Indian students rethink studies in the US and the American Dream

NEW DELHI/BENGALURU – Education consultant Anirudh Gupta has received numerous calls over the last couple of weeks from Indian students in the US asking him whether they should return home for the summer or stay put, over fears that their visas could be cancelled or that they would face trouble during re-entry.

The recent deportation of more than 300 international students, including Indians, on the grounds of activism, terror links or crimes has created a climate of fear and confusion among the international student community.

With the uncertainty fomented by the Trump administration’s erratic visa policies, Mr Gupta does not have a definitive answer for these queries.

But he has a clearer message for students and parents in the process of deciding future study plans: Going to the US is a big “no”.

“I tell parents, if their child has got into the top 20 universities in the US, they should go ahead. Otherwise, I tell them to explore other options,” Mr Gupta, director of Mindways Consulting, a Delhi-based education consultation service, told The Straits Times.

Students who had planned to go to the US for their studies have pivoted to Britain, he added.

Indian students used to aim for the best university they could get into, or choose a destination country where they had higher chances of gaining a work permit, work experience or eventual residency. “Now that question has become secondary. People are worried about geopolitics,” Mr Gupta said.

Indian students and academics were caught up in a

US crackdown on pro-Palestine activism

in March. The US revoked Columbia University PhD student Ranjani Srinivasan’s visa, prompting her to self-deport. Immigration authorities also detained Georgetown University professor Badar Khan Suri, who is married to an American citizen who was originally from Gaza, but a court stopped his deportation. 

Other global flashpoints have disrupted Indians’ overseas studies. The 2022 outbreak of war in Ukraine saw 18,000 students, many studying medicine, being evacuated from the country.

This was followed by a

diplomatic tiff between India and Canada

, which accused Indian diplomats and intelligence agencies of involvement in the killing of a prominent Sikh-Canadian activist in early 2023.

As Canada tightened its visa rules, the number of Indian university students there fell drastically from 233,532 in 2023 to 137,608 in 2024.

And in the US, where Indians made up the largest group of international students in 2024 with 331,602 enrolled in higher education, their future there seemingly now hangs in the balance.

University admissions for the fall intake have just begun, so it is too early to tell if Indian student numbers will drop in 2025.

Doubts and fears

Students, education consultants and parents interviewed by ST expressed concerns about studying in the US and the chances of working there.

“We decided against sending our son to the US because of the finances and Trump’s policies,” said the mother of a student who has received offer letters from both Australian and American universities.

The rupee has fallen against the greenback, and they were also concerned about the increasing right-wing diatribe against foreigners in the US.

“I don’t want my son to study in such an atmosphere. And we are already stretched as it is, financially. If something were to disrupt his studies, our financial plan will go for a toss.”

Indian families were concerned about any potential disruptions to their children’s education, as a foreign education is a large financial commitment, said Dr Pratibha Jain, the founder of Mumbai-based Eduabroad Consulting.

“Parents are saving, taking out loans. It’s a very planned effort, so they are not in a position to absorb any knee-jerk reactions,” she said. “Mostly, people are worried about visas. Can the child come and go during holidays, and where will the child go during the summer holidays? It adds to expenses.”

Mr Suraj Peri, founder of education consultancy Gradvine that advises students applying for the top 20 American institutions, said recent applicants had “low morale, lots of questions, and a lot of anxiety”.

He said there has been a “definite dip in interest” in studying in the US, but this “is not all attributable to the recent crackdowns alone”.

“Most students prefer to go to the US for job opportunities, irrespective of the field, but especially for Stem (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), followed by humanities and arts,” Mr Peri said.

“In the past couple of years, the recession, tech layoffs, and overall macroeconomic trends have not been in favour of people applying to the US.”

Lie low, depoliticise

President Donald Trump’s crackdown on political activism on campuses has stoked fears among international students about their ability to remain in the US.

A New York University student said school officials issued advisories not to travel outside the US at the moment, to “avoid the increased checks of phones, documents and social media activity by immigration officials” at the port of return.

He, like other students ST interviewed, declined to provide his name for fear of retaliation. 

University officials have also held town halls telling foreign students that “the best practice now would be to lie low”, said an Indian graduate student at Columbia University. 

“The message is clearly to depoliticise yourself,” he said. 

This “atmosphere of fear” is worsened by “an extreme securitisation of the campus”, he said.

“The gates open only if you tap your ID. There are large numbers of campus guards, even uniformed officers around campus. There is also an anti-Semitism task force that’s trying to find and target people for expulsion... it’s a very loose application of what constitutes anti-Semitism.”

The humanities student, who had hoped to work in the US for a few years after graduating, added: “I don’t know if it was my illusion that the US would be a place of freedom, liberty and free speech. But a lot of things have unravelled in the past year, and this day-to-day anxiety of whether you’re doing the right thing, you’re being reported, or your social media is being scanned is hard.” 

An Indian PhD student working on artificial intelligence in New York is meticulously scrubbing all his social media posts that are “remotely political”. He said he has never taken part in any protests or rallies, but fears losing his student visa “over social media activity”.

Gone are his Facebook chats, comments and phone messages on politics in India or America, including a remark he made to a friend on a messaging app that Mr Elon Musk should focus on making Tesla cars better, rather than do politics with Mr Trump. He has also unfollowed journalists or anyone political who tweets about the war in Gaza or Mr Trump. 

He did not even return to India when his grandmother died a few weeks ago, as advised by a university lawyer, to avoid the reportedly heightened scrutiny of documents and social media accounts at the airport upon his return. 

His Indian wife, who also studied in the US and is now on a dependent visa, said that she, too, had “sanitised my online presence, because we don’t know what will tick (the US government) off”. 

Goodbye, American Dream

Grappling with high tuition fees and living expenses, some Indian students are now concerned about the Trump administration’s new restrictions on part-time employment, and withdrawal of crucial university grants, especially in the Stem fields they dominate. 

The Trump administration has already cut or threatened to pull hundreds of millions in federal funding from colleges and universities, for not doing enough to curb anti-Semitism on their campuses. 

This will likely have ramifications on research grants and academic jobs that many graduate students rely on, as will Mr Trump’s hire-local campaign.

H-1B work visa applications have become more onerous since January. This visa allows foreigners with speciality skills, such as tech professionals, to live and work in the US for up to six years, during which they can apply for a green card.

Indian workers have consistently accounted for over 70 per cent of the H-1B visas issued, but rejection rates have risen in the past five years.

“This is all we students talk about these days. The jobs, research opportunities and salaries that looked so bright for us feel uncertain now. It’s not just about political activism – there is a dip in hope that I’ll be able to build a career here,” a doctoral student in Boston doing research in biomedical science told ST.

Until a few months ago, she had planned to apply for postdoctoral positions that could lead to faculty jobs, but is now considering a move to Australia or Britain. 

The tighter rules on work visas and permanent residencies, she said, make building a life in the US seem “too stressful to contemplate”.