Hyderabadi Students Head to the US in Droves For STEM Masters

The city of Hyderabad in India is among the top 5 sources of international students in the US, and a major source of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) students in the world.

It is poorer than cities like Seoul, and smaller than Cities like Beijing, Delhi, or Mumbai, yet punches above its weight consistently in the numbers of students it sends to the US.

There are some other quite interesting trends to be seen while playing around with the first chart.

For instance,

Kathmandu is the smallest city in terms of population, but highest in terms of the % of its population that goes to the US to study.

Delhi sends very few students abroad for a city of its population.

Tokyo, the biggest and most populous city in the world, isn’t even on this list.

Seoul just sends a ton of students to the US.

Being from the region, I know that sending your children to the US to study masters is almost standard practice among the rich and upper middle class in the city.

Unsurprisingly, the data backs it up. 4 of the top 5 are from my region of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, and Chennai is another South Indian city.

The intensity of the STEM students from my region and city becomes especially evident in the next chart. Hyderabad sends around half the number of students to the US compared to Beijing or Seoul. But because almost 80% of Hyderabadi students go to study STEM subjects, it is the biggest source of foreign STEM students in the US. The rest of the top ten is peppered by other Indian cities, which also have the high STEM percentage, but lower overall numbers.

So where are all the Hyderabadi kids going?

The glorious SF Bay Area, Silicon Valley, mainly.

And you can really see it there, all the Indian restaurants, the people walking in the parks, and in the languages you hear.

And lastly, these are the top 5 college destinations for Hyderabadis.

1. Herguan University

2. International Technological University

3. Stratford University

4. Tri-Valley University

5. University of Northern Virginia

Of these, two are accredited by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS) whose recognition has beenrevoked by the US Department of Education due to the body’s poor oversight of the institutions it accredited. Another two universities have closed down after investigation by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.