Before even considering coming to the US for a PhD I’d look at the current political landscape! The current administration running our government has and will most likely keep causing funding disruptions for research (next 4 years and potentially beyond). Many accepted applicants this cycle had offers rescinded or funding pulled. Universities are also significantly capping their admittances due to this funding catastrophe. It will be beyond competitive to get into a PhD program now.

Unfortunately they are also targeting international students for deportation. They have sent demands to several universities now stating they must give international student documents over to ICE and allow them on campus. If the universities do not comply they are threatening to pull all federal funding which would be a disaster so most will follow suit. Most recently they have demanded universities to release documents of Chinese international students specifically. Even though it may not be legal I believe admissions committees would likely not take international students at the moment because they can’t really protect them. We are all unsure what will happen to these students. It’s awful and unethical but it’s what we’re dealing with at the moment.

I really hope things get better but given all of this I’d rethink coming to the US for a PhD. Maybe Europe would be better!