Some international students are afraid to come to the U.S for school. Because of Trump’s rhetoric, some people (especially Muslims/Africans/Middle Easterns) have the impression that it won’t be safe , or will become unsafe.
In the American side, there has also been heightened interest in HBCUs, women’s colleges, and Canadian colleges.
McGill University (in Canada) normally gets 1,000 views a day. The day after the election, they said their website got 10,000 visitors.
Immediately after the election, I received e-mails from Cornell and some other schools, for the sole purpose of reminding me that their school likes diversity, and they stand against racism, sexism, etc.
My question is, if the above is accurate, will Trump’s election make admission easier for some? Will it make it harder for others? If a school projects that less international students will be there to pay full tuition, will it cut financial aid for regular Americans?
Agreed. The people who are generally applying for student visas are not/will not be concerned. There was another alarmist thread about the risks of reinstituting the draft. SMH.
I’m not sure if “alarmist” is the right word. Just saying. His election may have several consequences for college applications and/or admissions. Will he block Muslim students from entering the country? That could free space for others.
How will research money be allocated from the Federal G? Past Republican admins have drastically cut money for basic research and research that may look into things that are not popular with the base, for example guns. Fed funding affects departments and schools–as the school takes a huge percentage of any grant as “overhead” sometimes as much as 70%. The school will need to find funding elsewhere to repair roofs and provide lab spaces – more international admits who can pay full price as long as they are not Muslim and on any potential banned list? Maybe more non-Muslim Chinese (as there are many Chinese who are Muslim, non-Han Chinese).
Will he take money away from schools that provide sanctuary? That clearly can affect admissions questions, maybe schools will seek funding elsewhere, and turn to international students that are from non-Muslim countries.
Will schools continue to accept undocumented students who were raised in this country?
How about his potential support for cutting state funding / tenure promise for large state research institutions, like what happened in Wisconsin (and will probably still keep happening)? That’s a favorite of Republican Administrations. In Wisconsin case, professors and research programs that could move did move, greatly reducing the quality of that institution–as the ones who could move were the good ones. Schools again my look for funding elsewhere, like OOS and Int. students that are not on any potential barred list.
What about Pell Grant support? “small” federal government (except for military–maybe more funds for military people going to school) means that poor kids maybe will lose support, helping them stay poor, I guess.
On the other hand, Trump may try to curry favor with Bernie supporters, and do a big give back on student loans. This could increase the number of students who feel they can attend college and raise admission numbers.
Hmmm @Dustyfeathers I retract my earlier statement. You’ve enlightened me on deeper ways the upcoming administration can affect colleges that I hadn’t thought of
I agree, @Dustyfeathers . And even if there is no effect this admission cycle, what might it be like in the forthcoming years? Will there be an increase in racist incidents, violence towards women, homophobia, etc…on college campuses? Are we in fact going to see a “normalizing” of this behavior that will make campuses feel less safe to those adversely affected? We all have seen the increase in horrible incidents in the ten days post-election. The SPCL published a report documenting it. So it is entirely possible, IMO, that while anything is unlikely to change for this year, changes may well be afoot in the years to come. Certain groups of people may shy away from applying to campuses seen as less friendly to certain groups. It may well be that getting into a very selective college in, for example, the South, might become “easier” for certain demographics, because fewer members of certain demographics will apply to colleges in the South. The opposite might be true for very selective colleges in the North. We have to wait and see.
The number of International Students went from 250,000 to almost 1,000,000 IN JUST 10 years.
The SAT scores in South Korea were canceled for two years in a row, because students had answers to SAT questions. NO I AM NOT KIDDING.
I have a friend who is an English professor in a decent college who had a Chinese student. This student scored perfect on SATs, but hardly spoke English.
HERE IS MY POINT…In many cultures around the world students can buy grades, SAT scores, ect. Colleges know that and close their eyes to it because of $$$$$$ the foreign students pay.
Part of the reason Trump was elected was because he validated peoples’ silly fears of muslims, immigrants, mexicans, etc. It’s perfectly reasonable for students from middle eastern countries to be afraid.
Domestically, racial fears can cause increased racial segregation, in terms of application and matriculation tendencies. For example, Alabama is commonly mentioned on these forums as a school for high stat students looking for large merit scholarships. But it is certainly possible that non-white students may be more hesitant now about attending a school that is around 80% white in a state which voted heavily for a politician whom non-white people are likely to see as racist. Similarly, the few non-black students willing to consider predominantly black schools like Howard and Tuskegee (which also have big scholarships for stats, but are much less commonly mentioned on these forums) may become even fewer.
Heightened racial identity politics could also lead to increased racial self-segregation on campus, as some students (including white students) prefer to retreat into racially-exclusive “safe spaces”.
Note that perceptions and fears can cause the above effects even in the absence of actual policy changes.
I don’t think they do. Colleges care about racial diversity because that’s an advantage or disadvantage you are born and stuck with. Religion is a choice.
There could be many effects from changes in the tax policy and federal funding. Here are two that come to mind.
Republican administrations follow tax policies that are more ‘rich friendly’. Since private universities charge what the market will bear, I expect tuition will make bigger hikes than we might otherwise see as top end has more disposable income. Private universities are likely to get out of reach for more families who don’t qualify for financial aid but still cannot afford their EFC even if they saved for college. With more of the FP-willing students out there, there could be more pressure from the ‘need-aware’ universities to take more FP students. All depends on if you are wealthy enough to reap the benefits of cuts in the top tax rates and cuts on corporate tax rates or not.
More slots for international students. The projected tax cuts and shift of the budget to the military, must mean cuts to other programs. There is only so much you can let the debt go up before it spooks investors and leads to economic problems. Reduction in NIH & NSF funding = less funds for public research universities. Money has to come from somewhere so there will be pressure to further reduce the number of slots for in-state and in-country students.
I think people have already had their college application list set in stone even before the election results. I mean I’m sure that American colleges will lose some interest but definitely not from competitive applicants.
The congress has been republican for a number of years and didn’t make many changes from the previous congresses (that were democratic) for grants and loans guaranteed by the department of education.
Pence and his children have large student loans (Stafford and Plus), so he won’t be looking to change anything.
Schools do not ask what religion you are (except the religious schools) and don’t admit by religion. My daughter’s school has a number of Muslim students, both domestic and foreign. The school has ‘international dorms’ and allows those students to cook their own meals, but the cafeteria also has meals for all religious and dietary needs. I don’t see that changing any time soon even though it is in a red state.
“I think people have already had their college application list set in stone even before the election results. I mean I’m sure that American colleges will lose some interest but definitely not from competitive applicants.” ??
On the contrary, based on what I have heard over here, it is the most competitive applicants who won’t be coming over the the USA. Watch how McGill’s acceptance rates shoots up in the next four years!!
》》 Can you imagine being a prospective muslim student and considering entering Trump’s America?《《
It appears that some Muslim students already don’t like the current America (aka Ohio State.)
》》 peoples’ silly fears of muslims《《
So everyone here is not afraid of terrorists? They’re not a concern because one hasn’t personally affected you? No one sees any correlation between terror ridden regions of the world and the numbers of Muslims. Got it.
People aren’t afraid of Muslims for the most part. It’s terrorists people are afraid of, and rightfully so. If your family member was a victim of a terror attack, don’t you think you’d be a little wary?