How the ‘Trump Effect’ Is Driving Foreign Students Away From U.S. B-Schools

In January, Rodrigo Paolucci sold his 50-person video distribution startup in São Paulo, planning to go to business school overseas. Although he’d long dreamed of getting an MBA in Silicon Valley or New York, he applied only to the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. The reason: The Trump administration’s anti-immigration rhetoric “makes it harder for foreigners,” says Paolucci, who got a scholarship from Rotman that covers 40 percent of tuition. Just as important, his wife will be able to work as soon as they move to Toronto this summer, and they’ll be able to stick around for three years after he graduates. “Of course you want to be at Stanford or Columbia, but you have to place your bets,” says Paolucci, 31. “Top talent is going to go where it’s welcome.”

The Graduate Management Admission Council, which administers business school entrance exams, says about two-fifths of 547 foreign applicants it surveyed in March were less likely to pursue a graduate management degree in America as a result of the 2016 election. And two-thirds of 86 U.S. MBA programs queried this spring have received fewer international applications this year than last, the GMAC says. Tim Mescon, a vice president at AACSB International, a B-school accrediting group, attributes it to the “Trump effect.” With increasing concern over the president’s travel ban, anti-immigration rhetoric, and proposals to tighten visa rules, “students and their families begin to look for alternatives,” he says. “This is a very dangerous scenario for higher education in the U.S.”