Nearly half of the Indian students pursuing higher education in the US are spread over six American states — New York, California, Texas, Illinois, Massachusetts and Arizona, which host 12 higher educational institutions in the top 100 in the latest round of QS rankings, show data obtained from Open Doors reports.
In 2021, the largest cohort of Indian students was in New York (22,279), followed by California (20,106), Texas (19,382) Massachusetts (16,407), Illinois (12,209) and Arizona (8,345). This forms 49.56 per cent of the 199,182 Indian students pursuing higher education in the US.
A comparative analysis shows that these states are a huge draw for students from China as well, registering the presence of 55 per cent of the country’s students enrolled in higher education courses in the US in 2022. India and China collectively account for 52 per cent of all international students in the US.
While the Open Doors reports do not explain the pull factors that draw students to these states, the global QS rankings provide some clues. They are home to some of the best universities in the world, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which has been the top-ranked higher educational institution in the rankings over the past 11 years.
New York has three universities placed in the top 100: New York University (39), Columbia University (22) and Cornell University (20). California has three, as well: University of California, San Diego (55), University of California, Los Angeles (44), University of California, Berkeley (27).
While the University of Texas, Austin, is ranked 72 by QS, the University of Texas, Dallas, and Texas A&M University host the majority of overseas students, the reports show.
Over the past two days, The Indian Express reported other key findings from a comparative analysis of Open Doors data. Students from India are more likely to stay back in the US after their degree, than those from China, and sign up for the Optional Practical Training programme that allows foreign graduates with student visas to join paid or voluntary work for up to three years. And, programmes in mathematics and computer sciences have overtaken engineering as the most popular draw for Indian students headed to the US for higher education.
The relatively smaller Kentucky also stands out among the states preferred. Although the data currently shows 4,570 Indian students there, Indians account for 51.4 per cent of all the foreign-origin students in the state. In contrast, students from China account for only 8.3 per cent of all international students in this state.
Arizona and New Jersey rank second in terms of share of Indians in the total number of foreign-origin students. In both the states, Indians account for 32.5 per cent each of the total foreign student population.
More than half of Arizona’s 8,891 foreign students were enrolled at Campbellsville University (not ranked in QS), University of Kentucky-Lexington (ranked 701-750), and University of Louisville (ranked 801-1000). And, the data show, around 32 per cent of students in New Jersey attended Rutgers University-New Brunswick, which is known for its Computer and Information Science program.
The proportion of Chinese students in these states stand at 27.9 per cent and 34.1 per cent, respectively.
Open Doors reports are prepared based on surveys of international exchange activity in the US by the US Department of State and the non-profit Institute of International Education (IIE).
