Will Trumps election affect international student acceptance rates?

Trump Administration has ordered U.S. embassies to halt all student visa applications. Secretary of State Marco Rubio directed officials to stop scheduling appointments with applicants while preparing to implement a new social media vetting process, according to a cable obtained by Politico.

“Effective immediately, in preparation for an expansion of required social media screening and vetting, consular sections should not add any additional student or exchange visitor (F, M, and J) visa appointment capacity until further guidance is issued septel, which we anticipate in the coming days,” the cable states. (“Septel” is State Department shorthand for “separate telegram.”)

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/...eighs-expanding-social-media-vetting-00370501
 
MikeLawrence said:
I don't know too much about you, but I assume you aren't a US native.
Click to expand...
He is. You are. I am (minus the native part).
We have plenty of Americans here (native born or naturalized) on QuantNet, representing diverse political views. Some people will say that the govt action swings a bit too much on the extreme scale. Some will say it's not strong enough.
It's interesting to note that many in the govt who now target elite universities are themselves alum of those schools.
 
zephyrus said:
Trump Administration has ordered U.S. embassies to halt all student visa applications. Secretary of State Marco Rubio directed officials to stop scheduling appointments with applicants while preparing to implement a new social media vetting process, according to a cable obtained by Politico.

“Effective immediately, in preparation for an expansion of required social media screening and vetting, consular sections should not add any additional student or exchange visitor (F, M, and J) visa appointment capacity until further guidance is issued septel, which we anticipate in the coming days,” the cable states. (“Septel” is State Department shorthand for “separate telegram.”)

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/...eighs-expanding-social-media-vetting-00370501
Click to expand...
This is such terrible news. This goes way beyond Harvard and will effect millions of students heading to the US this fall.
 
Andy Nguyen said:
He is. You are. I am (minus the native part).
We have plenty of Americans here (native born or naturalized) on QuantNet, representing diverse political views. Some people will say that the govt action swings a bit too much on the extreme scale. Some will say it's not strong enough.
It's interesting to note that many in the govt who now target elite universities are themselves alum of those schools.
Click to expand...
I wasn’t referencing a political thing, it just doesn’t sound like he has any idea what the universities are like. It seemed more likely he was idealizing from another country.

In other news, this visa news is horrid. I see no good coming from it.
 
MikeLawrence said:
In other news, this visa news is horrid. I see no good coming from it.
Click to expand...
I read some more sources for this and it appears scheduled visa appointments are not affected. Any available appointments are removed until they can determine how much additional time and resources needed to implement the new vetting.
Best case is that there will be additional delay in processing visa. Some students will choose UK or Canada instead if they have the options.
Per CNN
The cable notes that expanded social media screening and vetting of all the applicants for such visas could have “potentially significant implications for consular section operations, processes and resource allocations.
As a result, the consular sections – which issue visas – “will need to take into consideration the workload requirements of each case prior to scheduling them going forward.”

It instructs embassies and consulates, effective immediately, not to add “any additional student or exchange visa…appointment capacity until further guidance is issued,” and to remove “appointments that are available, but not taken as of the release of this cable.”

Appointments that were already scheduled can still take place, the cable notes.

“Consular sections should remain focused on consular priorities including services for U.S. citizens, immigrant visas, and fraud prevention,” it states.
 
This was a video released a couple of weeks back:


Apparently Chinese students contribute $14 billion annually to the US economy. Locking them out will probably mean a sharp reduction in the number of STEM departments of US universities. We all know these STEM departments rely critically on Chinese and Indian students, and particularly at the graduate level. This administration is hostile to all foreigners. And the consequences of not issuing student visas by this administration are probably irrevocable: even with a subsequent administration, the USA will not be seen as a safe and secure place to study.

These measures by the Trump administration are -- how to put it? -- interesting. The USA runs on skilled immigrant talent. It doesn't produce enough of its own STEM graduates. It looks like this administration is intent on the USA committing suicide. The country is already in serious trouble economically and this new measure arguably represents another big step downwards.
 
