Both my kids grew up in the PNW and stayed in the area for college, even though we made trips to UT and other places. Both are now in the EU working on grad degrees and I have no expectation that they will come back to the US. Youngest is working on a global public health degree in Germany and wants to focus on refugees. Oldest is in Spain getting a PhD in something about droughts, floods, and food supply. If they and their HS/undergrad friend group is any indication, there’s a definite brain drain going on. One friend is doing a PhD at Glasgow, another is looking to move to Denmark after finishing a residency, another is planning on doing Econ post-doc work in the UK, one is applying for biology grad programs in Germany, and several others are looking to make the move. Only one of the 12 or so is completely augured into the US.
No Cloak, but did I mention they are all females?
My PhD daughter gets a small stipend, but even without, tuition would be negligible and degree is only three years instead of four—mostly because they don’t make you teach or TA anything. MS daughter also gets a little break and has fortunate timing as this is apparently the last year for fed loans to grad students (or something). She’ll either hook up with an NGO or go get a PhD.
FYI: in the US, three women get PhDs for every two guys and the gap widens every year. Smart women migrating within and outside of the US will have definite effects, many of which will be not good. Again, no Cloak Room, but we are repeatedly hitting ourselves in the nuts and it seems like we will continue to do so. Foreign universities may seem a non-starter to many right now, but that can change quickly, particularly as people do it, talk about it, and make it more visible and accepting.