On: As Flow of Foreign Students Wanes, U.S. Universities Feel the Sting

[nopinsight]

You may wish to look at recent performance of different countries in academic competitions like International Math Olympiad and International Physics Olympiad for some objective metrics:

https://imo-official.org/year_country_r.aspx?year=2017

http://www.ipho2017.id/home#official-results-of-ipho-2017

The US ranks decently but behind China, Russia, and Vietnam, in both subjects.

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Also take a note of the last names of these US representatives (comprehensive lists for both subjects):

IMO 2017: Lin, Gu, Bhattacharya, Chroman, Peng, Huang

IPhO 2017: Song, Raman, Balaji, Qin, Shi

I would guess that, for many if not most of them, their ancestors just immigrated to the US 1-2 generations ago.

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Edit for the last sentence of my comment above (which is not factually accurate, although the point stands):

The US usually ranks well but often comes behind China, Russia, or less well-known countries like Vietnam.

Top talent are born all over the world. With global education becoming more decent esp in developing nations, these talented people can flourish and become competitive with those born in developed countries. 7+ billion surely include many more top talent than 300+ million.