We can’t speculate

From the San Francisco Chronicle: Applications from international students to the University of California have fallen for the first time in 12 years — reversing an era of robust global interest in the famed public institution, a Chronicle analysis shows.

The drop-off follows more than a decade in which the number of international applications rose by an average of 21 percent a year — or more than 2,500 annually — and coincides with the election of President Trump. UC’s application period for fall 2017 was the month of November 2016. Trump was elected on Nov. 8.

International undergraduate applications for next fall dropped by 1 percent from the prior year to 32,647, a decline of 353 requests. Applications from Mexico plunged by 30 percent. Countries with large populations of Muslims collectively sent in 10 percent fewer applications.

The last time undergraduates from around the world shied away from UC, the United States had just led a multinational invasion of Iraq in 2003. The war coincided with a plunge in international interest in UC campuses and other American universities in 2004 and 2005 that even post-9/11 security crackdowns had failed to achieve.

Now the phenomenon appears to be back — not only at UC, but at campuses across the country, according to a new national survey of 261 colleges and universities by the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. Nearly 40 percent of those schools reported a drop in international applications of at least 2 percent, with the greatest decrease from countries in the Middle East.

“The perception is that this administration wants to keep these students out,” said Melanie Gottlieb, the association’s deputy director. Admissions officers reported that would-be applicants expressed concerns about “negative rhetoric around the Muslim faith, and immigration changes — even before the (aborted) travel ban” from Muslim-majority countries, Gottlieb said.

Asked to respond, a representative from the U.S. Department of Education said only, “We can’t speculate.”

The UC application numbers analyzed by The Chronicle reflect undergraduates hoping to transfer in or start as freshmen...

Full story at http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/UC-sees-1st-drop-in-international-applicants-in-11043891.php

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