Re-open America's school doors for foreigners

[varun]

http://www.iht.com/articles/513158.html

COLLEGE STATION, Texas Osama bin Laden and other terrorists are on the brink of achieving an unanticipated victory, one that could have long-term consequences for the United States.

Over the decades, millions of young people from other countries have come to America to study at our colleges and universities. Many have remained here to start companies, to keep us at the forefront of scientific and technological discovery, to teach in our schools and to enrich our culture. Many others have returned home to help build market economies and to lead political reform....

...At 90 percent of American colleges and universities, applications from international students for fall 2004 are down, according to a survey by the Council of Graduate Schools that was released last month. According to a recent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, applications from China have fallen by 76 percent, while those from India have dropped by 58 percent....

Applications to research universities from prospective international graduate students are down by at least 25 percent overall; here at Texas A&M, international student applications have fallen by 38 percent from last year...

[Turbineguy]

1. That's OK, they can get an American education

over the internet. Here's an example:

http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/1051/1051_01.asp

[varun]

2. Fortunately, Chinese and Indians...

...are not mired in futile exercises like Evolution Vs, Creationism (as your link shows).

They spend their time on some REAL Science. If this is what US Universities teach, they'd rather spend their money and time somewhere else.

[cryofan]

3. I met my wife when we was a foreign student from Taiwan

The reason that there are not as many is because of the end of the dotcom boom. Those jobs that were available to tech/sci/eng people were what drove the boom. Now that there are more jobs overseas, they are staying home and going to school in their own countries.

That said, I am against foreign students coming here to study. It amounts to letting the competition know all our secrets. I do not buy into the free trade theory of economics, not for nations that have a lot of wealth. It works great for those nations at the bottom of the wealth ladder, but it hurts most citizens of the wealthier nations.

Many people will tell me that I am wrong, and will tell me to take economics 101. Been there, done that. I have 2 college degrees, and have over 20 hours of business courses, including economics, accounting, etc. I just think that the science of economics assumes the wrong perspective in general. It assumes the perspective of someone who is in the upper wealth brackets. But that does not represent the perspective of the majority of citizens.

[varun]

4. true to some extent...

...many foreign students used to come here with the hope of finding a job here. But now, the jobs are scarce, so they decide to stay at home or go elsewhere.

However, in my opinion, foreign students are beneficial to the US, because:

1. They contribute to the economy here (foreign students pay tuition, rent, drive, etc),

2. They make USA multicultural

3. The ones who go back to their countries take values such as democracy with them, and create goodwill between US and their countries.