Posted on 09/16/2025 5:28:25 AM PDT by cotton1706
Amid the decline in international and graduate students, vacancy rates have ticked up near major universities
Longtime Cambridge real estate agent Dino Confalone manages a rental property north of Kendall Square, where housing demand is typically sky-high. Near MIT and the Red Line, it’s furnished with a leather sectional, an extra-wide fridge, and a manicured backyard. And despite rent of $6,250 a month, it’s usually a breeze to lease to visiting scholars who are only here for shorter periods and do not want to live out of a hotel. “I’ve never, ever had an issue getting people in there,” said Confalone, a realtor with Gibson Sotheby’s International Realty. “But this is the first time it’s just crickets.”
Vacancies like this one are popping up all around the city this fall, suggesting that a long-feared downturn of students and scholars has finally arrived. Colleges do not release annual enrollment data until later in the fall, but signs are emerging that there may be fewer international and graduate students in the Boston area this academic year. Amid broad cuts to federal research funding, some master’s and PhD candidates are reconsidering their studies in the US. And new visa restrictions, and mounting hostility from the Trump administration, could lessen the number of international students by 20 to 30 percent, said Tom Dretler, chief executive of the international student advising service Shorelight Education.
A monthlong disruption to visa appointments at US offices overseas this spring did not ultimately stop the flow of students from Latin America, Vietnam, or Saudi Arabia, Dretler added. But there are fewer coming from China and India, which combined accounted for almost half of the 82,000 foreign students in Massachusetts last year. Virtually no visa appointments have been available for students in India over the past several months.
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“But there are fewer coming from China and India”
WINNING!
My son applied for a PHD program at Harvard in Biotechnology. When he visited the lab in Cambridge it was 100% Chinese students. Even the professor was Chinese American. He stated he would have had to learn Manderin to work there. He did not get the appointment.
He did get one at GA Tech but decided to take a job at a major Pharma corp instead. It would have taken six years to get a PHD. During that time he would have had to live on a stipend of under $40K/year. Which means I would probably still be supporting him. He is now 27 and makes a six figure salary primarily developing cancer drugs.
It may have changed, but Mission Hill was right next to the projects when I lived in the area 40 years ago. It was a slum neighborhood. Who knows how unsafe it might be today?
The feel good story of the day!
Is there any dearth of university students overall in the Boston area reported from the universities? If no, then winning! Maybe a lot of them are relatives or associates who followed the int’l students from their home s***holes. More winning!
‘Amid broad cuts to federal research funding’...
Perhaps they could replace lost federal funding with their huge endowment. Perhaps large corporations could help fill the gap. Perhaps folks are just sick to death with the way that school operates.
The illegals are self deporting.
College is a scam for the most part because most people don’t need college. The truth is catching on.
I’m from Dorchester. Mission Hill still isn’t all that great.
A few years back I parked for a Saturday Red Sox game at the Copley Square parking garage. Right under the Back Bay Sheraton. They offer a discount for game day parking.
I parked right near a Lamborghini. It was covered in so much dust that someone had written with their finger WASH ME :) on the windshield. This was a $300K automobile. I asked the parking attendant how long had it been there? He said at least six months because that is how long he had worked there. I asked who owned it. He said he was told is was some rich Chinese kid going to MIT or Harvard.
One of the biggest scam of the 20th century - right up there with the MIC.
They’ll still ask for a one month “fee” to even sign a lease. I’d never heard of such a thing until I moved to the Boston area.
“College is a scam for most people”
This is what Charlie Kirk preached for years. It is true for probably at least half if not more of the college students and classes they are forced to take to graduate.
Things like Sociology. I personally took Astronomy, Scuba Diving, Photography and Russian Studies as electives when I was at SUNY ESF/Syracuse(SU).
HOWEVER, to be an engineer, a MD, biotechnology or many other STEM fields college is needed. I took Statics, Mechanics, Strength of Materials, Structural Design, Calculus 1 & 2 among other advanced math and physics classes to get a BS in Wood Products Engineering. I also took a lot of Marketing classes. Which is how I ended up a Lumber Trader/broker. It all started with freshman wood shop in high school though. I still have many things I made in four years of high school shop classes.
My buddies and I all took Astronomy on Wednesday night in our senior year at SU because we heard it was an easy A. That it was a good way to increase your GPA. It was once a week class from 6pm-9pm. In a lecture hall with 400 other kids. It was taught by an actual professor. There was a mid term and a final. No homework. We all got an A.
I took photography and Scuba because as a SUNY student the state of New York would pay for the lab fee. At the time it was $250 for the Scuba course. I got PADI certified. SU students had to pay the full lab fee themselves. I did my open water dive in one of the Finger lakes.
In photography the state of NY again paid the lab fee. I think it was $75. This was 1984. So that was a lot of money back then. My tuition was only a couple grand per year. SU tuition was $9K. All us SUNY students thought they were getting ripped off.
There was a rich girl from the middle east in the photo course. Her dad had bought her a very expensive Minolta camera. Which she had no idea how to use. I recall the teacher was impressed. A couple of the guys tried to hit on her. She rebuffed their advances politely. The rumor was she might have been some Sheiks daughter.
On the opposite side of the scale there were a lot of JAPs at Syracuse U. I do not means Japanese. I mean Jewish American Princess’s. Most came up from Long Gisland. They were there for one reason only. TO FIND A HUSBAND.
Translated: foreign invaders and taxpayer-funded illegals were flooding our universities.
The leftist extremist ignorant barbarians of Boston and other cities have zero clue of what is really happening in the world.
A little financial pain might get them to pay attention.
Good now let American kids have those University slots.
Since no one else mentioned it, **$6250 A MONTH!?!?!?** YOWSA!
The MIT museum was a nice place to visit, but a whole lot of Boston could go away and the world would be better off.
75,000 a year for an apartment?
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