Canberra students could be prime targets for US universities eyeing increased long-term international student numbers, according to an education industry leader.
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Fee deregulation of Australian universities - still in doubt due to opposition in the Senate - would only further encourage students to look to America.
International Education Association of Australia executive director Phil Honeywood said US institutions had increased their interest in international students in recent years, with Australians willing to travel losing little financially in some places.
"Even now Australian students can find lower-ranked US universities that are fairly inexpensive, and because a lot of the universities are in regional towns or have cheap on-campus accommodation, when you look at total fees and living costs it can be quite competitive," he said.
Mr Honeywood said he was not aware of any meet and greets planned for US university promotion officers in Canberra, but advertising for information sessions in Sydney with staff from 18 universities, including Yale and Brown, had been extended to ACT students.
"Per head of population Canberra is the wealthiest city in Australia, and Canberra[ns are] also globally mobile," he said.
Australian National University psychology student Samantha Cooper, 23, said she had loved her one-semester exchange to Pennsylvania in 2013.
"If I was an American student and had to pay that [higher] money anyway I would definitely choose Penn State [university] ... I loved it, I'm a big American football fan ... they're very patriotic about their university," she said.
"But I think staying in Australia is a better option. Even if there's deregulation of fees, HECS is a great system and gives students an equality - the government would still cover about half the course costs."
Mr Honeywood said US universities had had less funding, particularly from state governments after the global financial crisis, forcing them to look overseas.
Most of the 4730 Australians who studied in the US last year were on short-term trips. Double the number of Americans studied here.
Australian American Association president Alicia Doherty said interest in the organisation's annual scholarship - which is not limited to university study - for an 18 to 25-year-old to go to the US had "exploded" last year, with 28 applicants instead of the usual two or three.
An ANU spokesman said 254 ANU students had been on exchanges to US universities since 2007, with many more completing study abroad or short-trip programs. There had been 202 US exchange students at ANU in the same period.
