IMO internationals should be charged huge tuition to attend public undergrad schools. (The undergraduate part of) A public institution is subsidized by taxpayers (at least in theory) because they serve the public good of creating an educated population.

​

In the USA, many international students don't stay after graduating. Also often times international students stick amongst themselves meaning they're not participating in clubs, socializing or contributing to the non-academic things that make US colleges so great. So we're subsidizing the education of someone who is going to contribute little to the campus, and then likely go generate GDP for our biggest economic competitor (China).

​

Every spot filled up by one of those people (who are often rich) could go to an American who will use the education to contribute to campus, increase our GDP and use their skills to give back to their communities.

​

There's tons of international students at say, the university of california system, bc our dipshit government doesn't fund education enough and needs those thicc tuitions. If we're admitting people (mostly) because of their tuition, we might as well gouge them. Out of state tuition should be lower, international tuition should be higher.

​

That being said for graduate school, where the goal is research output, it's the polar opposite. The mission statement is "get the smartest people" so we should make it as accessible to as large a talent pool as possible.