[PedOncoDoc]

Originally Posted by nmap

Let's hope you're right.

Sometime, pick a research university. Go visit the college of sciences. Walk around. Look at the students. I strongly suspect you'll find lots of students that aren't from the U.S. - many are from China. Some are from India. There don't seem to be too many Americans.

Will that investment in intellectual capital pay off for them? Time will tell.

Will they surpass the U.S. in terms of economic power? Again, we shall see.

Foreign graduate/doctoral students seem to be preferntially selected in the ivory tower. They are removed from their family and culture, so they tend to work and take care of bodily functions; not much else. The career academicians know they are geting much more work from these people than they will from anyone else, and I've seen threats of pulling funding from foreign students if they don't pull 14-18 hours daily which would send these students packing. I've also seen foreign grads intentionally have children while in our country then ship the children off to live with the grandparents (perhaps to get around regulations in their own county). The American students (aside from the seeming sens of entitlement they all have), are trying to start/raise families and have a life outside of the lab - this takes away from the cheap labor's productivity which makes them less desirable candidates.

Should our universities be taking our students first and then open unfilled slots to foreign grad applicants? This would take serious reform of the petty games and politics in the ivory tower that none who are "in power" in these institutions want to see happen.

Admittedly, this is a bit of an over generalization, but it is MOO, YMMV.....