Why Chinese students still want to attend U.S. universities

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Growing up in Beijing, Jacinta Gu had always imagined herself going to college in America.

Some of her happiest memories are tied to vacations in the U.S. She loves to reminisce about her trips to Disneyland and a visit to Stanford University, where her aunt attended graduate school.

“I remember thinking how beautiful it was, and how much I wanted to go there,” the 17-year-old says.

For decades, the majority of international students in the U.S. have come from China, where an American education has become known as a pathway to a better life. That student population jumped from about 63,000 in the 2002-03 school year to 372,532 in 2019-20, according to the Institute of International Education.

But it started to drop off during the pandemic and has never recovered. The number of Chinese students at U.S. universities fell to 277,398 last year, declining 4% from the previous year even as the total number of international students reached a record high. During the 2023-24 school year, India sent more students to the U.S. than China for the first time since 2009.

A dramatic slowdown in the Chinese economy following the pandemic has played a role in the downturn, as the yuan declines and parents worry about the rising cost of a U.S. education. (A year ago, USC announced that tuition for 2024-25 would be $69,904, compared to $66,640 for the prior school year — and that does not include meals, housing or supplies.)

In addition, the rhetoric and propaganda coming from both governments is disrupting the educational exchange and efforts to promote greater understanding between the two countries.

On the other hand, job opportunities in China are growing scarcer, urban youth unemployment has hit record highs, and some families believe their children will receive a more well-rounded education in the U.S.

For families like Gu’s, the calculations involved in making a decision — go to the U.S. or stay home — are becoming more complicated.

China is still the top source of international students in California, where their tuition dollars have long helped bolster research and prestige at schools such as USC and UC San Diego.

But the relationship between the two countries, already strained during the Obama administration, continued to fray during President Trump’s first term. In 2018, Trump launched the China Initiative, a sweeping program meant to investigate threats of espionage and intellectual property theft, but was instead criticized as unfairly targeting scientists and researchers of Chinese descent.

The Biden administration scrapped the program, but suspicions on both sides persisted. Last summer, Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said the U.S. should restrict Chinese students to the humanities and encourage more Americans — and Indian students — to study science and engineering.

After Campbell’s comments, the Global Times, a state-run tabloid based in Beijing, wrote that discrimination against Chinese students and academics has had a “chilling effect” for those who once hoped to study or work in the U.S. In the meantime, in his second term, Trump has announced additional tariffs on China and a crackdown on immigration, which threatens to further escalate tensions.

Now Chinese students seeking to go abroad are increasingly applying to universities outside of the U.S. According to a survey from New Oriental, a private educational services provider in China, the U.K. has overtaken the U.S. as the top preferred country for Chinese students studying abroad for the past five years, in part because of the more stable political environment.

Sabrina Wu, a teacher at New Channel, an English school and education consultancy in Beijing, said Hong Kong and Singapore schools are growing in popularity because of their proximity to China. Countries with flexible visa and immigration policies such as Canada and Australia have also attracted more applicants, she said.

“Some question whether studying abroad is really worth it financially,” Wu said. “Others feel more uncertain about their future in general, feeling like they don’t see a clear path forward.”

U.S. universities are trying to hedge their bets as well.

Julian Fisher, managing director of the Beijing-based consultancy Venture Education, said colleges are now spending more resources on recruiting in India and Nigeria, which sends more students to the U.S. than any other country in Africa.

“When we advise overseas universities on Chinese students, we tell them: You need to consider that the numbers you have right now might be the biggest numbers you’ll ever have,” Fisher said.

Students look for jobs at a campus fair at Shandong University of Science and Technology in Qingdao, Shandong province, China, in September 2023.

(Future Publishing via Getty Images)

Nonetheless, the lure of a U.S. education is still a draw for some of China’s most ambitious students.

Xinyue Liu, a 16-year-old student from Nanjing, said her family has had doubts about the safety of U.S. universities. She also harbors concerns over whether she will ever be fully welcomed in America. Still, she hopes a liberal arts education in the U.S. will allow her to study a wider range of subjects than she would in China.

“When I was in middle school, I worried that U.S.-China relations would impact my plans. But over the years, I’ve realized that things haven’t really improved, yet people are still going abroad,” she said.

Wei Zhou, a 54-year-old parent in Beijing, sent her eldest son to the U.S. as an undergrad. Now that her younger son is starting to apply for college, she’s wondering if an American degree is worth it. The financial burden would be immense compared to domestic universities, with uncertain job prospects in both countries, she said, adding that staying in the U.S. has become more difficult after graduation. Meanwhile, parents say, Chinese companies are less inclined to hire international graduates than they once were.

“In China, it’s becoming mainstream to think that undergraduate education in the U.S. is no longer appealing,” she said. “In the past, studying abroad was seen as prestigious. But now it seems reversed.”

When Gu’s mother Ou Cai and father Lingwei Gu were in school in the 1990s, China’s economy was booming and many foreign companies were opening offices in China. Though they knew students who studied abroad, they didn’t feel the need to leave. But as China’s economy has slowed, Cai said it’s become more important than ever for Gu and her 15-year-old sister to experience life abroad.

“Those who stayed in China during that time benefited greatly. Buying property was affordable, and the job market was thriving,” Cai said. “Times have changed. The opportunities we once had here no longer exist.”

Gu’s parents started discussing her education in the U.S. before she was born. When Gu struggled in school, her mother would encourage her by reminding her that one day she would study in the U.S.

Her father is less adamant, and now prefers that Gu stay closer to home; credentials from a domestic university might have an advantage over a U.S. degree, particularly at state-owned institutions. He’s had friends take his daughter on campus tours at some of China’s best universities, including Peking University and Tsinghua University in Beijing. They were appealing, but Gu says she can’t shake her childhood memories of the U.S.

Gu’s parents say they believe they have come to a compromise — Gu can get her undergraduate degree in China, and then apply to graduate schools in the U.S. But Gu is concerned that the longer she waits, the more difficult it will become for Chinese students to study in the U.S.

“It seems like it’s gotten harder to go abroad compared to before,” she said. “It makes me a bit anxious about whether things might change in the future.”

Cai is hopeful that under Trump, the U.S. won’t turn away promising students like her daughter. She was reassured by his campaign promise to grant green cards to all foreign college graduates, and sees his actions as an effort to specifically curb illegal immigration.

“Chinese students are really smart, and really want to connect with the world,” she said. “I think only with these connections can we get rid of so much misunderstanding and conflict.”

Gu’s father also brushed off Trump’s most inflammatory rhetoric, chalking it up to his experience as a businessman. What makes America great is its acceptance of immigrants, he reasoned. It was difficult for him to imagine the U.S. putting a halt on immigration entirely.

“Otherwise the United States will no longer be the United States,” he said.