As a foreigner and someone familiar with conspiracy theories, I have greater confidence in Harvard. After all, Harvard Law School has a vast alumni network. Haha！
US doesn't welcome foreign talents as Trump bars Harvard from enrolling foreign students anymore
- Thread starter tonyget
- Start date
And in another giant step for idiocy:
Pretty sure 99.9% of the Math MA students are homegrown talent, and even all of them know what 2+2 is.
Trump Claims Harvard’s International Students Need Remedial Math
President Trump defended his decision to stop international student enrollment at Harvard University, a move which a federal judge has blocked.Pretty sure 99.9% of the Math MA students are homegrown talent, and even all of them know what 2+2 is.
Last edited:
Maybe, but without data you're no better than Trump.
The exact data is pretty hard to come by, especially since standardized tests were made optional during COVID, though pretty much all elite colleges are back to requiring for the 2025 incoming freshman season. While Harvard breaks out admissions, Harvard doesn't split out by applications, but it's pretty well known that at top schools the international admissions rates are 2-3x smaller than those for US students. Plus international students don't get the same kind of socioeconomic outreach for diversity that has been done for US students. It's kind of funny because international students are likely admitted on the MOST meritocratic of bases (except for the children of global world leaders, magnates of industry), yet Trump criticizes them for intellectual underperformance.Maybe, but without data you're no better than Trump.
Last edited:
Trump administration stops new student visa interviews
The State Department said the move will allow for expanded social media screening of applicants.
www.nbcnews.com
Trump administration stops all new international student visa interviews
The State Department said the move will allow for expanded social media screening of applicants.The Trump administration on Tuesday stopped scheduling new interviews for international students seeking visas to study in the United States as the State Department prepares for expanded social media screening of applicants, according to an internal cable seen by NBC News.
The directive was widely circulated to all U.S. diplomatic and consular posts abroad and signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Politico first reported the cable.
The move is the Trump administration’s latest strike on higher education in general and international students in particular as it cuts financial support to Harvard and arrests visa-holding students from abroad.
The State Department said it would issue further guidance to consulates and embassies in the coming days.
“Effective immediately, in preparation for an expansion of required social media screening and vetting, consular sections should not add any additional student or exchange visitor visa appointment capacity," the cable said.
The memo also warned of “potentially significant implications for consular section operations, processes, and resource allocations” in a clear indication of the delay likely for student visa applications.
“Consular sections will need to take into consideration the workload and resource requirements of each case prior to scheduling them going forward,” the cable said, adding the priority should be on “services for U.S. citizens, immigrant visas, and fraud prevention.”
It was unclear how the prospective students’ social media would be screened as part of the expanded vetting procedures. The public views and speech of international students have come under increased scrutiny during the Trump administration.
The visas of thousands of students at college campuses nationwide have been revoked in recent weeks by the Trump administration, which says it must protect U.S. citizens from immigrants who intend to commit terrorist attacks, threaten national security or espouse hateful ideology.
The future of foreign students at Harvard remains uncertain after the Trump administration banned their enrollment starting in the next school year.
“International students are not a threat.”said Fanta Aw, CEO of the Association of International Educators, adding that they comprise less than 6% of college enrollment in the United States.
"Today’s decision will have a significant impact on international student’s ability to arrive in the U.S. in time for their studies, if they aren’t already discouraged and choose to attend in another country," Aw said.
Many universities nationwide have warned international students about traveling abroad this summer, fearing many will not be allowed to return.
The crackdown could also financially affect other universities with significant numbers of foreign students.
The State Department had already instructed U.S. diplomats and consular officers to refer certain student and exchange visitor visa applicants to its fraud prevention unit for mandatory social media checks under two executive orders known as Protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats and Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism.
Trump administration stops new student visa interviews
The State Department said the move will allow for expanded social media screening of applicants.Trump administration stops all new international student visa interviews
The State Department said the move will allow for expanded social media screening of applicants.
No way this holds up in court. I always wonder if politicians are smart enough to know that and they are just posturing for their fan base? Or maybe they want to test the laws and possibly change them? Unfortunately, every time I think US politicians are smarter than they act I am proven wrong.
I also did not know that French President Marcon married one of his high school teachers.
Politics........ And no way was that push in the face part of joking or having fun. I have been married longer than they have so I know stuff.I wouldn't be too sure about that. The State Department has the legal responsibility to perform screening and vetting of foreign students to get visas. In the past there was extensive vetting regarding members of foreign armed forces getting visas and then working on research projects related to Department of Defense funding. Now the issue is documented advocacy of support for terrorist groups (as defined by the USG), hate-speech postings or advocating violence on internet postings. That the State Department needs time to set up the vetting procedures and operate a process to support them is probably not illegal either. The precedent for very specific vetting has been there for a long time.
