According to the data shared by the Open Doors, nearly half of the Indian students are pursuing higher education in six US states including New York, California, Texas, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Arizona. These states are hosting 12 higher education institutions in the top 100 in the latest round of QS rankings.
Following New York (22,279), the states of California (20,106), Texas (19,382), Massachusetts (16,407), Illinois (12,209), and Arizona had the highest cohorts of Indian students in 2021. (8,345). Of the 199,182 Indian students pursuing higher education in the US, which represents 49.56 per cent.
A comparative analysis revealed that these states are a huge draw for the students from China as well. As per reports, around 55 per cent of the country’s students enrolled in higher education courses in the US in 2022 while this ratio was 52 percent collectively for all international students from India and China.
The Open Doors report does not explain the pull factors that draw students to these states while the global QS ranking provides some clues. Universities in the US count in the world’s best universities including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which has been the top-ranked higher educational institution in the rankings over the past 11 years.
Similarly, New York, Texas and California have three universities placed in the top 100 which host the majority of students as per the reports. New York has New York University, Columbia University and Cornell University. California has California, San Diego, University of California, Los Angeles, University of California, Berkeley while Texas has the University of Texas, Austin, ranked in 72 by QS, the University of Texas, Dallas, and Texas A&M University.
According to the report published in The Indian Express, students from India are more likely to stay back in the US after completing their graduate studies while the students from China sign up for the Operational Training Programme that allows them to get student visas to join paid or voluntary work for up to three years and Indian students likely to pursue higher education in the US in mathematics programmes and Computer Sciences.