South Indian students liking for the US appears to be rising by the day, while students from the North Eastern regions of the country appears to be very less interested when compared to their peers in other regions.
This could be gathered from the facts that the maximum number of student visas are issued by the Consulate of US in Hyderabad, which is the visa granting centre for the students from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
The Consulate in Hyderabad granted around 27,000 student visas in the previous one year while Mumbai stood at second place with around 25,000 visas were granted, which was followed by Chennai with 18,500, Delhi with 11,000 and Kolkata with 3,700 visas.
It has been understood that around 90% of these visas were issued only to students and their parents generally visit the US on the business visa after their children complete their studies and took up a job.
The number of Indian students on the campuses of the US has been raised by 29.4% from 1,02,673 to 1,32,888 in the year 2014-15. The past record was of around 29.1% in the year 2000-01.
China tops the list with the rise of 11% to 3,04,040 students. Both India and China together constitutes around 45% of the foreign students in the US with India alone contributing around 14% of it.
Almost 80% of the students from India are in the field of Mathematics, Computer Science, Engineering and Business. 30% of all students from India who are residing in the US are on OPT program which permits the foreign students to work in the paid positions for a year after completing their degree program in the US and for extra 17 months if they are in STEM fields.
Around 64% of the Indian students prefer to take graduate courses, 12% students prefer taking undergraduate courses and one percent prefers taking non degree programs like English language or short term studies. 22% Indian students are under the OPT program.
