Heading out to a foreign country for an expensive 4 year plan really requires some faith that the immigration bureaucracy is somewhat forgiving. Like bureaucracies it's... well, a bureaucracy, and paperwork can slip through the cracks or be rejected for random reasons. Which is ok, if it's forgiving, but not if you suddenly find yourself illegally overstaying a Visa and can't return to the country. Whatever the reality, if that perception changes, people just aren't
going to come.
The number of newly arriving international students declined an average 7 percent in fall 2017, with 45 percent of campuses reporting drops in new international enrollment, according to a survey of nearly 500 campuses across the country by the Institute of International Education.
I'm sure it will be worse next year. Plans were already in the works when Trump got started.
