International Students Less Likely to Stay in Philadelphia Area After Graduation 

Jen Kebea, president of Campus Philly, a nonprofit focused on recruitment, engagement and retention of college talent in the Greater Philadelphia area, discussed a 2019 study with Technical.ly, an online news site for technologists and entrepreneurs.

Campus Philly completed a retention data study in 2019 that found the region was retaining 54% of its college students, Kebeba told Technical.ly. However, Kebaba said that within the pool of STEM graduates, some are highly retained, such as those in biology and other life sciences-related subjects; others, such as those in computer science and information technology majors, are less likely to stay in the area.

The more recent report also showed a high number of international students coming to the region to study computer science, Kebea told Technical.ly. Some factors that may draw more international students to Philadelphia, include the variety in higher learning institutions, from community college to the Ivy League, as well as a lower cost of living compared to other U.S. cities, she said.

Anca Scarlat from Romania and Vivek Khimani from India, both computer science majors graduating from Drexel this month, have jobs already lined up, according to the Technical.ly article. Scarlat will work for software engineer at Viasat in San Diego, while Khimani is going to be a software engineer at San Francisco-based security startup Semgrep, the report said.

The story in Technical.ly is written by Sarah Huffman. (June 2023)
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