa for his son after hearing that rejection rates have risen. Patel said he had spent years saving money and paid more than US$8,000 in consulting fees, even after his son was accepted into master's programs at two universities.

"Everyone in the family wanted our son to go to the U.S. for his studies and make something good of his life," Patel said, The Guardian reported. "We simply can't take that risk. If our son goes now and something goes wrong, we won’t be able to save that kind of money again."

Their experiences mirror a broader trend. U.S. government arrivals data show that about 313,000 international students entered the country on student visas in August last year, the main intake period for the fall semester. That figure marked a 19% drop from a year earlier, the steepest decline outside the Covid-19 pandemic.

Asian students accounted for the largest share of the fall, with arrivals from India dropping the most, followed by China and South Korea.

The downturn comes amid an unusually turbulent period for U.S. international education. In 2025, student visa interviews were paused during the peak summer season, applicants were required to make their social media accounts public for screening, and federal authorities briefly revoked Harvard University's certification to enroll international students before the decision was challenged.

Beyond policy uncertainty, rising costs are also reshaping decisions. Data from U.S. News & World Report covering more than 300 U.S. universities show that overall college costs have increased about 40% over the past two decades. Tuition at public universities has risen particularly sharply, while private university fees now average more than $46,000 a year, excluding living expenses.

Huang Qiuping, a mother in Shanghai, said she is conflicted as her 12th-grade son plans to apply to Northwestern University to study journalism.

"With college costs running into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, I've started to wonder whether this is really a worthwhile investment, whether my child will be able to find a job later, and whether he can stay legally," she said, SCMP reported.

Visa rules after graduation have become a decisive concern, according to Times of India. Changes to the H-1B program mean applications are now weighted toward higher-paying jobs, reducing the odds for newly graduated international students seeking entry-level positions.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services assigns greater weight to applications tied to higher wage levels, while proposals to sharply raise H-1B sponsorship fees have made some employers more reluctant to hire foreign graduates.

In a recent survey by a U.S. international education association, more than half of international students said they would not have enrolled in American universities if work visas were determined primarily by salary levels.

Even STEM fields, long seen as a safe path, are no longer a guarantee. Data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York show that majors such as computer science, computer engineering, physics, chemistry and management information systems have recorded relatively high unemployment rates among recent graduates.

"Computer science majors have long been sold a dream that doesn't match reality," said human resources expert Bryan Driscoll, Newsweek reported. "Just like many majors and related jobs, the reality hits hard: too many grads, not enough jobs, crippling student debt, and a market that rewards pedigree over potential.

Education experts warn the decline could hurt the U.S. itself. International students contribute tens of billions of dollars each year to the American economy and play a critical role in graduate-level teaching and research. Gaurav Khanna, an economist at the University of California, said a sustained drop would weaken both research funding and the quality of instruction, Foreign Policy reported.

At the same time, rival destinations are gaining ground. South Korea has already reached its target of 300,000 international students, PIE News reported, while Germany and France reported record enrollment in the 2024-2025 academic year.

Ben Wang, a business manager at a Shanghai-based study-abroad consulting firm, said many parents are now shifting their focus to the U.K. and Canada.

"Most international schools in Shanghai have moved toward U.K. A-Level programs because U.S. policies are unstable and the costs and risks are high," she said, as cited by SCMP.