3 weeks back we started a poll to find out if prospective international students will be willing to go to United States to attend colleges and universities if H1B Visa will not be available after they graduate. Essentially, they will not be able to work after graduation more than the 12 + 17 months OPT period. Whooping 73% of are not willing to come to US for education, if H-1B Visa is not available.
Poll Results
Total of 531 votes were received and 390 of them are not interested to go to US if they can’t work after graduation. This result opens up lots of questions if H1B Cap for some reason is reduced or chances of getting H-1B Visa is less ( if there were to be lottery).
Impact of 73% decrease in International Students in US
If the above results hold true, then the impact on universities will be huge. Schools like USC, UT Austin has more international students studying and most of them are paying Out of state tuition fees.
- 73% of revenue from International Students will decline
- Professors might be laid off
- Number of research done will decrease drastically
- Number of patents submitted will decrease
- Impact on economy surrounding the schools will be dramatic.
- More business in University Town will have to close
- Apartments surrounding the schools will be empty
- 73% decrease in students traveling in Airlines to US
- Less students taking GRE, GMAT Exams
We can keep adding the impact on society and economy surrounding the university/college area. There are many universities where graduate school has majority of international students. Impact on such schools will be more compared to large schools that have balance on international and domestic student population.
Overall the impact on US Economy will be huge and it will be hard for US to compete in Science and Technology fields with other countries. This 73% decrease will make students explore higher education opportunities in other Countries like Australia, UK, Germany, ..
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Of course only 500,000 international students are there in the US. Not all of them want to work for the profit sector – some plan on working for universities where visas are not limited, others would get green cards and the rest could get H1b Visas or get married or even go back to their home countries and live the american dream there.