Foreign students, high on Hollywood, came to the US, The Land of Opportunity, and most found it to be land of the BS, land of narrow-minded rednecks (unless they came to Boston, NY or SF), and after spending thousands of their parents hardearned dollars, they found themselves holding jobs that they would have gotten without any higher education. The slow down in foreign graduates was imminent even without 9/11 (seen Loose Change 2?). All that 9/11 did was, what was apparent only after living in the US for a while, became apparent before coming to the US. That’s all.