DepthFirst
Member
Unfortunately I think the reason for this is specifically because the administration knows that judges would rightly throw out politically motivated targeting of Harvard. So instead if they stop granting all visas, something which the state department absolutely has the power to do, they have some plausible deniability that it isn’t politically motivated attack on institutions which broadly do not align with the admin. Broad attacks on academia are a key goal of Project 2025 and Russell Vought, this was always the plan. With feckless Republicans unwilling to stand up to Trump, this can quite likely stick.No way this holds up in court. I always wonder if politicians are smart enough to know that and they are just posturing for their fan base? Or maybe they want to test the laws and possibly change them? Unfortunately, every time I think US politicians are smarter than they act I am proven wrong.
I also did not know that French President Marcon married one of his high school teachers.
While I still disagree with your thread title as a general statement, it does look like Chinese citizens will get special scrutiny in being granted student visas.View attachment 3200
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration revoked Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students in its escalating battle with the Ivy League school, saying thousands of current students must transfer to other schools or leave the country.
The Department of Homeland Security announced the action Thursday, saying Harvard has created an unsafe campus environment by allowing “anti-American, pro-terrorist agitators” to assault Jewish students on campus. It also accused Harvard of coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party, saying it hosted and trained members of a Chinese paramilitary group as recently as 2024.
“This means Harvard can no longer enroll foreign students and existing foreign students must transfer or lose their legal status,” the agency said in a statement.
Harvard enrolls almost 6,800 foreign students at its campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, accounting for more than a quarter of its student body. Most are graduate students, coming from more than 100 countries.
Harvard called the action unlawful and said it’s working to provide guidance to students.
“This retaliatory action threatens serious harm to the Harvard community and our country, and undermines Harvard’s academic and research mission,” the university said in a statement.
The Trump administration’s clash with Harvard, the nation’s oldest and wealthiest university, has intensified since it became the first to openly defy White House demands for changes at elite schools it has criticized as hotbeds of liberalism and antisemitism. The federal government has cut $2.6 billion in federal grants to Harvard, forcing it to self-fund much of its sprawling research operation. President Donald Trump has said he wants to strip the university of its tax-exempt status.
The administration has demanded records of campus protests
The threat to Harvard’s international enrollment stems from an April 16 request from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who demanded that it provide information about foreign students that might implicate them in violence or protests that could lead to their deportation.
In a letter to Harvard on Thursday, Noem said the school’s sanction is “the unfortunate result of Harvard’s failure to comply with simple reporting requirements.” It bars Harvard from hosting international students for the upcoming 2025-26 school year.
Noem said Harvard can regain its ability to host foreign students if it produces a trove of records on foreign students within 72 hours. Her updated request demands all records, including audio or video footage, of foreign students participating in protests or dangerous activity on campus.
“This administration is holding Harvard accountable for fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus,” Noem said in a statement.
The action revoked Harvard’s certification in the Student and Exchange Visitor Program, which gives the school the ability to sponsor international students to get their visas and attend school in the United States.
Harvard President Alan Garber earlier this month said the university has made changes to its governance over the past year and a half, including a broad strategy to combat antisemitism, but warned it would not budge on its “its core, legally-protected principles” over fears of retaliation. He said he wasn’t aware of evidence to support the administration’s allegation that its international students were “more prone to disruption, violence, or other misconduct than any other students.”
Students in Harvard College Democrats said the Trump administration is playing with students’ lives to push a radical agenda and to quiet dissent. “Trump’s attack on international students is text book authoritarianism — Harvard must continue to hold the line,” the group said in a statement.
The administration drew condemnation from free speech groups, including the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, which said Noem is demanding a “surveillance state.”
“This sweeping fishing expedition reaches protected expression and must be flatly rejected,” the group said in a statement.
The revocation opens a new front in a closely watched battle
Many of Harvard’s punishments have come through a federal antisemitism task force that says the university failed to protect Jewish students from harassment and violence amid a nationwide wave of pro-Palestinian protests.
Homeland Security officials echoed those concerns in their Thursday announcement. It offered examples, including a recent internal report at Harvard, finding that many Jewish students reported facing discrimination or bias on campus.
It also tapped into concerns that congressional Republicans have raised about ties between U.S. universities and China. Homeland Security officials said Harvard provided training to the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps as recently as 2024. As evidence, it provided a link to a Fox News article, which in turn cited a letter from House Republicans.
Asked for comment on the alleged coordination with the Chinese Communist Party, a Harvard spokesperson said the university will be responding to the House Republicans’ letter.
Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, called the latest action an “illegal, small-minded” overreach.
“I worry that this is sending a very chilling effect to international students looking to come to America for education,” he said.
The Trump administration has leveraged the system for tracking international students’ legal status as part of its broader attempts to crack down on higher education. What was once a largely administrative database has become a tool of enforcement, as immigration officials revoked students’ legal status directly in the system.
Those efforts were challenged in court, leading to restorations of status and a nationwide injunction blocking the administration from pursuing further terminations.
Trump administration bars Harvard from enrolling foreign students
The Trump administration has revoked Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students in its escalating battle with the Ivy League school.apnews.com
It still looks like Chinese student visas will be granted, but with much more vetting and scrutiny, and probably more explicit restrictions for sensitive projects. This is the State Department web page on the subject. Notably lacking details, and the "America First" proclamation is curious, to say the least.