Reply #11: well, actually, most programs won't accept a student into a PhD without also offering them support

[Runcible Spoon]

through grants, fellowships, TA/GAships or some combination of the above. Departments don't make money off of grad students, unless you you count the school as a whole making money from their cheap labor and the increasing trend of giving PhD students and even MA students full classes to teach. And in that case it doesn't matter where the student comes from.

I, too, don't blame Chinese students for wanting the best opportunity and I agree that we should examine why US students are filling more of those spots. However I don't think it's as simplistic as "US students wanna go study business or law and rake in money". I had really strong GRE scores, finished my department's honors thesis program, won several awards and even had a publication credit, and almost flawless grades from my undergrad university, but I only got into 2 of the 6 PhD programs I applied to. I suspect my shortcoming was not playing the social network game well enough and getting to know the people on the admissions boards. Even my glowing recommendations weren't enough; in one case I knew a student who went to a conference, got drunk with someone on the admissions board of a school she wanted to go to, and POOF she's in because the professor liked her. Even though her GRE scores were abysmal.

There are so very many things that go into PhD program admissions procedures that I don't have the energy to even get into it here, but I WILL say that the reputation/stereotype of foreign students and Asian students in particular as hard workers who will take whatever you throw at them and never, ever complain is a factor. Especially considering how they abuse PhD students and even MA students, using them as cheap labor for introductory classes without paying them anything different, and considering how a foreign student is less likely to start a stink and demand unionization, out of fear of losing their ability to stay and study, they are looked at as perfect choices.

Add to all of this the fact that China can't build enough schools to keep up with teh demand, and we are seeing the logical outcome.