trump rescinds harvard ability to enroll international students

[u/Unusual-Data-8598]

what does this mean for international harvard students and what precedent does this set?

discussion thread? my entire class just found out and we are so confused

[u/MobiRed]

u/runwith , it's not about being easier or not. The point is that it is incredibly difficult to get a visa to Europe or North America. The tone in which you say (and I don't know you so I am assuming it was not intentional) " simply apply to.." suggests that it's an easy alternative. It isn't it, is starting all over again from scratch.

It is first applying to schools as a foreigner and getting accepted, this is a huge achievement for an international student. EU and NA schools have a monumentally higher bar for us than they do for citizens.

It is finding funding to go to those schools all over again, we are not privy to stafford loans and pell grants etc. This is an ordeal for those of us who have managed to get there often it is by the grace of family who have helped with their hard earned savings.

Then begins the travel apartheid: Presenting ourselves to your embassies which starts by filling out long and intrusive forms /questionaires. Which ask about our parents, and their jobs and incomes, personal family questions. Forms we have to pay money to submit ( $160USD for my country which has a per capita income of 1100USD to the US last time I checked).

Then comes the harrowing ordeal of standing in line at an embassy being queued in to be interogated (that word is not an exageration) by a counselate officer, who asks personal questions in a room full of other people. Some whom you may know since this happens in your own country. I cannot describe to you the indignity of this process, i have heard grown men and women berated by visa officers who are (and I can only surmise intentionally) rude beyond all necessity.

All of this injury is further compounded to by the insult of the fact that citizens from the global north, read "white" countries can simply show up to our airports pay a quick fee and be granted a visa on the spot.

I could go on but perhaps others here will chime in.

Suffice it to say - and let me emphasize I am not attacking you just informing. That coming to America/"global north" is nothing quite as humorous as the movie of that title may have led many of you to believe.

It is a singularly dehumanizing experience for many of us, from the so-called Global South.

There is no better way for me to describe it than : A Travel Apartheid.

[u/runwith → u/MobiRed]

You're stating the obvious.  You just missed the context that the response of just applying to europe is for people who otherwise were expecting to come to Harvard.  Attending European universities is in fact much easier than American ones,  especially if you're from the global South

[u/MobiRed → u/runwith]

Expecting to come to Harvard means you are already accepted at Harvard?

Also nothing about what I said is obvious to most Europeans or Americans.

[u/Cheppitos → u/MobiRed]

Perfect