It’s good and bad. That means there’s more spots for Americans.
If I got to design the system, the first priority would be awarding STEM spots to qualified Americans. I don’t think there are enough qualified Americans to fill all the spots, so there’d be plenty of extra openings. I’d open up the remaining STEM spots to foreign students based on merit and desire to live in the US after college. Graduate a STEM program and you get a green card.
Since I had to do this trek, it’s already optimized for native born in the good colleges (the ones that are money oriented degree mills are another case). E.g. my interview for MIT (which I didn’t get into). I had applied for MIT for my undergrad and I guess the top applicants in the country were required to go for an interview by former alumni in country. It was brutal. I don’t remember much else about the interview, but I remember this piece. The interviewer went “we only pick 3 or so students each year from here. Applicants have perfect academic credentials, lots of extra curricular activities, outstanding credentials. Why should we pick you?”
It’s far harder for a non native born to get into a good college. The colleges are aware they are in a good position to cream the very best off. Now the ones that need foreign students for revenue are a different thing…
Easy under a government overseas merit scholarship.
yah but those people already meet the criteria of perfect results + extra curricular activities + …