> In the fall of 2015, about 55 percent of all graduate students in mathematics, computer sciences and engineering were from abroad. The dearth of Americans is

> In the fall of 2015, about 55 percent of all graduate students in mathematics, computer sciences and engineering were from abroad. The dearth of Americans is even more pronounced in hot STEM fields: About 64 percent of doctoral candidates and almost 68 percent in master’s programs last year were international students. The NYT is trying to vaguely suggest that Americans are being crowded out by foreigners and that Americans can't get advanced degrees because foreigners take all the spots. But it could be BOTH true that foreigners make up the majority and that Americans do get many more advanced degrees than in the past -- because university education has expanded greatly in the last few decades. For sake of example: Suppose in 1950, there was 100,000 advanced degrees awarded in the US per year and they were all Americans. Suppose today that there are 1,000,000 advanced degrees of which 45% are Americans (and 55% foreigners). In my contrived example, it's still true that foreigners make up the majority, but the number of Americans getting advanced degrees has jumped from 100,000 to 450,000. I don't know if I'm right about this, but just saying that the NYT hasn't proved their point.