ABSTRACT
This chapter contributes to the literature examining post-graduation plans of international students. It examines a wide range of factors international students consider in their post-graduation planning. The chapter not only investigates which factors students consider in their post-graduation plans, but also looks at whether perceptions of the United States, initial migration motivations, and social connections in the host country shape their plans. It distinguishes among different subsets of international students (males and females, as well as those attending different types of institutions). The chapter explicitly includes undergraduate students at teaching universities. Those at teaching universities more often marked standard of living and quality of life, while more students at research universities expressed concern about the political and economic situation. While differences according to gender and type of institution attended in the United States are overall moderate, the chapter showed that women and those at teaching institutions report factors discouraging staying in the United States at higher rates.