Trump announced on Wednesday that he would prevent Harvard University’s international students from entering the country, announcing an aggressive move six days after a federal judge said she would halt the administration’s efforts to disqualify those students from receiving visas.

www.whitehouse.gov

Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Restricts Foreign Student Visas at Harvard University

RESTRICTING FOREIGN STUDENT VISAS AT HARVARD: Today, President Donald J. Trump signed a Proclamation to safeguard national security by suspending the
www.whitehouse.gov www.whitehouse.gov
 
The Trump administration escalated its attack on Columbia University on Wednesday by taking a warning shot against its accreditation, a key credential that U.S. universities need to receive federal student aid.

The federal Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, which two weeks ago found that Columbia violated civil rights laws by “acting with deliberate indifference” toward the harassment of Jewish students, sent a letter on Wednesday to the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, the nongovernmental organization that accredits Columbia.

The letter said that because Columbia was in violation of federal anti-discrimination laws, the Education Department believes it fails to meet the standards for accreditation.
 
This is another video by the same fellow. It's not long (a shade under 6 minutes):


It sounds eminently plausible to me. The policies of the current administration have a strong undertone of white nationalism and immigrants of all hues -- including highly qualified ones -- are feeling distinctly unwelcome. Conjoined to this is the probability that US universities are losing their rankings and by implication their prestige. Hua Bin had an interesting essay on this four months back:

huabinoliver.substack.com

Whose Universities are Better – China vs. the US? Nature Magazine might upset the conventional wisdom

The 2024 Nature Index Research Institution Ranking
huabinoliver.substack.com huabinoliver.substack.com

For a yet broader perspective, Dmitry Orlov has been talking about US decline for close to 20 years now and his 2007 essay is still worth reading:

www.resilience.org

Closing the 'Collapse Gap': the USSR was better prepared for collapse than the US

My talk tonight is about the lack of collapse-preparedness here in the United States. I will compare it with the situation in the Soviet Union, prior to its collapse.I watched the Soviet Union collapse, and I have tried to put my observations into a concise message. I will leave it up to you to...
www.resilience.org www.resilience.org

Before I forget, the late Prof. Wallerstein had a prescient essay out in 2016, also worth a glance:

The Increasingly Unstable United States - Immanuel Wallerstein

We are used to thinking of instability in states as being located primarily in the global South. It is about those regions that pundits and politicians in the global North speak of "failed states" in which there are "civil wars." Life is very uncertain for the inhabitants of these regions. There...
iwallerstein.com iwallerstein.com

With regard to the quant world, as de-dollarisation proceeds apace and with the increasing use of AI tools, I expect the search for gainful quant employment in the USA to become ever more ferocious.

Conclusion? If I were a foreign student, I would not seek admiission to a US university. It's just too dicey.
 
When Trump announced the pausing of new US visa for international students, one of my LinkedIn connections reached out immediately and asked for the right course of action. I told him to reach out to the MFE programs that rejected his application. He told me he got into 2 more programs, including his dream program.
He is an American applicant and I told him the right move to make. The result is mind blowing.
www.linkedin.com

#opportunity #stem #visapolicy #gradschool #mfe #quantfinance… | Andy Nguyen

📣 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐔.𝐒. 𝐕𝐢𝐬𝐚 𝐑𝐮𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞 — 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐀𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐒𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐝 𝐈𝐭 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐥𝐲 A few weeks ago, I posted about how recent U.S. visa policy changes could open doors for domestic applicants to top STEM and finance graduate programs — especially as international enrollment faces new...
www.linkedin.com www.linkedin.com
 
Trump Administration plans to limit foreign students in the country to 'not exceed a 4-year period'

www.dhs.gov

Trump Administration Proposes New Rule To End Foreign Student Visa Abuse | Homeland Security

WASHINGTON, DC – Wednesday, the Trump Administration announced a proposed rule that, if finalized, would limit the length of time certain visa holders – including foreign students– are allowed to stay in the United States, thereby curbing visa abuse and increasing the Department of Homeland...
www.dhs.gov www.dhs.gov

1756363915121.webp
 
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