American Colleges Have A New Slogan: Foreigners First
The future is bleak for our children, and it doesn’t seem to be changing anytime soon.
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There is a video circulating right now of students from an elite international prep school in El Salvador, Escuela Americana, celebrating their acceptance to top U.S. universities, including Northwestern, the University of Pennsylvania, Notre Dame, the University of Michigan, the University of Virginia, Georgia Tech, and Tufts. There were about 13 students featured in the video, and each student was accepted into an average of 3 U.S. colleges and universities.
Watching it on loop was probably not the wisest decision I’ve made recently, as it just further radicalized me against our elite institutions. I’ve heard horror stories from friends and acquaintances about their children not getting accepted into their top school, much less their so-called safety schools. These aren’t your run-of-the-mill students either. We are talking about kids who played multiple varsity sports, chaired clubs, logged significant volunteer hours, all while maintaining a 4.0 GPA and scoring highly on the SAT and ACT.
And I know that the ivory tower is going to scream down from its balcony, claiming that international students face steeper odds at the schools that matter most, like the ones mentioned in the video. They’ll argue that it’s hyper-competitive for all students, not just U.S. citizens, and that, actually, the acceptance rate for international students is lower than that of Americans.
And if this is the case, if it’s so competitive that our elite American students are not getting into college because there just simply aren’t enough slots, why then are we accepting international students at all? Why not save the availability for exceptional American students?
But when you start traveling down that road, it’s hard not to conclude that the institutions built on the backs of Americans no longer care about us. They don’t care about the Jacob Smiths or Elizabeth Jones of the world who have done everything asked of them and deserve one of those slots. It all comes down to money and lack of patriotism.
International students make up about 6 percent of total U.S. higher education enrollment. Their higher tuition rates generate a disproportionately larger share of tuition revenue for many colleges and universities compared to U.S. students. It’s become a BILLION-dollar industry. They use this money to bolster their endowment funds and fund pet projects. And they do all of this by hiding behind the national average enrollment of 6 percent, when in fact most of the colleges and universities highlighted in the video have a much higher percentage of international students than the national average.
For example. International students make up about 22 percent of the total student enrollment at the University of Michigan. At UPenn, it’s 32 percent. At Northwestern, it’s 27 percent. In some U.S. colleges, this number exceeds 50 percent, such as at Northeastern University in Boston, where international students make up 64 percent of the total enrollment.
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I’m a mother, and while I am still years away from college applications, I can’t help but see this video and worry about what it will be like when that time comes. The number of enrolled international students in the U.S. has effectively doubled since 2001. What will the number be when my daughters go to college?
Later came the realization that the best chance an American kid has for guaranteed U.S. college acceptance is for his parents to move to another country, become a citizen, and then apply as an international student.
Similar to the DEI acceptance policies (that marred U.S. higher education for years), the international status would bolster their chances.
How much do you have to either hate this country or be apathetic to the plight of American students to allow this to happen?
For generations, we’ve told our children that the path to success is paved through a college education. Work hard in high school, get accepted into college, finish your degree in a sought-after field (STEM, medical, law, etc.), and the world is your oyster. Except that’s hardly the truth anymore.
The first step is to fight against international students for college admission. But even if you win that battle, the war isn’t over. Next comes job hunting after graduation. Then you, as an American who made it through the college gauntlet, are forced to fight for the few positions available in your field against the growing number of H1-B visa holders. The business world doesn’t see you or your citizenship as worthy of anything. Instead, they see international applicants as the better option for their bottom line.
This phenomenon is radicalizing.
The knee-jerk reaction is to tell Americans to forgo college. “They are merely indoctrination stations anyway. You’d be better off in the trades.” And for some, this is true. Owning your own plumbing or electrical business is perfectly respectable and can yield a successful income.
But the trades aren’t for everyone. So we are essentially telling the exceptional that it’s just tough luck that you were born in an era where we don’t reward that sort of thing. “Have you tried livestreaming?”
The future is bleak for our children, and it doesn’t seem to be changing anytime soon. In fact, when I looked at the video’s comment section, whenever someone pointed out that the best option was to deny all international students so Americans would get their slots, the original poster seemed confused about why they would even suggest that.
“US schools should not accept foreigners,” one comment stated.
“I don’t get that take. I am honestly curious to know why people believe that’s the right approach. Considering: Foreign student tuition is a lot higher. Going to US college does not solve legal immigration route for the student. Admission is merit based. Why shouldn’t they?” the original poster responded.
“Why should a public school such as UCLA, UMich, Univ Wisconsin, Univ of Texas, UVA accept any foreigners? The domestic residents of such states and the other citizens of USA have a moral super-priority right to such resources. Just because the foreign nepo baby is paying slightly more money is not an intellectually rigorous answer,” the commenter responded.
And they are right. U.S. higher education is the path to success in America. The ability to enter into that should not now or ever be unconditional. It should prioritize American students first and foremost. If other countries want to educate their students, it should be rare for them to send them to the U.S. These are American institutions that should be used at the pleasure of American students.
I’m trying very hard not to be an isolationist. It’s not a healthy way to live, and I know that. However, there is merit to the argument that we should look out for Americans first. And if we have colleges and universities that can’t financially survive without millions of dollars in international student tuition, then they deserve to fail because they have sinned against our country and its citizens. Every day that goes by, when another story like this comes to light, only serves to harden this for me.
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