Could foreign college applicants decline in the U.S. under President-elect Trump? There’s an interesting piece in “The New York Times” today by Nida Najar and Stephanie Saul about how students who have been considering coming to the United States for their undergraduate and graduate studies might be rethinking their plans in light of the election of Donald Trump. President-elect Trump, after all, has championed anti-immigrant, xenophobic rhetoric during the course of his presidential campaign, and this has scared some students, among them Muslim students, away from studying in the United States.

The best universities are in the United States of America, no matter the occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. International applicants will still be applying in droves to American universities under the next American president.

As reported by Najar and Saul in their piece entitled “Is It Safe? Foreign Students Consider College in Donald Trump’s U.S,” “This year, the number of international students in United States colleges surpassed one million for the first time, bringing more than $32 billion a year into the economy and infusions of money to financially struggling colleges. College admissions officials in the United States caution that it is too early to draw firm conclusions about overseas applications, because deadlines for applications are generally in January and February. But they are worried that Mr. Trump’s election as president could portend a decline in international candidates. Canadian universities have already detected a postelection surge in interest from overseas.”

Do we believe that some students will second guess or rethink their decisions to pursue their educations in the United States because of the election of Donald Trump? Yes. Do we believe that the vast majority of students will second guess or rethink their decisions to come to the U.S. for their college and graduate school educations? No. And if there end up being fewer international applicants this year because of the results of the presidential election, we anticipate the numbers will return to pre-election levels the subsequent year. The best universities in the world are in the United States. And this isn’t going to change because of the next occupant of the White House.