Foreign Physics Graduate Students in the United States
The proportion of foreign citizens among first‐year physics graduate students in the US has now reached 42%. up from 17% in 1971. This dramatic increase has drawn attention to a wide range of issues, including the following:▸ The very small number of US‐born students who seek higher degrees in physics. Fewer than 800 US citizens a year, from a population of over 230 million, complete PhDs in physics.▸ The balance between theorists and experimenters in physics. Half of the growing number of new foreign‐student PhDs are theorists, yet for every physicist hired to do theoretical work, three are hired to do experimental work. What will happen when large numbers of theorists graduate in the next five years?