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In France, American Universities Lose Their Allure in the Trump Era

“I had this idealized vision of it in my head,” said Ms. Sadlo, now 18. Then came the... “My mom told me she would not pay for it,” Ms. Sadlo said, adding, “Now I kind of see it.”...

NYTIMES 입력 2026.04.29 18:52 0

In France, American Universities Lose Their Allure in the Trump Era

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In France, American Universities Lose Their Allure in the Trump Era

Worries about visas, academic freedom and safety are making foreign schools, like Sciences Po in Paris, more attractive to some students than the Ivy League.

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Sciences Po students in Reims, France, last week. The institution is attracting American students seeking respite from the upheaval of the Trump era.

Mark Landler

Photographs by

Dmitry Kostyukov

Reporting from Paris and Reims, France

April 29, 2026,

5:51 a.m. ET

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Amélie Sadlo had her heart set on college in the United States. She’d gone to summer school at Brown University and found its Ivy League campus in Providence, R.I., a world away from her bucolic hometown in the Austrian Alps. “I had this idealized vision of it in my head,” said Ms. Sadlo, now 18.

Then came the election of President Trump in 2024. A cousin of Ms. Sadlo’s who is studying in the United States ran into trouble with his visa. There was a

deadly shooting on Brown’s campus

. Suddenly the Ivy League no longer beckoned. “My mom told me she would not pay for it,” Ms. Sadlo said, adding, “Now I kind of see it.”

Instead, she chose Sciences Po, an elite French university that trains diplomats, journalists and politicians. It has long attracted students from around the world but in the last year has become a kind of sanctuary — both for foreign students anxious about going to the United States during the Trump presidency and for American students seeking respite from the upheaval of the Trump era.

Applications from the United States to Sciences Po’s bachelor’s program surged 52 percent this academic year, while the number of Sciences Po students applying to study for a year in the United States has plunged by 50 percent. For the first time ever, America is not the first choice for its undergraduates, who must study abroad during their third year, said Jeremy Perelman, the university’s vice president for international affairs.

This sudden shift has posed an acute challenge to Sciences Po, which tries to balance the students enrolling from overseas with those who leave for a year. It has asked American universities to reduce the number of students they send to its seven campuses around France to avoid overcrowding. Other international schools in Europe, like the London School of Economics, have also experienced spikes in applications from the United States.

Image

Amélie Sadlo of Austria at the Sciences Po campus in Reims. After Ms. Sadlo’s cousin had visa trouble in the United States, the Ivy League seemed less appealing.

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